Ubuntu
grub2 package

12.04 LTS desktop install on HP Z420 wont boot after install

Asked by Jeffrey Graham

Hello everyone,
I have an HP Z420. It booted windoz fine out of the box, and booted off of the 12.04 CD just fine.

However, after installing (replaced windows completely) it wont boot... on powerup I get the bios and then just a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner without any hint of trouble.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Jeff

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Jeffrey Graham
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Barry Drake (b-drake) said : 		#1

Try pressing left shift immediately after the bios screen and holding. This should get you into the grub screen. Possible useful options from the grub screen would be noapic nolapic or nomodeset. Try one at a time. You might want to look up the grub options and how to use them before trying. I take it you did follow the 'Try Ubuntu' option from the DVD and this worked OK? Also, you got no error messages during the installation? I'm thinking usually the iso needs to be burned to a DVD not a CD - just possible your is a bit faulty?

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Jeffrey Graham (jeg) said : 		#2

I suppose you mean the shift key on the left and not some other combination? I tried several possible combinations but nothing ever happened.

Yes, tried the live Ubunto off of the same CD I subsequently installed from. No errors during the install. Tried installing after booting live and also tried installing from a cold boot. No joy.

I asked HP for help but they had nothing to offer because Ubuntu is not officially supported.

It seems to be that the bios cannot find Grub or whatever the ubuntu boot loader is. I wonder if this has something to do with some boot security crap. I poked around in the bios but not see anything obvious.

Supposedly RH and Suse *are* supported on this z420 but they need the help of a "linux installer kit". Jeez. I looked at them but did not try either since the 2 are different versions and neither one is ubuntu.

Thanks,
Jeff

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Barry Drake (b-drake) said : 		#3

Well, have to admit this is a new one on me personally. Did you install to the entire hard drive including formatting and did you let the installer use all the defaults? Grub is the normal bootloader used by Ubuntu (grub2 to to be exact). Where would I go next?

Well, boot into the live-DVD Ubuntu disk and look around. If things are as I would expect, you ought to see one hard drive with only two partitions. You should be seeing one ext4 partition and one Linux Swap partition and nothing else. Use the disk utility or (preferably) gparted to look around.

Let us know what you see.

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Jeffrey Graham (jeg) said : 		#4

Change the sata settings to "compatible" in the bios and all is well. Thanks for the help.

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Jeffrey Graham (jeg) said : 		#5

Change the sata raid settings to "compatible" in the bios and all is well. Thanks for the help.

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Lorenzo Isella (lorenzo-isella) said : 		#6

Hi!
I have exactly your same problem with a debian testing installation on an hp z420.
I am not at all an expert, so...could you please tell me in detail how you navigated the bios setting to change the raid settings? That would make my day!
Thanks

larry77