10.04 upgrade killed system?

[pcal]

I recently upgraded a 64bit desktop installation to 10.04. While it seemed to be ok on the day, the system now won't boot. I've been away for a little while, and this is the first time I've tried to run the system since the upgrade.

We crash at the flash screen with an error that claims the "media/XP_Drive is not installed or unavailable". The XP_Drive is actually a partition on the same drive as the 10.04 installation. I am given 3 options - Wait, Skip mounting the drive, or Manual correction.

Waiting never ends, Skipping does about the same as waiting, and Manual drops me to a text prompt. I'm not really skilled enough to know exactly what to do at the text prompt, but when I attempted to open the gui with "startx" - I got a version of the desktop, logged in as root, with no network connection to seek help through. [I've had to boot into xp to post this request - weep!]

I would be delighted if anyone could offer any suggestions about what may have happened, or more importantly, what I can do about it...

Thanks in anticipation,

Pcal

[Arand]

A guess is that you have the XP partiion defined in /etc/fstab.
Possible solution to this is to boot a liveCD, mount the ubuntu partition and comment out (prepend # ) the entry for that partition.
Alternatively it may be that the UUID for the partition has changed, and you'll just have to correct that one in /etc/fstab

- arand

[pcal]

Cheers Arand,

It has at least got me moving in the right direction...

Commented out that line in fstab (after huge issues trying to find where in the live system the drive got mounted!), after which the system would boot - after a fashion at least.

I now have screens full of error messages flashing past way too fast to read, after which I get dumped at a text login prompt.

I can login with my username/password, and then "startx" to get back to the gui. Once there, everything seems to be working ok - at least, so far as I have been able to test in the last little while.

Now that I can get back into the system, I'm guessing there should be a log file somewhere that will tell me what all those error messages were. I'm hoping if I can identify and correct them, I should get back to a normal boot?

What should the supposed log file be called?, so I can go looking for it.

Thanks again,

Pcal

[tommcd]

What should the supposed log file be called?, so I can go looking for it.

If you want to try searching the log files, see:
dmesg
/var/log/syslog
/var/log/messages
For possible graphics problems see:

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

[pcal]

Thanks tommcd,

I had found about 850 log files with a mod date today, so narrowing the field to search certainly helped. Unfortunately not much of it made a lot of sense to me...

Using a camera to record the errors flashing past at boot time, I have found a number of references to errors in the ALSA system (although sound seems to be working fine once I get the desktop open), and perhaps more significantly, multiple copies of...

"CIFS VFS: Send error in SETFSUnixInfo = -5 Negotiating Unix capabilities with server failed...."

This is the last error before the cli prompt hits the screen, so I'm guessing it has something to do with why the gui doesn't open automatically. It is a desktop machine with no linux "server" as such on the lan, so it must be something internal that isn't responding. It works fine when booting into *******, and it worked fine under v9.10. Something in the upgrade to v10.04 has upset the apple cart somehow.

I am now officially out of my depth, and would greatly appreciate a life buoy, please...

Thanks in anticipation,

Pcal

[pcal]

I have been going round in circles for hours now and getting nowhere.

I am starting to think all the error messages that are coming up on screen at boot time are only red herrings. When I manually login and start the gui from the cli, everything seems to work correctly - even the things that the error messages are suggesting have failed to connect. I've not yet found a single thing not working from the gui.

So why is the boot manager dumping me to the cli? My assumption has been that it is because there are errors that need attention - but given that the system works anyway - can't the boot manager just be told to ignore the errors and give me the gui?

Where can I inspect / adjust / correct (?) a configuration file for the boot manager to tell it to take me to the gui login rather than dumping me at the cli. I could just about put up with having to startx all the time, but other users in the family definitely won't.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Pcal

[oldfred]

A lot of issues are related to video. What video card do you have.

I had to do this with my nvidia card:
boot from the cd, press F6 and then select the nomodeset option.
I edited my grub.cfg as I use grub to boot ISO, in syslinux.cfg or text.cfg
then
On first boot after install, press e on getting the GRUB bootloader.
Using arrow keys navigate to and delete quiet and splash and type the word nomodeset in their place
Press Ctrl and X to boot (low graphics mode)

After I installed nvidia driver (default from pop up) then it has worked without issue.
gksudo nvidia-settings
Or it should be in System>administration>Hardware drivers.

Check BIOS for settings:
try to boot with acpi=off or nomodeset=0 on the boot line

Lucid 10.04 KMS
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting
# Nvidia (this should revert you to using -nv or -vesa):
echo options nouveau modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf
Some other settings:
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2010/05/06/ubuntu-10-04-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup-workaround/

if you've got an intel graphics card, then the usual fix is to either add i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0 to your boot
Other workarounds:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2010/05/06/ubuntu-10-04-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup-workaround/

ATI/Radeon
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

Kernel update splash screen issue.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1503509

[pcal]

A lot of issues are related to video. What video card do you have.

Thanks Fred,

I have a NVIDEA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430. The NVIDEA drivers were already installed in v9.04, and once the gui is up, seem to be working just fine in 10.04 as well.

I do recall when originally installing from a live cd (way back when...) I did have to select safe graphics mode to get to the desktop - but in that case I didn't get dumped to cli, but rather had a message from my monitor that it was being driven beyond its range. Essentially a blank screen with ubuntu happily waiting for input on the other side...

That's not happening now.

I will try to work through your suggestion however to see if it does anything....

Thanks again,

Pcal

[pcal]

Sorry Fred, but none of that did me any good. :(

It seems that the issue is in mounting of file systems rather than anything to do with graphics.

I'm about ready to nuke the whole thing and reinstall from a new live cd, which seems to me to be a massive over-reaction when the system is essentially operational but for booting to the wrong place!

The cli swears that the network is inaccessible and it can't mount the hard drive, and yet the gui seems to have no trouble with anything once I start it manually.

Seriously, upgrading the system just isn't worth the hassle. Look at all the folk here who have dead systems at the hands of an automated upgrade! If I just reinstall over the top of this installation will it preserve user data and downloaded apps etc? I don't want to mess it up any further, but this has cost me about 24 hours of my recreation leave already, and I'm MORE stressed, not less.

Yours in desperation,

Pcal

[tommcd]

Seriously, upgrading the system just isn't worth the hassle. Look at all the folk here who have dead systems at the hands of an automated upgrade!
I always do clean installs myself. It is the most fail safe way to avoid problems like this.


If I just reinstall over the top of this installation will it preserve user data and downloaded apps etc?

If you have your home directory on a separate partition, then all your data will be preserved. All of your user settings in the hidden (those that begin with a period) files and directories in your home directory will be preserved also. Any extra programs you want beyond those that come with the stock 10.04 install will have to be reinstalled.
You will also have to add back the medibuntu repos, the partner repos (assuming you had them before) and any other 3rd party repos you may have had on your system.

If you do reinstall, just choose manual partitioning, and be sure to choose not to format the partition that contains your home directory.

[pcal]

A lot of issues are related to video.


Darn it. I hate it when I'm wrong...

It seems oldfred you were right on the money.

I finally got around to the dreaded re-install. Wiped the lot, and started over - this time with a separate partition for my home directory.

Everything worked on the first boot. Then I installed the "recommended" driver for my nvidia graphics card, and on the next boot, the problem was back again. Booted to the cli rather than gui login screen.

As there was literally nothing that had been done yet but the graphic driver, I uninstalled it, rebooted, and all worked correctly again.

I worked through all the driver options in turn until I found the version 96 of the driver still allowed the boot to work ok. So I guess 10.04 (and also 10.04.1 I installed tonight) 64 bit versions have issues with anything newer than v96 of the nvidia accelerated graphics driver.

Don't know what graphic features I'll be missing with the older driver, but at least the machine is working again.

Thanks again to all that offered suggestions.

Pcal

[pcal]

[weep]

I spoke too soon...

1 day later, and it's on strike again. Nothing has changed (or even been used!) since it was working, but now I get a bunch of errors relating to the network being unavailable, and the systems consequent inability to mount various samba partitions on a nas drive. These are listed in fstab and have been working fine for some time prior to the upgrade.

The error messages are familiar - they were among the errors I was getting before I reinstalled the other day - but all the other errors seem to have been solved by the install.

The strange thing is, when I login from the cli and manually startx, the network is connected, and the samba shares have been mounted and are working correctly.

Is there a timing issue? Something to do with the initialisation of the network connection compared with mounting of the samba drives perhaps? But even so, if processing of fstab caused a problem at boot time, how could the failed instructions that crashed the gui boot have somehow completed themselves by the time the gui is manually launched. It doesn't make sense to my "single threaded" thought process... unless fstab is processed again when the gui is launched?

If that is the case, then is there a way to suppress fstab execution at boot time and leave it until the gui has the network connection established correctly?

Not withstanding any of the above, why did it work fine on Thursday when I did it, and fail on Saturday when I went to use it? It hadn't even been logged into between times!

I'm confused!

Pcal