9.10 installs ok, Then Black Screen on Boot

[Janiels]

Complete Linux/Ubuntu noob here:

I did a clean install from Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD, Installation went fine but upon restart it tells me "PRI Master Drive-ATAPI Incompatible PRESS F1"
Upon pressing F1 the screen goes black and nothing more happens. There is no blinking cursor just a blank screen. Live mode from CD works just fine on this machine.

I had XP sp3 on the drive before but I did a complete fresh install using the "Erase and Use Entire Disk" option. I tried re-installing using F4>safe graphics mode and same results.

My Computer is a P3 500 mHz, 2x512 Mb Ram. Intel 440BX AGPset. Asus motherboard. I believe graphics are shared. 15 gig harddrive. Computer is too old to boot from USB.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[dstew]

Do you get that message "PRI Master Drive-ATAPI Incompatible PRESS F1" before the grub menu comes up, or after you select Ubuntu from the menu? The message sounds like something you might get from your BIOS, and not from Ubuntu. Maybe you need to change a BIOS setting.

[Janiels]

The message comes up before anything Ubuntu related comes up. What is the GRUB menu? I guess it must be hardware related since I have never seen the GRUB menu or had the option to select Unbutu.
I'm confused because it is the same hard drive and BIOS config I had XP on and Windows loaded just fine. It was only after installing Karmic that I ran into problems.

Thanks for the speedy response!

[Janiels]

UPDATE:
I no longer see the "PRI Master Drive-ATAPI Incompatible PRESS F1"
I believe I have the hardware thing figured out.

It now says "Loading GRUB", stands there for a few seconds and goes to the black screen again. No cursor or anything like that, just a blank screen.

I feel I am getting closer but still not there. Please help!

Thanks

[dstew]

It is strange that installing Karmic would change something in BIOS. But, perhaps that message means "I could not find a boot loader". I would boot a Live CD, see if the hard disk can be seen, see if the installer put grub in the /boot directory. If it seems the disk is intact, and is visible by the Live CD, you might try re-installing grub onto the hard disk MBR from the Live CD. This How-To (http://www.ubuntu-inside.me/2009/06/howto-recover-grub2-after-windows.html) seems pretty good.

[Janiels]

I have tried the fix suggested above and no luck. I tried another clean install from a new Live CD that I checked for errors. I tried turning off APCI and EDD and still no luck.

The computer has Grub installed in the boot directory. The drive shows up when using the Live CD and everything seems to be fine. I have scoured the internet for days now trying to fix this and no luck. I have seen many complaints of the same issue and just as many "fixes" How do I know where to begin?

Is there an earlier version of Ubuntu that doesn't have these issues? Will 10.04 be just as buggy? How do they expect people to switch to their OS when 90% of users report installation problems? I really want to use ubuntu, but this is really frustrating.

Any more help would be greatly appreciated!

[dstew]

Are you still getting the ATAPI-incompatible error, or does it now show "Grub loading.." and hang?

[Janiels]

I no longer see the ATAPI warning.

Everything seems to load properly on the hardware side.

It shows "Grub Loading" for a few seconds and then goes to a black screen.

In Live mode the drives show up just fine and all of the boot files seem to be there. I tried re-insatlling Grub2 and no luck. It just hangs there on a blank screen.

[bigsmitty64]

This has guide has helped me quite a few times in the past.

checkout from # 13 and on?

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

[dstew]

It sounds like there is no hardware or BIOS problem now, probably only a mis-configured boot loader. We can continue to mess around with it, but I think it would be helpful to run the boot info script (http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/) to analyze the system. It is really helpful in figuring out tough boot problems. You can download and run it from a Live CD boot. This thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1291280) gives a How-To and some examples of its use. Post the output to this forum.