I developed a boot problem

[bark50]

I used to have a nice, smooth boot when starting Ubuntu 10.04. Now when I start my machine, after my motherboard's splash screen, I get a few lines of some recurring characters that look like: (an elevated upside-down V) [[D. These characters repeat over and over for a few lines and then pause for a second. If I hit the escape key at the pause, Ubuntu boots up fine. If I don't hit the escape key at the pause, I get a rapidly scrolling series of messages which I can't read, although it appears each line at the far right of the screen ends with [ok]. These messages scroll on and on, and the operating system never boots.

I reinstalled Ubuntu, but still have the problem. Anyone know the solution? Thanks.

[EdforUB]

I'm new to Ubuntu installation using Windows XP Service Pack 3 Home Edition. I had a problem installing from the USB stick regarding a password, although I had never supplied one during the download of Ubuntu. This problem got resolved when I booted from the Ubuntu CD. Now I have started using the Ubuntu operating system.

[oldfred]

I am not sure the boot script will show us anything or not and is more for grub boot issues. My first recommendation would probably be to reinstall grub, but if you did a total install that should have also worked.

The scrolling lines are the boot process that is normal and hidden by the quiet & splash commands in grub. They also are in the log files for debugging Ubuntu boot issues after grub boot.

Do you just have Ubuntu installed so you do not get a menu? If so try holding down the shift key from BIOS under menu appears. It may tell if error is before menu or after and part of Ubuntu loading.

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum member meierfra
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste results.txt, then highlight entire file and click on # in edit panel(code tags) to make it easier to read.
Or You can generate the tags first by pressing the # icon in the post's menu and then paste the contents between the generated [ code] paste here [ /code] tags.

[bark50]

                Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 2048 of the 
    same hard drive for core.img, but core.img can not be found at this 
    location.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Bios Boot Partition
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info:  

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda3: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1                   1 3,907,029,167 3,907,029,167  ee GPT


GUID Partition Table detected.

Partition           Start           End          Size System
/dev/sda1           2,048         4,095         2,048 Bios Boot Partition
/dev/sda2           4,096 3,887,372,287 3,887,368,192 Linux or Data
/dev/sda3   3,887,372,288 3,907,028,991    19,656,704 Linux Swap

blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/sda2        6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6   ext4                                     
/dev/sda3        f600fd63-65bf-4e59-a5ea-cfd269415ed4   swap                                     
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="gpt" 

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/sda2        /                        ext4       (rw,errors=remount-ro)


=========================== sda2/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-27-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic-pae root=UUID=6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6 ro   quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-27-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-27-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6
	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.32-27-generic-pae ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic-pae root=UUID=6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6 ro single 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-27-generic-pae
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ ${timeout} != -1 ]; then
  if keystatus; then
    if keystatus --shift; then
      set timeout=-1
    else
      set timeout=0
    fi
  else
    if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
      set timeout=0
    fi
  fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

=============================== sda2/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=6abcb219-7e37-44e8-abef-fe4306518ad6 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=f600fd63-65bf-4e59-a5ea-cfd269415ed4 none            swap    sw              0       0

=================== sda2: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


 459.7GB: boot/grub/core.img
1947.9GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
 459.8GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-27-generic-pae
 459.7GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic-pae
 459.8GB: initrd.img
 459.7GB: vmlinuz
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader  on sda1

00000000  52 e8 28 01 74 08 56 be  33 81 e8 4c 01 5e bf f4  |R.(.t.V.3..L.^..|
00000010  81 66 8b 2d 83 7d 08 00  0f 84 e9 00 80 7c ff 00  |.f.-.}.......|..|
00000020  74 46 66 8b 1d 66 8b 4d  04 66 31 c0 b0 7f 39 45  |tFf..f.M.f1...9E|
00000030  08 7f 03 8b 45 08 29 45  08 66 01 05 66 83 55 04  |....E.)E.f..f.U.|
00000040  00 c7 04 10 00 89 44 02  66 89 5c 08 66 89 4c 0c  |......D.f.\.f.L.|
00000050  c7 44 06 00 70 50 c7 44  04 00 00 b4 42 cd 13 0f  |.D..pP.D....B...|
00000060  82 bb 00 bb 00 70 eb 68  66 8b 45 04 66 09 c0 0f  |.....p.hf.E.f...|
00000070  85 a3 00 66 8b 05 66 31  d2 66 f7 34 88 54 0a 66  |...f..f1.f.4.T.f|
00000080  31 d2 66 f7 74 04 88 54  0b 89 44 0c 3b 44 08 0f  |1.f.t..T..D.;D..|
00000090  8d 83 00 8b 04 2a 44 0a  39 45 08 7f 03 8b 45 08  |.....*D.9E....E.|
000000a0  29 45 08 66 01 05 66 83  55 04 00 8a 54 0d c0 e2  |)E.f..f.U...T...|
000000b0  06 8a 4c 0a fe c1 08 d1  8a 6c 0c 5a 52 8a 74 0b  |..L......l.ZR.t.|
000000c0  50 bb 00 70 8e c3 31 db  b4 02 cd 13 72 50 8c c3  |P..p..1.....rP..|
000000d0  8e 45 0a 58 c1 e0 05 01  45 0a 60 1e c1 e0 03 89  |.E.X....E.`.....|
000000e0  c1 31 ff 31 f6 8e db fc  f3 a5 1f e8 3e 00 74 06  |.1.1........>.t.|
000000f0  be 3b 81 e8 63 00 61 83  7d 08 00 0f 85 1d ff 83  |.;..c.a.}.......|
00000100  ef 0c e9 0f ff e8 24 00  74 06 be 3d 81 e8 49 00  |......$.t..=..I.|
00000110  5a ea 00 82 00 00 be 40  81 e8 3d 00 eb 06 be 45  |Z......@..=....E|
00000120  81 e8 35 00 be 4a 81 e8  2f 00 eb fe bb 17 04 80  |..5..J../.......|
00000130  27 03 c3 6c 6f 61 64 69  6e 67 00 2e 00 0d 0a 00  |'..loading......|
00000140  47 65 6f 6d 00 52 65 61  64 00 20 45 72 72 6f 72  |Geom.Read. Error|
00000150  00 bb 01 00 b4 0e cd 10  46 8a 04 3c 00 75 f2 c3  |........F..<.u..|
00000160  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001f0  00 00 00 00 01 08 00 00  00 00 00 00 2f 00 20 08  |............/. .|
00000200

[bark50]

Sorry for the two different posts, Fred. I couldn't figure out how to add a note to the boot script posting. Anyway, I have only Ubuntu installed, so there's no menu. I also have auto login enabled. I rebooted and held down the shift key at the motherboard's splash screen. I got one instance of "inverted V" [[D and not a few lines of the characters as I did before. I kept holding the shift key and after a few seconds, the operating system booted normally.

Thanks for your help on this.

[oldfred]

Are you using a UEFI motherboard, or BIOS in efi mode? Since you have a bios_boot partition?

If you are using BIOS with gpt partitions you should have a bios_grub partition. Grub supposedly needs the bios_grub flag with gpt and BIOS boot loaders. But if you can boot it may be ok, as it sees it that way?

If you have gpt you need another small (8-32mb) partition for grub. Are you using efi or BIOS compatible mode?
http://grub.enbug.org/BIOS_Boot_Partition
"unknown" filesystem! may be shown

[bark50]

Are you using a UEFI motherboard, or BIOS in efi mode? Since you have a bios_boot partition?

If you are using BIOS with gpt partitions you should have a bios_grub partition. Grub supposedly needs the bios_grub flag with gpt and BIOS boot loaders. But if you can boot it may be ok, as it sees it that way?

If you have gpt you need another small (8-32mb) partition for grub. Are you using efi or BIOS compatible mode?
http://grub.enbug.org/BIOS_Boot_Partition
"unknown" filesystem! may be shown

Fred -

Since 90% of what you asked was over my head, I went into my motherboard's BIOS to see if I could get some information that would be helpful. When I exited the BIOS, I held down the shift key as you said in your first post thinking it would help me smoothly boot into Ubuntu. Unlike what happened the first time I tried your hold-shift suggestion, this time I got a grub screen similar to what I used to see a few years ago when I dual booted. I selected Ubuntu linux generic pae from the options and booted smoothly to my desktop. I was surprised I didn't see any of that "inverted V" [[D stuff, so I restarted my pc just to see what would happen. It booted just fine -- just like it used to. I did another restart and did a shutdown and start. Everything is working just like it used to.

I'm really happy to have Ubuntu working well, but I'm wondering: Was my problem possibly due to a motherboard going bad?

[oldfred]

Hey we fixed it.

I do not know, but would doubt that it is a motherboard issue. It might have been something with video card or drivers. And maybe by rebooting fixed it, or did you do any updates while in Ubuntu that may have changed something. We may never know. Hopefully it is fully gone.

[srs5694]

If you are using BIOS with gpt partitions you should have a bios_grub partition. Grub supposedly needs the bios_grub flag with gpt and BIOS boot loaders. But if you can boot it may be ok, as it sees it that way?

GRUB 2 doesn't [I]need[I] a BIOS Boot Partition, at least in theory; but using one increases the reliability of GRUB's operation. I've seen some reports of Ubuntu not working correctly without a BIOS Boot Partition on GPT systems, but I'm not sure if that's some Ubuntu-specific issue or if it's just a case of a system falling on the extreme end of a normal distribution of reliability without a BIOS Boot Partition.

If you have gpt you need another small (8-32mb) partition for grub. Are you using efi or BIOS compatible mode?
http://grub.enbug.org/BIOS_Boot_Partition
"unknown" filesystem! may be shown

8-32 MB is huge for a BIOS Boot Partition; it can be as small as 31 KiB (note "K", not "M"), although making it bigger may be useful if the GRUB developers ever increase its requirements. Given the trend toward allocating partitions on 1 MiB boundaries, I recommend starting it on such a boundary and making it precisely 1 MiB in size, but that's just an issue of the partition alignment, not the size requirements for the BIOS Boot Partition.

[oldfred]

I do not know where I got the 8-32MB from, but I did not paste all my notes, but it is a gparted issue on size, I am sure with the gdisk that issue is not there:

Make it 128 kiB as recommended in the following link. Actually, using ext2 for example, and GParted Live CD, the minimum partition size is 8 MB, or 32 MB for FAT32.