10.04 won't boot on Acer Aspire celeron laptop

[tjfs]

CD boots ok. Install 10.04 with Wubi, boot process gets to the animated splash screen (which keeps animating) and gets no further. If you look at the console there's just a flashing cursor. The disk is ominously quiet. There doesn't seem to be a way to get to a shell. I've tried using Grub to remove quiet splash and add single but it won't even boot to single user mode. It's difficult to see where the boot process is hanging. I got as far as booting the cd, mounting the wubi created root.disk file and exploring it but there don't seem to be any helpful logs. I've tried the various hacks i915.modeset=0, i915.modeset=1 and nomodeset, these alter the font but nothing else.

Anything else I can try?

Thanks

[dino99]

better to make a real install

prepare your hdd first:

mini howto: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9216264&postcount=14

wubi= ubuntu inside a windoz file :lolflag:

[tjfs]

I could try that, but I don't want to risk damaging my Windows installation.

[bcbc]

I could try that, but I don't want to risk damaging my Windows installation.

there are always risks when you install a new operating system. wubi doesn't protect you from these - but it prevents the need to partition your drive. I recommend backing up your important data and creating a windows repair cd/usb.

If it was a graphics issue you'd have the same problem whether it was liveCD or hard drive.
Try noacpi noapic or other options like that. Check the syslog for errors.

[tjfs]

Tried noacpi & noapic, doesn't make a difference.

Any ideas how to look at syslog given that I can't get a shell prompt?

[bcbc]

Tried noacpi & noapic, doesn't make a difference.

Any ideas how to look at syslog given that I can't get a shell prompt?

Boot the live CD, mount windows, loop mount the root.disk.
e.g. if your root.disk is on /dev/sda1 you could do:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo mkdir /wubi
sudo mount -o loop /mnt/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /wubi
less /wubi/var/log/syslog

[tjfs]

Okay, I did that. No log messages. I suppose it's not getting as far as opening the log files.