First try at Ubuntu - rough going

**Kopkins** · April 15th, 2013

Originally Posted by DetroitDoc

Thanks again guys. If I have no luck with the reinstall I might try 13.04 or even 12.04.

Any thoughts to why the grub screen would pop up about 50% of the time on reboot? That seems really odd to me as well. This is the only O/S on the system so it shouldn't be popping up at all right? When I first did the install I rebooted several times and it did not come up.

Thanks!
Doc

Ubuntu configures grub to timeout at 10 seconds by defualt I believe. Then if go edit the grub config file and change the timeout to '0' the grub screen will not appear and you will go straight to booting the first option in the grub menu.

So , it should either show up all the time or none of the time.

**Bucky Ball** · April 15th, 2013

Have you attempted to run it from the LiveCD yet (Try Ubuntu without installing) and does it run smoothly or start crashing then also?

**craig10x** · April 15th, 2013

I'd try 13.04 if i were you...the newer kernels have had a lot of improvements that are intel related, so you may have less problems...12.04 doesn't have these newer kernels that 13.04 has been using...
You can get the iso from ubuntu daily builds...it will be up-to-date as of today...run it on live session first, and if all is ok, then you could install...

I have a recent toshiba with intel i3 and intel graphics and have been running 13.04 development for 2 months now and it's been great...and it will be going final next week anyway...if you install now, it will just ride into the final release with the updates you will get each day...

**DetroitDoc** · April 16th, 2013

I reinstalled 12.10 and did not update the software. I rebooted a few times and then finally evolution-calendar crashed (which appears to be a known problem). I reported it and after that the laptop just boots to a black screen with [OK] or occasionaly "low graphics mode" and locks up.

I had been installing from a flash drive (USB). I used UNetbootin to create the flash drive. I noticed somethign odd when booting from the flash drive. "Install Ubuntu" was listed multiple times. I happened to have the book "Ubuntu Unleashed" which had a CD with 12.10 on it. I installed from the CD included in the book and so far so good. I've updated all the software as well.

I am curious if I experience another crash of something if thats the trigger that causes me to loose the desktop for some reason.

**DetroitDoc** · April 16th, 2013

I just realized that the CD included in the book might be a 32-bit version. I'm running 16GB. Do I need to run the 64 bit version?

Here's the output from uname -a. Is this the 32-bit version?

Code:

Linux todd-Aspire-5750 3.5.0-27-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 25 20:00:05 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

"about this computer" shows 16 GB (15.7 actually) but I'm guessing i'm not utilizing all 16 gig.

**lykwydchykyn** · April 16th, 2013

You don't need a 64-bit OS to use all 16Gb of RAM -- that's handled by the PAE function of the kernel. However, it's probably going to make better use of the RAM if you do use 64-bit.

Next time X crashes on you, restart and check out /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old to see if any error messages pop out at you, probably near the end of the file.

**White Rasta** · April 16th, 2013

I just did a lookup on your system specs
I'm sorry to say that Intel has a recall on your cougerpoint-m chipset

**DetroitDoc** · April 16th, 2013

Originally Posted by White Rasta

I just did a lookup on your system specs
I'm sorry to say that Intel has a recall on your cougerpoint-m chipset

That may be but I don't think that is the issue here. Everything seems to run find under the 32 bit version of Ubuntu and Windows.

I'd be curious to know if I am affected though. I found in windows you can check the chip's revision number as shown below. I don't have windows on that system right now so I wonder if there is a way to find this out via ubuntu.

Code:

C:\Users\yourID>wmic idecontroller get deviceid
DeviceID
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_04941028&REV_04\3&11583659&0&FA

REV_04 = B2 of the Cougar Point chipset = Potentially BAD

**DetroitDoc** · April 16th, 2013

It looks like I can check it with lspci. It does look like I have the affected chipset.

Code:

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])

However it sounds like the only impact over time is a slight performance degradation of SATA performance. So I don't think this is a contributing factor to the issue I was having.

**Bucky Ball** · April 16th, 2013

Originally Posted by DetroitDoc

However it sounds like the only impact over time is a slight performance degradation of SATA performance. So I don't think this is a contributing factor to the issue I was having.

How old is the chipset in this machine? Perhaps that's all they know about it for now. If they're offering a replacement or free repair, I'd take it. Perhaps it does have something to do with your issue.

I had a HP that was on the recall but just missed the deadline when mine started to die. Yes, first the wireless dies, that they know. Thereafter the motherboard dies, but it could be a week or two months later. For me it was a week.