9.10 beta installed (with a fix) but 9.10 release hangs at grub

[buntuyu]

A few weeks ago I installed Ubuntu 9.10 beta on Motion Computing M1400 Tablet PC. It took adding the "acpi=force" kernel boot option to make it boot (both DURING and AFTER install). Without that option the tablet just hangs at boot.

The initial Grub text appears for half a second, then disappears, and you get a blinking cursor forever, at the top.

It seemed I had a working system with the beta, but then foolishly perhaps (violating "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule), I installed the official 9.10 release, blowing away the beta.

To my bewilderment, it is a step back. I CAN NOT INTERRUPT GRUB before the system hangs, to pass to it the apparently needed kernel option.

1) is there not a way to add custom kernel option DURING the install?
2) does grub in 9.10 (official) have a zero timeout??
3) is there no way of using rescue boot disks to alter grub.cfg? I booted into the Ubuntu live, did a dirty trick that did not work (deleted the temporary "/boot", recreated it, mounted /dev/sda1 (my boot partition) to /boot, added "acpi=force" to grub.cfg, and ran grub install, no errors at that point, but that did not solve anything -- still same haning)

4) is there a way to do #3 cleanly, with particular grub install otpions? install grub to a system that is completely inactive and dormant -- not the one you're booted into?

5) perhaps #3 and #4 is barking up the wrong tree.

I will try to reinstall the beta version and then do system update. Would that update my system to what constitutes 9.10 official release?

Thanks

[buntuyu]

Apologies, just to be explicitly clear:

I *DID* install the official latest 9.10 release (blowing away the beta), and the installation completed fine with no errors.

I just can't boot into the installed system, and can't interrupt grub to get to the grub menu to add the "acpi=force" option --- *if* that's the solution (not sure if it is). (With the beta 9.10 I *was* able to get into the grub menu before it tried to boot, and added the needed option, and then, of course, made it permanent in grub.cfg)

thanks again

[Ben63]

You should try to use the install CD to run a live session, modify your menu.lst from there and reboot.
I had to put "acpi=off" for it to work myself (I also got a m1400)
If it works, please let me know if you have the tablet working once you are in the desktop.
It does not work anymore for me (it was working with Jaunty)

[Thomas1477]

A few weeks ago I installed Ubuntu 9.10 beta on Motion Computing M1400 Tablet PC. It took adding the "acpi=force" kernel boot option to make it boot (both DURING and AFTER install). Without that option the tablet just hangs at boot.

The initial Grub text appears for half a second, then disappears, and you get a blinking cursor forever, at the top.

It seemed I had a working system with the beta, but then foolishly perhaps (violating "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule), I installed the official 9.10 release, blowing away the beta.

To my bewilderment, it is a step back. I CAN NOT INTERRUPT GRUB before the system hangs, to pass to it the apparently needed kernel option.

1) is there not a way to add custom kernel option DURING the install?
2) does grub in 9.10 (official) have a zero timeout??
3) is there no way of using rescue boot disks to alter grub.cfg? I booted into the Ubuntu live, did a dirty trick that did not work (deleted the temporary "/boot", recreated it, mounted /dev/sda1 (my boot partition) to /boot, added "acpi=force" to grub.cfg, and ran grub install, no errors at that point, but that did not solve anything -- still same haning)

4) is there a way to do #3 cleanly, with particular grub install otpions? install grub to a system that is completely inactive and dormant -- not the one you're booted into?

5) perhaps #3 and #4 is barking up the wrong tree.

I will try to reinstall the beta version and then do system update. Would that update my system to what constitutes 9.10 official release?

Thanks

If you reinstall the beta version and than do a system update that would make your system a 9.10 official release:)

[buntuyu]

Hi. Thanks for the tip.

Somehow this thread moved over to this one:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1322211

(I posted to "general help" because I had a different question -- namely, why is the previously available 9.10 beta no longer available for download. But the replies solicited info from me that was redundant to the one I provided here. Apologies.)