10.4 in loop, live or as install

[porphyry5]

Have tried installing, now trying to run Ubuntu 10.4 from the cd on an Acer Aspire system with Intel Celeron chip vintage 1998. Md5 is good but install/cd load persistently goes into a perpetual loop. With options no splash acpi=off noapic nolapic nomodeset vesa=xxx it gets as far as "[20.997181] Console: switching to color frame buffer nnnxnn". On my Asus 2.2Gh Intel windows system it gets to same message but with different number. Both systems share the same monitor mouse and keyboard, the 2 latter being usb.

Any suggestions as to what causes this?

[robert shearer]

Probably because the vesa setting specified is not a valid one

you have
vesa=xxx

and the fail message is
switching to color frame buffer nnnxnn

vesa has to be specified as a number combination.

on the live cd when you boot up try F4 or F5 or F6 for the available options (cant remember which)

or try

vesa=0x314
for 800x600 (resolution) and 16 bit(colour depth)

or

vesa=0x317
for 1024x768 at 16 bit

see here for other options
http://www.gregfolkert.net/info/vesa-display-codes.html

[porphyry5]

Probably because the vesa setting specified is not a valid one

...

vesa has to be specified as a number combination.




My apologies, xxx and nnxnnn just stood for a variety of actual numbers I used in several tries. Ubuntu stops and gives you a menu of valid entries if the one you use is not on the list.

[robert shearer]

k, try another monitor.

[porphyry5]

k, try another monitor.

Its the only monitor I have, and belongs to my windows asus system. But I have gotten slackware to install on this acer, though it also objects to the monitor and will only give me command line access, no guis.

So I'm thinking that perhaps linux compares the bios setup with the actual hardware and finds the discrepancy with the monitor. Do you know if this is true, and if so is there a way to bypass that check?

Windows installs on this acer without a murmur, so I think perhaps it doesn't make such a check, just accepts whatever hardware it finds.

[robert shearer]

What is the make/model etc of the monitor ?

If we know its specs there may be some workaround that will get you up and running.

That slackware has a problem too is a pretty big red flag eh !.

Still, if you can..... try another monitor :)

Borrow one for an hour to see if the live cd boots up ok.
A neighbor ? Workmate ? Family ? someone must have a spare in the garage.
Crumbs, our local recycling depot has a 8x3 metre mountain of CRTs in their yard for $5 or less.

Edit..WHOA... something just went bing !.. are you using a kvm switch ?? as you say that the two systems share a mouse,keyboard and monitor.
If so, then remove the switch and connect mouse,keyboard and monitor to one of your boxes and see if the live cd boots.

If it does I can help you set it up so you can install and configure then add the kvm back in.

[porphyry5]

What is the make/model etc of the monitor ?

If we know its specs there may be some workaround that will get you up and running..

These are the monitor specs given by Everest
--------[ Monitor ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Optiquest Q71-6 ]
Monitor Properties:
Monitor Name Optiquest Q71-6
Monitor ID OQIE702
Model Q71-6
Manufacture Date Week 28 / 2001
Serial Number 70A012801655
Max. Visible Display Size 32 cm x 24 cm (15.7")
Picture Aspect Ratio 4:3
Horizontal Frequency 30 - 70 kHz
Vertical Frequency 50 - 160 Hz
Maximum Resolution 1280 x 1024
Gamma 2.60
DPMS Mode Support Standby, Suspend, Active-Off
Supported Video Modes:
640 x 480 135 Hz
800 x 600 110 Hz
1024 x 768 85 Hz
1152 x 864 75 Hz
1280 x 1024 65 Hz
Monitor Manufacturer:
Company Name ViewSonic Corporation
Product Information http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktop_display.htm
Driver Download http://www.viewsonic.com/support/drivers.htm



That slackware has a problem too is a pretty big red flag eh !..

Its much worse than that. I have tried all the 15 most popular flavors of Linux. Slackware is the only one that installs to the hard drive, pcLinuxos, EasyMepis and Knoppix will run from the cd but won't install. Those that won't install all behave the same except for Debian and a Debian clone whose name I forget. They all go into a loop (black screen, blinking cursor). The Debian types terminate early with a message about invalid PBLK length, whatever that is.

I've redone the Slackware installation and it now goes without a hitch, but it seems to be Unix oriented rather than Windows.


Still, if you can..... try another monitor :)

Borrow one for an hour to see if the live cd boots up ok.
A neighbor ? Workmate ? Family ? someone must have a spare in the garage.
Crumbs, our local recycling depot has a 8x3 metre mountain of CRTs in their yard for $5 or less..

Tried to get one today but no luck. I live in a very small town and there is no used computer parts store. I went to the recycling center and they will neither sell them nor give them away. Go figure. I'll see if I can borrow one tomorrow. But things go rather slow with me, I'm an old guy and have no car, and have to walk everywhere. To get the live cd I'll have to take the bus into Eugene again and download it at the university. Its no good downloading here, it takes 1.5 hours per cd and then the md5s are wrong.


Edit..WHOA...
something just went bing !.. are you using a kvm switch ?? as you say that the two systems share a mouse,keyboard and monitor.
If so, then remove the switch and connect mouse,keyboard and monitor to one of your boxes and see if the live cd boots.

If it does I can help you set it up so you can install and configure then add the kvm back in.

Thank you. I'd never heard of a kvm switch, but I certainly want one, it gets really old swapping these cables back and forth between the two towers.

I see I can attach files to these posts so I'll give you the entire Everest report on the computer.

[robert shearer]

Well the
invalid PBLK length is interesting,
i am assuming this is on the asus system and this link seems to tie it to bios and motherboard....

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/197267



Your celeron system may just be too old for most distros and I would look at something extra light like puppy linux for that....

http://puppylinux.org/main/index.php?file=Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started. htm

I have this running on a 1996 compaq laptop pentium mmx @233Mhz and 96 Mb ram.



For the Asus system you might want to try removing the hard drive and temporarily installing it in another computer (do you have a local linux users group ? I am sure they would help.)

With it installed as the only drive in that other computer (do check that the live cd runs in that computer first) proceed to install and when finished you will be prompted to reboot or continue with the live cd.

Select to continue from the live cd and proceed to shut down .

Once the computer has shutdown, switch it off, remove your hard drive and reinstall it on the Asus.

The Asus may just boot and run. Even a command line console will be of use.

I have had success with this method even installing on a system with AMD cpu then moving to a Pentium 3.

From what I can find the Optiquest Q71-6 monitor should work out-of-the-box but with less than optimal settings. These can be tweaked but first we need the live cd to work.

From the link at the beginning it would be worth checking what your bios version is.

Hopefully others here ):P can offer some suggestions too.

[porphyry5]

Dang, this is becoming a total morass.

I thank you for all your help, but I think I will stick with the Slackware, it installs and runs on both systems without trouble. It can't be any worse to learn than Dos was, and I have Dos tamed with a simple ahk script. Slackware seems really oriented to programmers, so I'm sure I can do the same with it (been intending to learn perl for quite a while, I guess now is the time).

Again, many thanks for all your help.