Ubuntu 12 is not booting up; can not reach GUI

Hold shift while booting and do a memcheck

see if your RAM is healthy ?

Hi,

I run the memset option under the ubuntu 12 OS menu option

Memtest86 v4.20 started for 2 GB RAM in two slots and there are no errors reported. All tests passed.

Thanks for guiding further.

as per all circumstance i am not sure but it looks like hardware problem. May be your /RAM/FAN !!!

neways can you login to Ubuntu ? if you can please run following command

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

because you installed new version of ubuntu and may be your ubuntu CD do not have all update.

Thanks

The laptop becomes really hot when it hangs but I think it is OS issue. Some files or updates are missing.

After installing Ubuntu 12, I have updated system 2-3 times. Right now I can not go beyond BIOS screen (most of the time) and sometimes Ubuntu 12 Starting Up screen.

But I can see the grub window. Can you suggest that how to login using grub commands?

Do you think that instead of trying Ubuntu 8 live cd, if I try ubuntu 11 then it can work maybe because of some grub and grub 2 difference?

Thanks.

Can you boot from the live-DVD and see both your Windows and your Ubuntu partitions from there? If so, does Ubuntu work OK from the live-DVD?

Hi Deepak , have you tired to boot with a different kernel boot option !

# See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

So , if you can reach GRUB menu press "e" in grub to enter commands, add "nomodeset" after "splash video" , or it could be " quiet splash " then press control+X to boot the modified grub entry.

and yes , i'd try with a new release .

in a side note :

nomodeset
The newest kernels have moved the video mode setting into the kernel. So all the programming of the hardware specific clock rates and registers on the video card happen in the kernel rather than in the X driver when the X server starts.. This makes it possible to have high resolution nice looking splash (boot) screens and flicker free transitions from boot splash to login screen. Unfortunately, on some cards this doesnt work properly and you end up with a black screen. Adding the nomodeset parameter instructs the kernel to not load video drivers and use BIOS modes instead until X is loaded.

So , setting this option will use the Onboard/integrated Graphic/Video crad .. " until X is loaded " .

So , do you happen to know what graphic cards are in your machine ! .. because there are other kernel boot options for a specific crad instead of nomodeset .. lets say i have an old Intel card i can try the options i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0 acpi=off .

And nVidia i could try witht he option nouveau.blacklist=1 .

So , if you set a boot option and that passed you to the Desktop .. don't reboot just yet as you’ll need to change these settings in GRUB so they’ll automatically be applied on each reboot. To do so, follow the steps below:

Edit the /etc/default/grub file. You will need Admin privileges to do so (sudo)
Find this line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”
Replace with: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash <option>”
For example, if I had an older Intel model, my GRUB configuration would read:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash i915.modeset=1″

Save your changes and run sudo update-grub .. then you should get proper graphics on each reboot.

Hi Barry,

I was unable to boot from live cd or from other kernals.

Hi Sary,

It worked when I added "nomodeset" after "quiet" command in the grub. Do you think that I still need to:
1) put the commands for graphic cards in grub file. I have Intel graphic card.

2) Most of the times, it was blocking in BIOS screen, do you think that reinstalling the bios will help.

3) Is it better to downgrade to Ubuntu 11 considering three problems I am facing right now (usb and sound is not working and my new laptop battery is not charging sometimes because adapter is not recognized).

Thanks for your advice.

You can edit and update your grub.cfg file for permanent basis if it worked for you.

sudo update-grub command for update grub

Hi again,

I tried to boot it again today but it does not worked because i can not see the command of nomodeset in grub menu.

I also run sudo update-grub command yesterday from terminal and it was updated. Today I wrote nomodeset after quiet command and pressed Ctrl + X but it is again hanging at Starting Up screen.

Thank you for your advice.

The BIOS hang on/after what exactly ..

this BIOS hanging could be related to GRUB2 and your partition table !

# have you test the RAM , with memtest option in GRUB !

also do a fsck ( file system consistency check ) from recovery mode in GRUB.

You wont see the kernel boot option nomodeset or any others if you rebooted without tweaking the GRUB file /etc/default/grub

have you tried the other options .. you add the boot parameter just behind "quiet splash --"

i915.modeset=1

i915.modeset=0

acpi=off

looking at your laptop specs .. it have an Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100+

 i though you might have a Hybrid graphics card ..

when the screen hangs , can you switch to a real console (tty1) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 .. if so , then log in with your use name and password , after that run

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

make sure you have a wired connection .

as you mentioned , this occurred after you upgrade from 10 to 12 .. so the upgrade process successful !

you might be missing some packages or some need upgrade ..

So in your case , for Intel you must have the xserver-xorg-video-intel package installed , and i915 to be used ..

I could be wrong , i'll check ..

Okay , the (i915) driver is for the following chips :

 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM, Pineview G,
 965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Intel_Graphics_Media_Accelerator_X3100

yours should be one of them , probable better to check the output of

lspci | grep VGA

This will determine your video card make and mode.

and

sudo lshw -C display

this will give more detailed information , look for the line that starts with configuration:

and look for the driver in use .. driver=DriverNAME

Hi Sary,

Thranks alot for your advice and your time.

My laptop hangs many times in bios, memcheck is running fine, but keypad and reverse side of laptop also becomes really hot. There is alot of sound of fan also. It seems like hardware problem as well.

That is why i decided to take all data and remove Ubuntu, install windows and then I will check if there is a problem.

I will get back in case i had problem again.

Thanks again.

Hello Deepak , perhaps a BIOS upgrade is required !

Also , could it be that your laptop have a Hybrid Graphics .. for example ( your laptop might have the integrated intel chipset and a discrete ATI /Nvidia graphics .

See if you have an option to switch GPU in the BIOS .