10.10, Takes 30-45 minutes for installation/Live enviornment to load. Install slow

[cschlue]

Being a former user of Fedora, i decided I'd like to give Ubuntu a try and install so i could switch from a windows environment for ruby on rails development.

I downloaded the 10.10 ISO and burned the image to a DVD-RW (a cheap one) at 4x

I'm deployed in afghanistan right now, and the only decent internet connection i have is in my office (i work in the network administration/operations office as a NETOPS NCO) and even then my downloads rarely exceed 50kbps. I also don't really have the best pick when it comes to writable media, i'm stuck with imation "plus" cd-r's and dvd-rw's.

After i burned the image to disc, i deleted the iso from my computer since i'm genereally not suppossed to keep personal files on work computers.

When i boot to the disc it takes about 45 minutes on average to load into the live environment to do the install or try ubuntu, if i select try ubuntu it's another 10 minutes before it's done loading.

The install is even slower, generally takes several hours to complete the install, once the install is complete and i select ubuntu in grub, i get a { DRDY ERR } ru When it tries to load ubuntu and kicks me back into the shell. Nothing appears to be wrong with my hard drive, checkdisk finds nothing.

General specs are:

Intel Core i7 i7-720QM / 1.6 GHz
8GB DDR3 1333mhz ram
2x 500gb hd's
Blu-ray/dvd/cd drive

Full specs are at: the laptop is a g73jh-a1
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/asus-g73jh-a1/4507-3121_7-33950895.html

I'm downloading the iso again and i'm going to try and burn it to a cd-r at the slowest possible speed, I'm mainly curious if it could be fualt of the disc i burned or if it has something to do with my computer.

[dino99]

hm very strange, and you dont get errors ? Use usb stick if you can instead of burning.

[Dutch70]

+1 to the usb stick, much better & faster.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/using-unetbootin-to-create-a-live-usb-linux/ (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/using-unetbootin-to-create-a-live-usb-linux/)

When you get the new download, check the md5sum before burning it to disk & of course burn at the slowest speed possible.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM)

Then check the cd for defects.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/CDIntegrityCheck[/COLOR] (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/CDIntegrityCheck)

If all of that checks out & it still isn't working right, try other boot options.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132 (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDBootOptions (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDBootOptions)

[Blasphemist]

Take a look at this thread please.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1698735&highlight=ATI+Mobility+Radeon+HD+5870

It seems there have been issues with the ATI video that you have. You may need to follow the solution shown in this thread. You may need to choose safe mode during boot up.

[cschlue]

I used the same disc to create a bootable thumb drive and it wouldn't get past the part where it unpacks the linux kernel (basically flashes the hey i'm linux and i'm doing stuff message hold on a sec and look at this blinking cursor.)

It never even gets to the ubuntu splash screen with the 4-5 dots that show "progress" or loading...

with the cd, it sits on the loading/ubuntu splash screen for a good 30 minutes.

[cschlue]

Once the new copy of the iso loads i'll go ahead and go the thumbdrive route

And i was aware of the issues with the ati graphics card but would that effect booting into the live cd's speed?

[Blasphemist]

And i was aware of the issues with the ati graphics card but would that effect booting into the live cd's speed?

Possibly. Whether you are running Ubuntu from the cd or after install, the kernel must load and some configuration is done to allow Linux to use your display.

[Blasphemist]

If you are still having issues, look at this about ATI drivers.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1740889

[cschlue]

Well i burned my new live cd, tried it on a dell laptop in my office in it was in the live cd enviornment with in minutes, took no time at all. Btw, i don't know if i mentioned this before but i'm using the x64 build, though i can't imagine that would make a difference.

dells specs are 2gb ram, and some core 2 duo.. not sure what speed.

I throw the cd in my laptop, and it's exactly the same issue, i've tried noacpi, nolapic, and a couple other combinations.

I'm creating the thumb drive right now from the disc i have now that works in the dell just fine, i'll update where that gets me later.

Am i able to slip stream the catalyst drivers into the iso/bootable thumb drive so that it uses them instead?

Is there any particular combination of boot options i should try? Anyone else ever run 10.10 on one of these laptops?

[Dutch70]

Why don't you use Unetbootin to make the bootable usb stick? I gave you the link for it.
It's the top link in post #3.

[cschlue]

Is that a better option then the usb-creator that comes on the iso? if so, in what ways? i use unetbootin for my HBCD thumbdrive so i already have a copy of it, but i just figured it was easier to do it this way since it'll copy directly from the disc and i won't have to make an iso of the disc (the iso i downloaded is on government computer in the office, and the only way to get it off of there is to burn it to a disc as a file and not a image or to make an image of the disc i have now.)

also please note that the internet connection on my personal laptop in my room is only up to 128kbps so i max out on downloads at about 15-25KB/s so downloading the distro via unetbootin isn't exactly optimal and i can't use thumb drives on government computers.

if this doesn't work i'll try unetbootin but i don't see it making much of a difference.

[Dutch70]

Well...my question was "why don't you?" & I guess that's a pretty darn good reason...lol.
Unetbootin is recommended often because it is a good program and easy to use. Not that it's better than what you're doing AFAIK.

Just to let you know though. I didn't mean for you to download it with unetbootin.
You can also use Unetbootin to put the previously downloaded .iso on the usb stick.

[cschlue]

While i don't disagree that Unetbootin is nice, i was just being lazy because i didn't want to have to rip the disc back to an iso (before you ask why i would do that, it goes back to the whole, download iso on government computer and burn it from there, no way to put the iso on my personal computer otherwise.)

The provided option to make a bootable thumb drive didn't work either so i'm redoing the thumb drive with unetbootin right now, I'll reply with where that gets me.

[cschlue]

Well when i created the thumb drive it stated that it couldn't find the linux boot...

thumb drive was formatted as fat32.

I'm absolutely confused as to why this isn't working, from what I've seen on other forums, people have installed ubuntu 10.10 just fine, and everything seems to work oob.

I even checked the md5 on the iso i made by ripping the cd i burned, it matches, which means the cd has to be correct too... Plus the disc works fine in the dells at work.

Is there anything I'm missing?

I will note that if i hit ESC during the ubuntu splash/loading screen when it's booting, it displays:

stdin: error 0
and
getpwdid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)

(the user id error might be slightly wrong since i took a picture of it and it's kind of hard to make out...)

ideas?

[cschlue]

Redid the thumbdrive with fat16, it actually booted the ubuntu menu this time, however it does the exact same thing as the cd, takes for ever to load the live environment, and I'm assuming after i install it will just drop back to the prompt again like it did with every other time I've tried to install.

btw, that full error i didn't get a good picture of before is:

GLib-warning ***: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0)
stdin: error (0)

[mörgæs]

The Glib-error is explained here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1443231

Post 176 tells you how to solve the problem.

[cschlue]

Is there a way to apply this to the install disc or thumb drive before hand? i only have wifi in my room and it's over a pppoe connection. (as in after i connect to the wifi i have to go to dial up connections and insert a username and password to connect, that's just the way they do their internet access here, it's through a company called IOglobal, and it's pretty crappy...)

would this issue be fixed in the new 11.04 update? or will i have more issues trying to load that?

Would using the alternative install resolve this issue?

[mörgæs]

Yes, the glib-bug is fixed in 11.04.

The bug is in 10.10 regular and alternate, but not when installing into a minimal install, as explained in the other thread.

No matter which release you choose, I would recommend that you have wired internet access while installing and applying the first batch of updates, even if it means that you have to move the computer.

[cschlue]

Unfortunately wired internet access is pretty much impossible, The only wired connections here on bagram are on the tactical network, and that's pretty much a no go.

Thank you for your help though, I'm going to give 11.04 a try and hope that resolves all my issues.

[Blasphemist]

I've recommended this a million times today for people moving to natty and unity. Check out this link. You'll see how to do things right from the get go.

http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4795149014/the-power-users-guide-to-unity