Ubuntu Boot Problem

Potency

Hello
I recently thought it would be a good idea to install some distribution of linux to learn about linux and how to use it. I got a second hd to try and install it on as well as vista on my primary hd.

I went through the installation of a version 7 live cd and installed to my new hd. All fine. It then asked me to upgrade so I upgraded to the version 8 of ubuntu. All fine. When i restarted computer after messing around with it and installing some software, it took me to the grub menu where there was about 5 options : ubuntu 8.10, 8.10 recovery mode and then something like 8.7 and 8.7 recovery mode as well as vista. I just let it pick the first option automatically (8.10). It went to the loading screen where the orange bar kept going across the screen and didn't progress. I pressed ctrl-alt-f1 as i read about doing that in another article and it just said "loading... please wait". It wouldn't move on.

Can anyone help me and tell me what to do? I am a compete newbie with linux and everything so try not to drown me with linux commands and stuff :P...
Thanks

ethernet

Upgrades never seem to work fully, at least without breaking something.

It would be good to find out why it's stalling. When you boot and get the grub screen listing the choice of operating systems, make sure the default is selected and press the 'e' key on your keyboard to edit what options to pass it when it boots.

The cursor should be at the end of the line. Remove the words "quite splash" hit enter and press 'b' to boot. No more skanky brown-orange progress bar. You should see lots of text and note where booting stalls (note the error message).

An Fear Aniar

I would suggest to select the 8.10 recovery mode bootup, you will be asked if you want to fix broken packages so say yes to try that.


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Potency

Thank you both. I have tried both of your ideas and the result was the same... I'm assuming that this is the error. I have attached a photo of the screen as i dont know whats important.
Maybe a problem with the hard drive? not able to read it? just a guess... :P

Also had to compress the image size so i dont know what the quality is like.

ethernet

You say you have two HDDs. Do you have IDE drives in your machine or SATA (or mixture)?

Potency

I have 2 SATA hard drives. CD/DVD drive and floppy are IDE.

ethernet

If you originally had 7.04 or 7.10, I have to wonder if this was the time when the kernel started referring to all devices as SATA instead of IDE (e.g. sda instead of hda). Might have something to do with this.

Dare I say it, but reinstalling with 8.10 would appear tempting :pac: Can have CD sent to you for free if you can't spare the bandwidth.

pickarooney

This might be worth a shot if you can get into your system somehow (via recovery console or live cd).

If you don't have a Dell Dimension, it's probably not worth getting your hopes up.

According to that link, it's a race issue

Potency

Thanks again...
I dont mind downloading it and might just go ahead with that seen as how i dont have much on the linux hard drive.
Would it be worth trying to install 7 again from the live cd and updating or am i just excreting (for lack of a better term) against the wind?

My computer was built by myself so I dont know what brand that is (maybe the "Potent" brand)

ethernet

You've nothing to lose (except your time!). If you do download, go for the latest version, 8.10. As I said, upgrades rarely work out very well, and not just on Linux.

Potency

42 minutes to go... I'll go for it

An Fear Aniar

Potency wrote: »

42 minutes to go... I'll go for it

Still out of radio contact.......

The nation holds its breath....

It's like that re-entry scene in Apollo 11.:)

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tman

Don't suppose your mainboard is an Abit IP35 by any chance?
Think I had the same problem with 8.10, which was resolved by going into the bios settings and changing my sata controller to ACHI mode. Annoyingly enough this caused Vista to bluescreen whenever I booted...

Potency

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

Still out of radio contact.......

The nation holds its breath....

It's like that re-entry scene in Apollo 11.:)

.

:P sorry, just getting around to burning it.

tman wrote: »

Don't suppose your mainboard is an Abit IP35 by any chance?
Think I had the same problem with 8.10, which was resolved by going into the bios settings and changing my sata controller to ACHI mode. Annoyingly enough this caused Vista to bluescreen whenever I booted...

I have an Abit AB9 Quad GT... maybe an Abit thing? I'll try shortly with this new cd.

Potency

I do indeed type to my fellow helpers through a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10.

Thank you all very much and have a thoroughly enjoyable time helping even more simpletons like myself...


thanks though. the fresh install worked.

ethernet

Very nice. Enjoy. Hope you've blinged it up with maximum eye-candy :pac:

Potency

ethernet wrote: »

Very nice. Enjoy. Hope you've blinged it up with maximum eye-candy :pac:

Yep :P... doing it right now.

LuisMCSCVC

Maybe try setting up the partition you installed Linux on as a boot disk (using qtparted or gparted is easy enough, just change "the flag"), then make sure your grub is setup ok and then finally make sure that BIOS looks first for the OS on the drive where that partition is located. Cheers.