10.04 will not boot

[stef-l]

I have been running 8.04 dual boot with win XP+SP3 successfully for several months. Have Nvidia 6200 graphics card.

Overnight did upgrade to 10.04 via upgrade manager. Got black screen with frozen cursor after the installation finished. Messages in recovery mode suggested there was an issue with the monitor/ graphics card.

Removed card, rebooted with onboard graphics and 10.04 loaded; then told it to load the nvidia drivers that I'd been using with 8.04. This worked. Replaced graphics card. No joy.

The following things occur: when 10.04 ran, under the motherboard graphics, ubuntu failed to shut down, just left the new splash screen hanging.

10.04 still will not boot. Get black screen, sometimes saying starting up... but it doesn't.

So 10.04 is there, but won't let me at it, and if I get it, won't let me quit?

Help, please!

stef-l

[wojox]

Boot a LiveCD and run:


gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Look for and add nomodeset:


GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet nomodeset"

Save and reboot. That did it for me.

[stef-l]

Thanks for the idea, and sorry, but please can you clarify?

I did this 10.04 upgrade via update manager so don't have a CD of 10.04. Will any ubuntu CD (like the 8.04 one I originally used) let me do the editing you suggest?

[wojox]

I suppose, give it a try. As long as you can boot the "Try uuntu without installing"

[stef-l]

The live cd has got me access to grub; there are five files
00 header
10 linux
20memtest
30 os-prober
40 custom

Please can you tell me where to insert the command line you said to use?

Many thanks

[wojox]

Try


gksudo /etc/default/grub

[stef-l]

sorry, but no joy with that. Can get to the grub pages via the cd but do not know exactly where to put in the command.

Afraid your last suggestion did not have any result. Am willing to try whatever you suggest if you take me through it slowly; have some but not a lot of experience of terminal commands

Thank you

[wojox]

You found the file you just don't know where to add it?

You add nomodeset to here


GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet nomodeset"

Then save.

[stef-l]

I'm really sorry but I feel like a total idiot here.
I open the terminal then type the first line you gave me:
gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub then press enter
I then get a new window, tabbed 'grub' with a flashing cursor.
Do I type in the GRUB_CMDLINE etc there & save?
if I do, the save button doesn't seem to be doing anything

If I look for the drive where 10.04 is located, then under /etc is a folder labelled grub.d with the numbered folders I mentioned in my post above, full of complicated code, which I've looked through, and not found any line resembling the GRUB_CMDLINE you want me to add the nomodeset to

I'm very confused

Thanks for yr patience

[wojox]

Run this command in the terminal and post back the results:


ls /etc/default

[stef-l]

I get a list

acpid
acpi-support
alsa
apmd
apport
avahi-daemon
bluetooth
bootlogd
brltty
console-setup
cupsys
dbus
devpts
grub
grub~
hal
halt
klogd
linux-restricted-modules-common
locale
ntpdate
nvidia-kernel
pmi
powernowd
pulseaudio
rcS
rsync
syslogd
tmpfs
ufw
useradd

[stef-l]

But I thinkthis is a list from the CD not the new install 10.04

[wojox]

Did you click on the drive to mount it?

Open Places and you should see the drive and click it.

[stef-l]

acpid
acpi-support
alsa
apmd
apport
avahi-daemon
bluetooth.dpkg-bak
bootlogd
brltty
cacerts
console-setup
cron
cups
dbus
devpts
halt
irqbalance
kernel-helper-rc
kerneloops
klogd
locale
ntpdate
nvidia-kernel
pmi
powernowd
pulseaudio
rcS
rsync
rsyslog
saned
speech-dispatcher
syslogd
tmpfs
ufw
useradd
winbind

this list produced by command
ls /media/disk/etc/defaultfiles all have recent dates so 10.04?
the command you gave me seemed to list 8.04 files rather old, even though the disk was mounted.

Hope this will help us get too the bottom of it

stef-l

[wojox]

See if this thread helps http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9094227&postcount=11

[stef-l]

Spent a while trying this out, no joy
I find the line where it's possible to add nomodeset but no way of ensuring the addition is saved; message error11 unrecognised device string

[cntmn8td2006]

I am getting a similar issue. I am running a virtual PC within Ubuntu 9.10, and I made an attempt to install Ubuntu 10.04 on one of my virtual machines (VBox by Oracle). Unfortunately, any attempt to go forward with any option (Install OS, Memory Check, Verify CD...) after the splash screen results in a black screen with just a cursor. I have made a few attempts to resolve the issue, but I have had heard a rumor that the issue is specific to Nvidia cards. If I happen to resolve my issue I will let you know.

[bentrider1957]

The issue is not specific with Nvidia cards. My Radeon 5800 series does the exact same thing. It starts to load, then black screen of death. What is really weird is the fact that I was able to use the Release Candidate with NO issues. Also, the computers at my worksite also use Radeon cards and boot fine. They are 2600 series, so I think the drivers for the newer cards are not loading correctly.

I even did a complete clean install and the same issue happens. I may now go edit the GRUB to see if that is the issue.

I am sure Ubuntu engineers know about this, but until a fix comes out, I am staying with 9.10.

[bentrider1957]

I don't think this could possibly work in Live mode. I would think you need to have persistent memory a-la USB stick or card. I am going to try to fix mine now and I will post the results. Hopefully I can get it to work and write a new Grub for those who are in the same boat I am in.

Good thing I know Ubuntu well. Grub has been a royal pain in the **** for quite sometime.

Wish me luck!




Spent a while trying this out, no joy
I find the line where it's possible to add nomodeset but no way of ensuring the addition is saved; message error11 unrecognised device string

[Forbidden]

The issue is not specific with Nvidia cards. My Radeon 5800 series does the exact same thing. It starts to load, then black screen of death. What is really weird is the fact that I was able to use the Release Candidate with NO issues. Also, the computers at my worksite also use Radeon cards and boot fine. They are 2600 series, so I think the drivers for the newer cards are not loading correctly.

I even did a complete clean install and the same issue happens. I may now go edit the GRUB to see if that is the issue.

I am sure Ubuntu engineers know about this, but until a fix comes out, I am staying with 9.10. I think there are too many problems happening at once, and unlike most things, boot is extremely critical with no way to easy way to debug. If you can't boot a system you're screwed. That's why this whole Plymouth nonsense was utter stupidity.

I can brick my system every time simply by installing nvidia drivers from nvidia-common. Can't even boot single user. It just stops partway through the bootup, after hard drive checks but before networking. Judging by the noise from my fans, something is maxing out the CPU, but not getting anywhere.

This is unrelated to whether or not Plymouth even decides to output video at all. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, regardless of whether or not nvidia drivers are involved. nomodeset, blacklisting other drivers, etc, can change this part of it, but doesn't help with the part where it bricks the whole system.

The notion that they would saddle a release, especially an LTS release, to such a buggy system is beyond my comprehension. This isn't pulseaudio. Audio can be debugged through a working system. Plymouth just bricks your system.

[cntmn8td2006]

Instead of trying to run a live cd on my Vbox virtual machine, I went ahead and tried to run the live cd on my actual laptop. The attempt was successful ( I did not see the black screen like I did inside the virtual machine). I have therefore concluded my issue is specific to Vbox.

[stef-l]

well I'm still stuck with my black screen.

Just to recap
dual boot system with XP+SP3; IGB memory, nvidia 6200 graphics card
ran 8.04 successfully
upgraded to 10.04 via update manager; will not boot
black screen of death

have tried
graphics card issues
nomodeset in grub
can't explore xorg.config because can't get at the files

have had the 10.04 up and working twice out of about 50 attempts to load it so I know it's there in its partition
but I can't imagine it's doing my computer a lot of good having topower on/off so many times

So, what does anyone suggest I do next? I can run XP! I really don't want to have to format the hard drive and try clean installs of both again!

And I was wanting to ditch windows completely...

stef-l