9.04 Install blinking cursor on reboot

[triplemash]

Hello all,

I'm fairly new to Ubuntu and Linux. I've had 9.04 installed at home for a month or two with no problems. I decided it would be fun to have it at work as well so I attempted to install on a spare partition. No luck. I've done several days of research on this problem. Multiple solutions have still left me in the cold.

I can run the LiveCD (9.04) just fine. The installation process runs without errors, and then prompts for reboot. The result is the black screen with flashing cursor. All subsequent boots return the same. Here is a brief list of fixes I have attempted:

Edit grub boot options load kernel line:
added "xdriver=vesa", result: monitor returns "unsupported signal"
added "xdriver=radeon", result: black screen blinky you know what
added "vga=771", result: same as above
removed "quiet splash": same as above
tried combinations of above (with and without holding "shift"), same result.

verified "etc/X11/xorg.conf" file is identical to file on LiveCD

My Specs:
Dell Optiplex 320
Intel Pent 3GHZ
2 Gig Ram
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (acer 1916 monitor)

Installed 9.04 on the following partitions:
SDA3 18G / Root
SDA5 53G /Home
SDA6 5G swap

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for being wordy but I wanted everyone to know that I did *try* to do my homework before pleading for help. Also, I did attempt to install 9.10 but it has failed (input/output error) in the same spot with 2 different iso burns. Oddly enough the LiveCD (9.10) works just fine as well. Thanks!

D

[phillw]

Hi,
Welcome to the Ubuntu Forums.

Firstly - Can you please md5checksum your cd.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

Let's make sure we have a 'happy' CD.

Phill.

[phillw]

Hmmm, this does not look good - there seems to be a quirk in your model that causes headaches - I'm still looking at various posts - bear with me.

Regards,

Phill.

[phillw]

<< Back.

I cannot find a success story for 9.10, sorry. THe guyz & galz over on the dell area may be able to help, but any solutions they have should have come up on my search.

The Best I can offer is to use 8.04 (It's still supported, as it is an LTS [Long Term Release])

The instructions for that are over here --> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1078075

You will, at least, have a working copy of Ubuntu - There seems, from reading various posts, issues with Grub on the system. Using the Lilo boot loader gets around these.

Sorry I can't offer anything more.

Regards,

Phill.

[triplemash]

Hi Phill, thanks for your responses. After posting my first message I decided to research my dell model and I found exactly what you mentioned.. all sorts of headaches for the Dell Optiplex. On one thread it mentioned the Grub issues and they had success upgrading to Grub2. So, I followed the directions to upgrade, only to have it fail in the middle of setting up Grub2. Many attempts to recover have also failed. I am now left with a computer that cannot boot to anything (except LiveCD).

I am out of the office until Monday. I plan on bringing an XP install disk to work so that I can attempt to repair the MBR to at least get windows running again. This, after all, is a work computer and everything I do there (for now) is windows based. From there I'll try to install version 8.04. I am very interested to show the folks in my office that we can do just fine without Win XP/Office suites.

Thanks again!
-D

[triplemash]

Monday morning update.. I managed to repair the MBR and Grub without having to use the WinXP recovery disk. Using the SuperGrub2 cd I was able to boot directly to my installed version of ubuntu 9.04. Finally. Once I was in, I tried a different method of upgrading to Grub2 (http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-grub-2-on-ubuntu-9.04). This one worked except for the step that instructs me to edit the "Chainload into Grub2" boot line.

The only step after editing the boot line was to reboot and commit using "sudo upgrade-from-grub-legacy" command. Everything up to that point was fine so I decided to go ahead and commit. Brave, I know. It was successful and now when it attempts to boot ubuntu I briefly receive an error on my monitor that says "Unsupported Signal" which disappears after 5-10 seconds. After that, I am then presented with the ubuntu login screen!

Wow. I was beginning to think I'd never get here. Phill, thanks for your help! I appreciate you taking some time to help the new guy out.