PDA

View Full Version : [ubuntu] 9.10 latest daily update won't start after restart



joeradtke
December 7th, 2009, 12:33 AM
I installed the latest updates (for 9.10 which has been working flawlessly) and noted this morning that a restart was required. After restart it hangs up with ubuntu logo without progress bar. Tried it a number of times got it to work once but eventually it quit. After restart, the same thing.

Tried recovery mode with no relief, although I'm not sure I understand what to do with it. At some point I end up with only a command line to log into which I can do. After that there isn't much choice so I type in 'reboot' and it gets stuck the same way after rebooting.

Also tried booting from the previous kernel with no change.

Computer is home built using Asus PcT Deluxe V2 Motherboard, Intel I7 processor.

No error messages .... just nothing happens.

Jackfarrow
December 7th, 2009, 03:32 AM
I too am having a similar problem after an automatic update on 9.10. On bootup, I get:
1. the Ubuntu name in the upper center part of the screen with the brownish background.
2. Then the Ubuntu name moves over to the right and downward and becomes slightly larger.
3. Then the GNOME logon sound starts and the Ububtu logo moves back to the upper center part of the screen.
4. About 50% of the time the GNOME logon sound stops short and I'm presented with a logon box. I don't have the system set to require a logon at startup! When I enter my user ID and password, the process goes back to step 1 above and repeats, FOREVER! When I first got this problem I entered my User ID and password over 50 times, figuring it had something to do with the update. But, it never got to the Gnome desktop.
5. The other 50% of the time, the GNOME logon sound plays fully, the OS boots perfectly, doesn't ask for a password and works perfectly thereafter.
So, all I have to do is power the computer up and down a few times and eventually Ubuntu comes-up and works. Annoying!
My computer is a Compaq SR1300NX (Sempron 3000+ with Via chipset motherboard) with 512 MB of RAM. I have a dual-boot system with Ubuntu and Windows XP on separate drives.
It looks like some sort of bug associated with the large (28 MiB) update that immediately preceded these problems.
--Jack--

thomas.b.pringle
December 7th, 2009, 05:01 AM
This one is effecting me as well. System is running in 64b mode using recent AMD quad core, AMD 790 core logic and ATI r580 gfx.

zjagannatha
December 7th, 2009, 05:18 AM
I'm having the same issue on my Toshiba Satellite.

The last updates I installed were kernel upgrades. There were 4 of them, but I can't remember the names. They installed fine, and then when i rebooted the computer it started up and gives me an Kubuntu loading screen and starts loading the OS. About halfway through it looks like the graphics driver dies and the screen goes black, but it still responds to keypresses with noise.

Not sure how to fix it. Basically I just want to remove the broken kernel upgrades and boot it into the previous version, but I don't know how.

joeradtke
December 7th, 2009, 02:46 PM
I actually got it to work now by holding down alt and f1 during boot. I have no idea if this is permanent. I am afraid to restart it.

MandeaSaracu
December 7th, 2009, 04:21 PM
I'm having the same issue, after the last update. All I get is a sh.grub promt. My Ubuntu is installed with WUBI.

thomas.b.pringle
December 7th, 2009, 08:40 PM
Just filed a bug report
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/493733

Witloofboer
December 9th, 2009, 05:40 PM
I'm having a similar problem. I downloaded some updates about a week ago. After I updated my system, I couldn't start Ubuntu.

Mine starts up, gives me a warning that Nautilus couldn't create the necessary folders. Then nothing happens and I just get my desktop image, no terminal or whatsoever.

During the updates, I got an error regarding ttf-mscorefonts. I didn't pay attention to this message, as I get it every time I install something.

thomas.b.pringle
December 9th, 2009, 07:29 PM
Witloofboer, that sounds a bit different than the problem I've encountered. After updating last Sunday, i can no longer get to the KDM login screen.

I haven't looked this machine since Sunday and won't get a chance til next weekend.

If I can at least get to a command prompt then I think i will try to build an older version of the kernel 2.6.31-15 to see if that fixes the problem.

Tom

Timby
December 12th, 2009, 09:25 PM
I too am having a similar problem after an automatic update on 9.10. On bootup, I get: 1. the Ubuntu name in the upper center part of the screen with the brownish background. 2. Then the Ubuntu name moves over to the right and downward and becomes slightly larger. 3. Then the GNOME logon sound starts and the Ububtu logo moves back to the upper center part of the screen. 4. About 50% of the time the GNOME logon sound stops short and I'm presented with a logon box. I don't have the system set to require a logon at startup! When I enter my user ID and password, the process goes back to step 1 above and repeats, FOREVER! When I first got this problem I entered my User ID and password over 50 times, figuring it had something to do with the update. But, it never got to the Gnome desktop. 5. The other 50% of the time, the GNOME logon sound plays fully, the OS boots perfectly, doesn't ask for a password and works perfectly thereafter. So, all I have to do is power the computer up and down a few times and eventually Ubuntu comes-up and works. --Jack--

I have this problem too!

But I have got a bit farther, I clicked on a box below the login box (I cant remember what is was called) and got a Black screen with a White box the needs a command.

I can make the system shut down by useing the Command, sudo shutdown -h now

But when I restart again I get back to the same window.

I guess I could make it do something else but I am a Newbie and am not familiar with the commands.

grubdude
December 12th, 2009, 09:54 PM
There are some known issues with using the Wubi installation method versus a straight install which appears to be more stable....If you are using Wubi bear in mind you are sitting on top of an NTFS partition versus ext4, so it is a compromise.

There may be other problems with a regular install, but I have found it to be more stable especially during updates...FWIW;)

Jackfarrow
December 31st, 2009, 08:43 PM
I ended-up finding and fixing my own problem! The issue appears to be the OpenChrome video driver. My computer (Compaq SR1300NX) has an integrated S3 UniChrome video controller (AKA VIA KM400/KN400/P4M900). Something was crashing or erroring-out during display initialization, causing the request for login, even though I installed Ubuntu to not required login at startup. The problem was maddeningly intermittent. I could go for several days with no problem and then Ubuntu wouldn't start fifty times in a row! I discovered that if I powered the computer down and then unplugged it for a minute or so, it would usually come up. This gave me a clue that perhaps it had something to do with hardware. So, I tried changing hardware settings in the BIOS. When I changed the amount of memory allocated to video down to 8 MB, Ubuntu came up almost every time. When I put the video memory back to the 64 MB default, Ubuntu NEVER came up! So, I installed a PCI NVIDIA GeForce2 MX card, disabled the internal video in the BIOS and installed the NVIDIA GeForce X-window driver/server. Everything works PERFECTLY now! I read in some other forums that the problem can also be fixed by using the generic VESA driver instead of OpenChrome, but then you have to be careful to not let the Update Manager re-enable the OpenChrome driver. Also, you take quite a performance hit with the generic VESA driver. Perhaps the problem is some bad hardware on my motherboard? I doubt it because this computer was a ******* XP box for four years and there was no issue whatsoever with the built-in video.
--Jack--