10.04 netbook won't run in ASUS S300

[whitecue]

Hi, I'm a complete linux newbie;) and I just got an old ASUS S300 notebook that I thought should be great with Ubuntu so I grabbed one and tried it first on my two desktops, both successfully, and I found the system very nice to use.

When I put the USB disc into my ASUS, it did boot up into the installer, and I can get to the purple screen where there is an Ubuntu logo in the middle and some progress dots underneath running. But after that it's a blank screen and the hard disk doesn't seem to be doing anything.

I tried to burn the image into a DVD, which again runs nicely on my desktop but won't go past that screen on my ASUS.

Here is the hardware spec of the machine, it is currently running Windows XP with no problem, but I just can't help fondling with it:tongue::

ASUS S300
CPU — Intel® Pentium® M 1GHz ULV
BIOS — AMI BIOS, Flash EPROM, Plug&Play. Boot from USB FDD or Ai-Flash module (Type 3 or 4)
Chipset - Intel® 855GME+ICH4-M (Montara-GM+)
RAM — 768 MB (I'm guessing there are two ram installed? or the graphic is taking some out of a 1 GB?)
Display — high-contrast 8.9" TFT Display with max. resolution of 1024*600
Video controller — embedded Intel® Extreme Graphics 2
Storage
Hard drive — up to 80GB supporting Ultra DMA 100 and S.M.A.R.T (form factor: 2.5", 9.5mm; spindle speed: 4200rpm, our sample had Hitachi IC25N060ATMR04-0 60GB)
Optical drives — DVD/CD-RW
PCMCIA - 1xPC Card Type II (v2.1)
Audio system — SoundMAX

I/O ports
2xUSB 2.0
Audio-out jack
Microphone-in jack
RJ-45
RJ-11
IEEE1394
VGA port (mini 26-pin, shared with Portbar)
Communication
fax/modem V.92 56Kbps
10/100 network adapter (Full & Half duplex)
Wireless communication — 802.11b/g wireless LAN (miniPCI module) + hardware

I searched the forum and the internet and didn't find anything related to this model so I had to come ask for your kind help. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

[ajgreeny]

I think this is a problem of your Intel 855GM chipset.
See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes for all the detail, but basically it will need a boot option of adding "i915.modeset=1" after "quiet splash" on the kernel line, so it will look something like this.

linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=a627a80a-7b40-4a99-84b2-69627813ee3c ro quiet splash i915.modeset=1

[whitecue]

I think this is a problem of your Intel 855GM chipset.
See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes for all the detail, but basically it will need a boot option of adding "i915.modeset=1" after "quiet splash" on the kernel line, so it will look something like this.

linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=a627a80a-7b40-4a99-84b2-69627813ee3c ro quiet splash i915.modeset=1

Thanks for the reply! I will read into that wiki and try to figure out what you are saying, and will report back if it's solved! Thanks again!:D

[whitecue]

I've tried re-enabling KMS with no luck. However I stumbled upon Glasenhardt's website and found the modified live-cd image he created and it worked for me. Now I am able to boot into Ubuntu. Here is the link for the image:

http://glasen-hardt.de/?page_id=701

This also proved that my problem was indeed graphic related.

The image was created in may 2010, so I'm guessing the fix is not up to date in the iso. I'll find out later and see if I need to upgrade to the newest version, which I believe can be found here:

https://launchpad.net/~glasen/+archive/855gm-fix

But I'm a complete newbie so research before you apply anything!:D