Ubuntu 9.10 Not Booting - Dell Dimension 8300

[coplinator]

Hello,

I'm new to Linux, last 6 months, and am trying to install it on my tower, but for some reason after successfully going through the installation process, it will not boot. I'm using ubuntu in a virtual box on my laptop just fine, I've had not problems at all, this really has me stumped since it seemed so easy on my laptop.

I get this message after the installation has finished and the computer has to restart, the cd tray opens, I remove the ubuntu cd I burned, and I get this message:

Strike F1 to retry, Strike F2 to enter setup

I put the CD back in, and then selected "Boot from Hard Disc", and then get a "Booting from local disk..." and the cursor blinking below, but after 2 minutes or so, I get the following error:

isolinux: Disk error 80, AX=0201, drive 80

Before installing Ubuntu, I did the hard drive test just to be sure, and there were no problems, it said everything was good to go.



Some specs, if they might help:

Dell Dimension 8300
20GB Hard Drive (IDE, jumpers set to factory positions, and the IDE 1 cable plugged in)
1 GB Ram
Pentium 4 w/ Hyper-Threading



Please let me know if more information will help, I just don't know what else I should be doing.

[presence1960]

If you believe you installed ubuntu successfully we need way more info. Let's get a better look at your setup & boot process. Boot the Ubuntu Live CD/USB. Choose "try ubuntu without any changes", when the desktop loads come back here and use the link in my signature to download the Boot Info Script to the desktop. Once on desktop open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and run this command
sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh This will create a RESULTS.txt file on the desktop. Paste the entire contents of that file back here. Once pasted highlight all text and click the # sign on the toolbar to place code tags around the text.

[coplinator]

Hello,

Thanks for your quick reply. Here is the information you requested, please let me know if you need anything else.


============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 1.97 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive
in partition #1 for /boot/grub.
sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 20.5 GB, 20525137920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2495 cylinders, total 40088160 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2fc8e8cf

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 38,315,024 38,314,962 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 38,315,025 40,082,174 1,767,150 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 38,315,088 40,082,174 1,767,087 82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="62e30271-cbc3-42df-9c1f-1a33c9c8b7c7" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="2380e1b4-5301-4b8d-b883-faefc798f8be" TYPE="swap"

=============================== "mount" output: ===============================

aufs on / type aufs (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
/dev/sr0 on /cdrom type iso9660 (rw)
/dev/loop0 on /rofs type squashfs (rw)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/ubuntu/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=ubuntu)


=========================== sda1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 62e30271-cbc3-42df-9c1f-1a33c9c8b7c7
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 62e30271-cbc3-42df-9c1f-1a33c9c8b7c7
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=62e30271-cbc3-42df-9c1f-1a33c9c8b7c7 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 62e30271-cbc3-42df-9c1f-1a33c9c8b7c7
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=62e30271-cbc3-42df-9c1f-1a33c9c8b7c7 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ ${timeout} != -1 ]; then
if keystatus; then
if keystatus --shift; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=0
fi
else
if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
set timeout=0
fi
fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=62e30271-cbc3-42df-9c1f-1a33c9c8b7c7 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=2380e1b4-5301-4b8d-b883-faefc798f8be none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.0GB: boot/grub/core.img
.0GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
.0GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
.0GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
.0GB: initrd.img
.0GB: vmlinuz

[presence1960]

From a software perspective Ubuntu is indeed installed to the hard disk and looks good. I would hit F2 and go into BIOS and check all your hardware settings to see that everything is OK.

GRUB is installed to MBR and points to sda1 as it should. By those messages I think it is a hardware issue. Check it out and report back.

[coplinator]

When I got into the BIOS and look, is there anything I should be looking to change or notice?

For instance, the hard drive, or ram?

Just want to be sure I'm looking in the right places...

[coplinator]

I'm not sure what all will be helpful from the BIOS settings, so I'm going to give as much information as possible, without giving everything.

Intel Pentium 4 Processor: 3.00GHz
Level 2 Cache: 512 KB Integrated
BIOS Version: A07
Service Tag: D815H41

Drive Configuration
Sata Primary Drive - OFF
Sata Secondary Drive - OFF
Primary Master Drive - Hard Drive (Model: WDC WD205BA)
Primary Slave Drive - OFF
Secondary Master Drive - CD-ROM Device
Secondary SLave Drive - OFF

IDE Drive UDMA - On

Memory Information
Installed System Memory - 1024 MB DDR SDRAM
System Memory Speed - 400 MHz
System Memory Channel Mode - Single
AGP Aperature - 128 MB

CPU Information
Hyper-Threading - Disabled
CPU Speed - Normal (only other option is compatible)
Bus Speed - 800 MHz
Processor 0 ID - F29
Clock Speed - 3.00 GHz
L2 Cache Size - 512 KB

A couple other things that might be helpful:

Auto Power On - Disabled
Fast Boot - On
OS Install Mode - OFF
IDE Hard Drive Acoustics Mode - Bypass (other options are: Quiet, Suggested, Performance)

The only other things that I did not include are the time, date, boot sequence, and integrated devices...etc

If you need any other information, please let me know.

Thanks for everything.

[presence1960]

That is really strange everything seems OK in BIOS & the ubuntu install. I am at a loss to explain why it won't boot.