14.04 slow, freezes with new battery

[andrea b]

I am a newbie ... but learning fairly fast (mostly on my own mistakes and the help of this community).

I bought a new battery from what I understand to be a reliable source for my dual boot (win7 / trusty) X60 ThinkPad; I'm finding that on battery, the machine will now not boot properly from initial GRUB screen - very slow or stops loading entirely (so I have a black screen with a cursor arrow in the middle); on some boot attempts, I am able to get to the login screen and it takes 3 minutes to load my desktop. Or ... I get no desktop and need to reboot by pushing power button. If I plug into AC, it continues to load. But ultimately, the system goes through major freezes I can't resolve without pressing the power button to reboot. The system is essentially unusable.

What is odd to me is that when I put the old battery back in - I now get the same problems. There had no problems on battery before!

I'd followed the instructions that came with the battery (turned off machine, installed and charged battery); ubuntu was the partition I booted into after doing so.

Now - I have a bunch of Thinkpads, and bought a bunch of batteries. I have this new battery in a different X60 as I type this - also dual boot. Seems to be ok, although it reported a 'system error' to report on boot - didn't catch the type of error. THIS machine does not have cpufreq installed - the first machine does ... don't know whether this could have any relevance.

Booting into Win7 partition, these problems do not occur.

Help?

[Bashing-om]

andrea b; Hello once more ;

Oh boy, things like this can be tough to isolate. power management -> ACPI ??
But, let's do some poking about and get some things established so we have a firm foundation from which to work from.

The file system, is it consistent? Verify:
#From liveCD so everything is unmounted,swap off if necessary, change example shown with partition sdb1 to your partition(s)
Find the partition(s) we are working with :

sudo fdisk -lu

Looking for the partition(s) marked '/' and/or '*" and 'ext4'
Now check the file system on the found partition(s):
#e2fsck is used to check the ext2/ext3/ext4 family of file systems. -p tries fixes where response not required :

sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sdb1
#if errors: -y auto answers yes for fixes needing response; for info do in terminal -> man e2fsck <-:
sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdb1

OK, assuming that the file system checks good, next let's consider the graphic's driver.
What results when you boot with a low level default driver (llvmpipe ) ?
Mind ya I do not at this time know what chip set you are using for graphics, the below is for ATI and Nvidia - the more common chips sets.
Try this.
Boot the install and at the grub menu with the ubuntu entry highlighted, press the 'e' key for edit mode;
This brings up the boot parameter screen, arrow down and across to the terms " quite splash" and replace them with "nomodeset" ;
Key combo ctl+x to continue the boot process. Can you now boot to the desk top ? Horrible graphics is acceptable at this point, is performance other wise acceptable ? Intel chip set will require a different boot parameter.

No ? Then next we are going to boot to a terminal and manually start the GUI and see what the system says about that. Maybe then provide the kernel a required boot parameter ??

Takes longer to type this than to actually do it, but in the process we will

find out how come why not

[andrea b]

Well, for starters, with

sudo fdisk -lu

, one thing that strikes me is that my linux partition is listed as 'Linux' rather than 'ext4' (ext4 being how I'd set it up with Gparted). Is this significant? I'd expected to have seen ext4.

Running the second command on sda6, said Linux partition, there are 0 bad blocks, with 0.1% of files and 0.2% of directories non-continuous. nothing seems too wacky. I'm assuming it would tell me to fix or agree to fix something if there were something to fix?

I'm ATI ... how do I run lvmpipe?

Ok - edited to nomodeset and ... still having a looooong time getting to bootsplash. white arrow sittin' there ... nothing seems to be happening ... ok, now it's happening, but in even slower motion than before!

Next step...?

WHEN on AC, it boots much faster, although it does not have my desktop background up during login - it delays with this for some reason (and my other machines do not). Maybe this here machine just has a real Linux allergy.

And - I'm also thinking reinstall, and wondering if there's a way of reinstalling that saves my configuration / settings.

[Bashing-om]

andrea b; hey,

My bad, the output from 'fdisk' is indeed "linux" as the system designator.

Well, file system checks good;
Does not appear to be a graphics driver relationship;
You did get good output from 'fdisk' so we are looking at legacy partitioning, so EFI is not a factor....

How quick - in relation to other boxes with 'buntu installed - do you boot to the grub menu ? if slow prior to the grub menu - then we are looking at a problem with grub finding it's files.
If booting to grub is at a normal speed, then maybe we are looking at 2 things -> grub finding the image files, or xorg activating xserver.

Looking at what grub is hunting for, show me the outputs of terminal commands:

ls -la /
ls -ls /boot
ls -la /boot/grub

Assuming you boot normal speed to grub, let's see what results when we start that GUI manually (the xserver check) - looking for errors generated to the screen.
At the grub menu -> 'e' key edit mode -> replace "quiet splash and all after with the term "text" without the quotes;
key combo ctl+x to continue the boot process to a terminal (TTY1). I would expect to boot to here in a matter of scant seconds.
Login here ( username/pass word).
And now the reason why we came here, what results from terminal code:

sudo service lightdm start

What have we got for a graphics driver ?

sudo lshw -C display

Then if problems, we might be looking at reconfigure-ing lightdm or re-installing the desktop or installing a different graphics driver.
------------
As to (RE-)installing the operating system, sure worth a shot, only takes a matter of minutes ( once you have done it a time or so ).. I would not, however, advocate keeping any of the altered configs or settings - after all, these alterations "might" be the root cause of the problem (?).
If we go that route I do suggest to delete the linux partitions from within GParted -> unallocated space, and in the new installer choose the option "something else" to install, and set up the partitions for the new install in the installer- Being aware of the present sizes of the partitions .
----------------
Are you confused enough or is all this clear as mud ?
I am always willing to make things as clear as possible.


It is a process of fault isolation

we be look'n for restoration

[andrea b]

In answer to your speed-to-grub question, that's not so clear - the single boot T60 I'm typing on takes a lot of flashing and coughing to get to grub, (graphics drivers, I guess, etc.) - but it runs ok, I have no complaints. My other X60 (dual boot) is probably the fastest of the lot. But it ain't lightnin'. The problem machine - definitely takes a lot longer (interminably). This is unscientific - haven't used a stopwatch.

ok, I'll try the grub diagnostic stuff tomorrow...however, my big-science question is: how could inserting a new battery (third party, from reputable source ... I think) have caused this? A short? A surge of some kind? I do notice a faint 'electrical kiss' sound at one point during boot - I'll check to see where it happens tomorrow.

But it's very peculiar that the ubuntu partition now responds badly to any battery. The new battery in question seems to work ok in another machine.

The machine we're trying to fix is the one with all the problems from my dual boot thread; it's fine with Windows ... worst comes to worse, I'll make this my Windows machine (glurk!)

I'll report back tomorrow, then - thanks!

[Bashing-om]

andrea b; Shheesshh,

Like you I have not a clue what the difference of using a new power supply could/would make. Might swap that converter out with another system's and see if any problems emerge on the system the converter was moved to ?

Have you checked for bent pins on the connectors ? .. and clean the pins ( somehow ) .. dirty pins can make for bad connections ( used to use up a lot of tech-in-a-spray-can to resolve corroded/dirty pins ).

It is a must to have a stable/correct power supply.

So, we will take this back up in our AM.

this might be an exercise

in learning

[andrea b]

Ok, here, one after the other, are the outputs of the first 3 commands:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -la /
total 4
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root  240 May 28 20:31 .
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root  240 May 28 20:31 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 2955 Apr 17 01:30 bin
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root   60 Apr 17 01:30 boot
dr-xr-xr-x   1 root root 2048 Apr 17 01:37 cdrom
drwxr-xr-x  15 root root 4200 May 28 20:32 dev
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root  600 May 28 20:34 etc
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root   60 May 28 20:32 home
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root   33 Apr 17 01:26 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic
dr-xr-xr-x   1 root root 2048 Apr 17 20:47 isodevice
drwxr-xr-x  26 root root  906 Apr 17 01:28 lib
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root   60 May 28 20:31 media
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    3 Apr 10 22:11 mnt
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    3 Apr 17 01:21 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 189 root root    0 May 28 20:31 proc
drwxr-xr-x  20 root root  337 Apr 17 01:30 rofs
drwx------   2 root root   46 Apr 17 01:29 root
drwxr-xr-x  22 root root  720 May 28 20:34 run
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4909 Apr 17 01:30 sbin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    3 Apr 17 01:21 srv
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root    0 May 28 20:31 sys
drwxrwxrwt   5 root root  140 May 28 20:37 tmp
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root  100 Apr 17 01:21 usr
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root  140 Apr 17 01:30 var
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root   30 Apr 17 01:26 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 


-----------------
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -ls /boot
total 4445
1135 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1162233 Apr 10 20:23 abi-3.13.0-24-generic
 166 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  169631 Apr 10 20:23 config-3.13.0-24-generic
   0 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root      60 May 28 20:32 grub
 173 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  176500 Mar 12 12:31 memtest86+.bin
 174 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  178176 Mar 12 12:31 memtest86+.elf
 175 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  178680 Mar 12 12:31 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
2623 -rw------- 1 root root 2685850 Apr 10 20:23 System.map-3.13.0-24-generic
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 
 


---------------------------------

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -la /boot/grub
total 5
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root   60 May 28 20:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root   60 Apr 17 01:30 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  699 Apr 17 01:27 gfxblacklist.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 May 28 20:32 grubenv
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Doing

sudo service lightdm start

resulted in the same crazy slow non-boot. Got to login screen and ... nothing (the little white dots gone, but no desktop).

Spoke to a really nice guy from the place where I got the battery; he noted that third party battery drivers are sometimes problematic for linux, and that battery recognition and charging issues are not uncommon with linux os.

Thoughts?

And thanks!!!!

[Bashing-om]

andrea b; Well !

Maybe, just maybe we are making some headway:
My "/boot/grub"

sysop@1310mini:~$ ls -la /boot/grub
total 2236
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root    4096 May 25 08:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root    4096 May  5 18:23 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    4096 Apr 25 14:11 fonts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     699 Apr 25 14:11 gfxblacklist.txt
-r--r--r-- 1 root root   21743 May 25 08:19 grub.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    1024 May 27 10:09 grubenv
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   12288 Apr 25 14:12 i386-pc
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    4096 Apr 25 14:11 locale
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2226340 Apr 25 14:11 unicode.pf2
sysop@1310mini:~$

Yours is missing some files.

Let me boot into my 14.04 install and see what it looks like.

Be back in a bit.

maybe yes

maybe not so yes

[Bashing-om]

andrea b; Welp !

Somewhat wiser. and did no take long to look:
My 14.04 ( nice fresh install) whereas I have mounted that partition from 13.10:

sysop@1310mini:~$ ls -la /mnt/ubie/boot/grub
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root  4096 May 25 07:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root  4096 May 25 07:18 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 May 25 06:56 fonts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   699 Apr 16 20:26 gfxblacklist.txt
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  7157 May 25 07:19 grub.cfg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root  1024 May 25 07:21 grubenv
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12288 May 25 06:56 i386-pc
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 May 25 06:56 locale
sysop@1310mini:~$ sudo umount /mnt/ubie
sysop@1310mini:~$

So, back up, regroup; see what your partitioning is like and prepare to (RE-)install grub.

Show me:

sudo fdisk-lu
sudo partd -l

EDIT: still looking at this: shheeshh, how in the world can you boot at all ?
Look, from ls -la / -> "lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Apr 17 01:26 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic" and "lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 Apr 17 01:26 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic" the '->' represent symbolic links to the files that 'should' be in /boot directory, guess what, in yours they do not exist.
also check this out:
Yours -> 0 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 60 May 28 20:32 grub
Mine -> 4 drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 May 25 08:19 grub
--------------
Where in the world is initrd.img and vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic ?? Again, how in the world can you even boot ?
This may take a lot of pondering as to how to get these required boot files into place and correct.
But first things first.. let's look at the partitioning and go from there while in ponder.

maybe moreso yes

[andrea b]

ok, Bashing,

Here are the outputs of the two commands:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xed1f86f7

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848    92981247    46387200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3        92981248   234440703    70729728    5  Extended
/dev/sda5        92983296   164808703    35912704    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6       164810752   229525503    32357376   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       229527552   234440703     2456576   82  Linux swap / Solaris


------------------------------------------
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA HITACHI HTS54161 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB   105MB   primary   ntfs            boot
 2      106MB   47.6GB  47.5GB  primary   ntfs
 3      47.6GB  120GB   72.4GB  extended
 5      47.6GB  84.4GB  36.8GB  logical   ntfs
 6      84.4GB  118GB   33.1GB  logical   ext4
 7      118GB   120GB   2516MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label

I'll go back and read the rest of your learned post ... ok, I don't understand it all that well, but (by way of perspective) let's remember that this is the machine with all those booting problems (with xp) before I repartitioned and everything. It seems happy as a clam with Win 7 ... maybe it's trying to tell me something.

But in reference to your question, "how can you even boot?!" ... on BATTERY (old or new) I get as far as the login screen, and then, no desktop.

With the battery OUT of the machine (no batt, just AC) I can run the thing fine (that's how I'm typing this here post).

But even on AC only, on login screen, my desktop (the old Hardy Heron artwork) isn't loaded (it is on the other machines). It doesn't come up on THIS machine until I enter my password, and the whole Unity desktop loads.

Sigh. Thanks so much for your ... positivity!