Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook installs but won't boot

Asked by Brad Stone

I have been running Netbook Remix 9.10 on a Dell Inspiron 910 with no issues for some time now. I d/l'd the 10.10 Netbook ISO last night and did a clean install. It went through the setup with no errors, but upon reboot it just sits there with a blinking cursor.

More detail: I am using a USB CDROM to do the install. I d/l'd and burned the ISO twice, and later verified the MD5's of both. Same results with both discs. At the end of the install it pops up the "the machine must be rebooted" OK dialog. If I click OK it ejects the disc, does a few thing, starts spitting errors for a while, then just hangs. Killing it off at this point and restarting results in the cursor. I miss most of the errors but what is frozen on the screen is a series of nearly identical read errors of the form:

[ 1585.051820] end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 569604

which I can only assume is because of the disc being ejected. To thwart this I tried ejecting the disc before hitting OK. This resulted in a desktop environment that barely functioned (sorry, I got distracted and did not see what happened between OK and the desktop). It was basically the top bar, the power icon, and the wireless icon. Trying to do anything with any of them just made them disappear. No menus came up with right clicks or anything else.

The only anomalies are that I didn't have my power supply available (but the battery was at full charge to begin with), and I use static IP's so the network was unavailable.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

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delance
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

If you boot without the USB CDROM attached is it ok?

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Brad Stone (btsmid) said : 		#2

CD attached or not doesn't change anything. After the third attempt failed this morning the battery was done. I took the netbook with me to plug it in. While plugged in with no network or attached USB devices, same results. I get a Dell splash screen with the BIOS edit and boot order change options and then the cursor. And when it is in this state I don't have to hold the power button to shut down; it is off as soon as I touch the power button.

I'm sure this is obvious and makes no difference, but I should have said DVDROM, not CDROM.

At any rate, the boot order by default is to start with the HD, so if I don't press 2 during the splash screen to modify the boot order then we're in cursorland. If I do press 2 and change to DVD boot then we get to the install process. And I expected a "Ubuntu is already installed, are you trying to fix this?" or somesuch. But there was no acknowledgment that the OS was already installed that I can recall.

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Best delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#3

First step is to try to reinstall Grub.
The fact that you have a USB CD drive could have lead Ubuntu installer to wrongly set Grub boot loader.
Please follow link:
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD
but be very careful about device identity. Device sda could not be the hard drive.

Another issue could be management of graphic card. Which is model of this card ? What did you get exactly when you boot ?

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syed's (sam-legendary9) said : 		#4

i have install ubuntu 10.10 latest edition (with pre existing win7)
make :
/dev/sda7 /boot = 100mb
8 / = 3000mb
9 /usr = 2000mb
10 /var = 5000mb
11 swap = 4000mb

and install ubuntu on /boot i.e /dev/sda7 , installation has completed and ask for reboot for completion. but aftef reboot i get my win7 os boot with no promp for (no windows boot screen) selection for ubuntu or windows 7.

when i see disk management or trying to reinstall for ubuntu it is not saying me for ubuntu repair and it is also showing ubuntu on /dev/sda8 that is "/" .

note i have install from usb .

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Brad Stone (btsmid) said : 		#5

delance: This did the trick. I've had to reboot several times for updates, etc. and it's worked every time. Do I need to / should I submit this as a bug in the installer?

FWIW, sda is where I successfully mounted grub.

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Brad Stone (btsmid) said : 		#6

Thanks delance, that solved my question.

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Colin Watson (cjwatson) said : 		#7

Yes, please file an installer bug about this, and attach /var/log/installer/syslog and /var/log/installer/partman to your bug report.

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syed's (sam-legendary9) said : 		#8

please solve my Q? also

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#9

@syed's
Please open a new question, with linked packet "ubiquity" (but it seems me I have alreaday told you that in another question).