Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Unable to boot to live cd or install Ubuntu (10.10, 9.10 and thier alts) verified md5s and good burns, all night memtest runs without problem

Asked by Lawrence Holl

I am attempting, without success, to install Linux onto a slightly older PC...so far here is what I have done:

Tried the latest and older distros of Ubuntu, including Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.10 alt, 9.10 and 9.10 alt (verifying each ISO first using md5sums and then burning slowly and checking each CD as suggested)

When attempting to boot to live CD...on the distros that allow for that, the system simply hangs with a blank screen

when attempting to install Linux:

10:10 hangs with monitor off (oddly)
9:10 hangs to a blank screen
10:10 alt stops at 33% of partitioning stage (including after running dban and wiping drive, and letting a mem test run all night long)
9:10 alt stops at 33% of partitioning stage (including after running dban and wiping drive, and letting a mem test run all night long)

I have created a bootable usb (again trying different verified distros) using netbootin and I get a “boot error”(no kernel messages just straight to boot error) checked all BIOS settings (Intel BIOS CR94510J) It could be that syslinux first stage bootloader can't read the second stage for some reason.

I am unclear as to how it would be possible to capture bug information at this stage, as there is no opportunity in which to access command line to retrieve anything that I am aware of?

Hardware is as follows if it helps:

Motherboard: Intel D945GCCR
HDD: WD800JD-22LS
BIOS : CR94510J:86A:0045:2007:0418:153204
DVD/RW: Optiarc AD-7170A
CPU: Pentium Dual Core e2140
Video: ATI Radeon9250
RAM: 2x 512MB DDR2-333 SpecTek

Any tips would be so greatly appreciated.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Ubuntu ubiquity Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Geoffrey McClinsey (geoffmcc) said : 		#1

I have problems with installing Ubuntu w/ my NVIDIA card w/ a dual screen setup using HDMI and VGA. I get the black screen you are referring to, but as soon as i get installed and install the proprietary drivers I have no problems. I get around it by setting my default display in BIOS to the VGA monitor.

This may not be your problem, so what I would suggest for you is when you first start Ubuntu (the Plymouth screen) the one with a keyboard and a person with arms stretched out press any key to get to text install. Then in the space for kernel commands type

xdriver=vesa and then install.

This will force the install using the vesa driver. Then once installed use Additional Drivers under Administration to get your ATI drivers going.

Revision history for this message
Lawrence Holl (lawrenceholl) said : 		#2

Thank you, this did allow for me to at least see what was happening when the install failed. Here is what is displayed:

0.657231] List of all partitions:
0.657303] 0800 78150744 sda driver : sd
0.657411] 0801 78146161 sda1
0.657503] 0b00 1048575 sr0 driver : sr
0.657595] No filesystem could mount root, tried: ext3 ext2 ext4 fuseblk
0.657827] Kernal panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on uknown-block(8,1)
0.657908] Pid:1, comm:swapper Not tainted 2.6.35-22-generic #33-Ubuntu
0.657971] Call Trace:
0.658032] [<c05c6468>] ? printk+0x2d/0x35
0.658092] [<c05c63c3>] panic+0x5a/0xd2
0.658152] [<c0819e03>] mount_block_root+0x249/0x26c
0.658215] [<c0224cfc>] ? sys_mknod+0x2c/0x30
0.658274] [<c0819e7f>] mount_root 0x59/0x5f
0.658333] [<c0819fd3>] prepare_namespace+0x14e/0x192
0.658395] [<c0217885>] ? sys_access+0x25/0x30
0.658455] [<c0819467>] kernel_init+0x18e/0x19d
0.658515] [<c08192d9>] ? kernel_init+0x0/0x19d
0.658576] [<c010363e>] kernal_thread_helper+0x6/0x10

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Lawrence Holl for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.