Gateway Solo 9500 power cut off

Please tell us the computer's 3 crucial specs; cpu speed, ram size and how much hard-drive space you've given Ubuntu.

Also please try booting up from the Cd. Choose the menu item "Try Ubuntu without changes to this machine", if you don't get that menu item this guide should help
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD
this should get to a working desktop which we call a "LiveCd session", if it works.

The LiveCd session should pick-up on your internet connection and allow you to use Firefox to surf into here. Please let us know if this has the same boot up problems.

Here's also a few helpful hints about boot options, does some combination of these help?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

It boots and runs fine from the install CD. It has completed several reinstalls with no power problems. (I was having trouble with the video and installed a couple of bad things.) CPU 900mHz Intel P3, HD 20Gb 100% used for Ubuntu no other operating systems, RAM 512Mb. It is configured for single user automatic login.

When I ran Ubuntu from the CD the cold boot was successful but the display problems are back.

As you know it goes through some text displays 2 messages it 2nd one happens so fast I can't read it. Then the graphic screen comes up with the Ubuntu logo with a thermometer at the bottom. A pointer flies back and forth a couple of times then the thermometer begins to fill.

At about the same point every time the power clicks off. No rhyme or reason. Sometimes it works first shot, sometimes I have to go through 10 cycles before a successful boot.

I'm having exactly the same problem. Feisty was rumored to work but I've tried that and failed as well. I've tried all combinations of noapic, nolapic and acpi=off boot options. Is there some way to debug exactly why this is happening?

Yep I tried noapic, nolapic and acpi=off as well. That is what I meant by disabling the ACPI. I'm told Linux keeps a record of the boot cycle somewhere and it has a history of at least 1 boot and possibly 5 boots. No one has provided any instructions on how to retrieve and examine it.

One boot option I discovered this morning that seems to work more consistently is nolapic_timer. It may be my imagination but it also seems to work better when there is not a usb mouse (or maybe even any usb device) plugged in -- during a couple of boots, it simply stopped around where the usb drivers were being loaded. I also noticed/imagined that boots are more likely to complete when the machine is not too warm.

Yes when the machine is cooler things do tend to work more smoothly. I've taken the side off my machine permanently to stop areas from building up warm pockets of air but that has the disadvantage of negating a lot of the clever airflow through my case. It has worked well in my favour but might not be so great for you. If you are getting a thermometer warning indicator then it might be worth investing in a new fan or two, or acquire some out of old machines or perhaps just re-arrange the ones you have. Do you know the current layout of your fans and other cooling inside your case? Laptop/netbook or desktop machine? Perhaps i could offer some advice about cooling?

If LiveCd sessions are working then full installs should too. If anything LiveCds are normally slower and a little more awkward than a hard-drive install. Very good to use as a demo to test out a machine and see how to get Ubuntu to work.

If you are using these Boot Options on a LiveCd sesion have you figured out how to edit them in to menu.lst to influence a hard-drive boot up in the same way? or are you using boot options in hard-drive installs already? Here's a belated guide on boot options in case there's any you might have missed that might help
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

900MHz and 512Mb ram sound just above min.specs so Ubuntu should be working fine. 20Gb hard-drive space is great :)) If you get to a command-line and type in

sudo fdisk -l

note that "-l" is a lower-case "-L" and copy the output into here that might show if we can tweak the layouts of your partitions but i have a feeling that you both have that pretty well sorted out already.

Thanks, good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I have virtually the same machine (GW Solo 9500) although mine is only 800Mhhz and only has 256Mb ram. The lack of power and ram and airflow are not a problem as I plan to eventually dismantle the whole thing, fit it into a box and use it as a kiosk/recipe, light web browsing kitchen appliance.

I may have a much better partial solution now. Try the pnpbios=off boot option. It still does not work for warm boots (rebooting) but so far I every cold boot (5-6?) has succeeded, even with a mouse plugged in. I still need to let it get really hot and then try booting it to see if it works for that.

800MHz is ok but with only 256Mb ram you might find that the slight differences with Xubuntu make that a much better system for your machine
http://www.xubuntu.org/get
it will be much faster and more responsive than Ubuntu is likely to be for you right now. During the install process choose "Manual Partitioning" and make sure all the partitions are Unticked in the "Format?" column. Also edit the partitions to set "Mount Point" of you main partition for the OS & programs to "/" to tell the installer where to put these things. You might have defined other partitions such as a /home and these need to be defined here too. Hopefully by making sure that the "Format?" column is unticed you will find that all your data and stuff remains undamaged but it's worth backing thing up to external drive or something first, just in case.

On the other hand if Ubuntu is ok on your machine then there's no need to switch to Xubuntu ;)
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Are you using several different boot options at the same time? It should be ok to add a few together and then just edit them into menu.lst?

It does sound like Ubuntu is working just about fine so please ignore my last posting, sometimes architecture is exceptionally good and lets you push the boundaries a little ;)
Thanks and regards from
Tom :)

Ahah :) Thanks for that. OpenBox is a lot lighter than Gnome but i still prefer sticking with gnome for a long while yet ;)

Thanks kozimodo, that solved my question.

I finally installed the above file. So far I've had 8 successful sequential power up cycles. The best it's ever done. Thank you.

WooooHooo, nicely done !!! :)))
Welcome to linux-land, especially the Ubuntu corner :))
Congrats and regards to Kozimodo too from
Tom :)

Hi :)

Have you been able to try the new Ubuntu 10.04 before it gets officially released?
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/testing/lucid/beta2
Trying it as a LiveCd or as an extra dual/multi-boot would be ideal. Developers and everyone are keen to try to iron out any problems before 10.04 gets officially released so you might find faster & more effective answers to your bug reports which would make 10.04 work better on your system for you

Thanks and regards from
Tom :)