Floppy Controllers Preventing Boot

[freeze10108]

I tried installing Natty today, but, after installation, it won't boot. I make it, once I've added a verbose parameter to the boot commands, to:


floppy0: no floppy controllers found

I made a thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1592859) about this when Maverick came out because the same thing happened, but nothing came from it.

Does anyone know how to remedy this or, perhaps, stop Ubuntu from even looking for the floppy on boot?

[dino99]

is floppy disabled into bios ?

if you are really using grub2, you should not have this kind of issue:

into /boot/grub/grub.cfg this line tell to boot without checking floppy: "search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root your_uuid"

so i wonder if you use grub2 or if you still have the old grub legacy & menu.lst (they have to be removed then run update-grub)

[freeze10108]

is floppy disabled into bios ?

I'm fairly certain it's disabled. I've gone through the whole menu and can't find anything about it except disabling booting from it (which I did) and changing its position in the boot order.


if you are really using grub2, you should not have this kind of issue:

I should be using grub2. Whatever grub version is installed with Ubuntu is the one on the computer.


into /boot/grub/grub.cfg this line tell to boot without checking floppy: "search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root your_uuid"

That line's already there. Is there anything else I need to do to tell it to boot without checking for the floppy?


so i wonder if you use grub2 or if you still have the old grub legacy & menu.lst (they have to be removed then run update-grub)

I searched the hard drive and couldn't find any menu.lst files, so it should be completely grub2.

Maybe it has something to do with the kernels that Ubuntu uses? I can boot Fedora just fine, but Ubuntu hangs (though 10.04 didn't).

[freeze10108]

Okay, I just reinstalled Natty with my laptop hooked up to the Internet so that I could download the updates. It wouldn't boot a couple times in a row, then it did once and I ran a further update as well as installed the "highly experimental" (Nouveau, right?) 3D drivers, but, after restarting, it won't boot again. :(

[freeze10108]

Does anyone have any idea what I need to edit to get Ubuntu to boot up? Maybe I need to blacklist something?

PS, are the forums usually so busy that threads fall back to the tenth page after a few hours?

[freeze10108]

So, I've tried adding "blacklist floppy" to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, "alias floppy off" to /etc/modules, disabling boot from floppy in BIOS, and moving the floppy down as far as possible. Nothing has worked yet. :( Any advice?

[edgardol]

I'm experiencing a very similar problem.
freeze10108: Did you find a solution ?

In my case, I tried installing Ubuntu 11.04 and also Edubuntu 11.04, on a home made desktop, and on an old Compaq R3000 laptop.
I got the black screen at boot on both computers with both disks, so I powered off, powered on, at the grub menu I selected: recovery mode (2nd in the list), and click Enter.
It always stops at: floppy0: no controllers found.
I tried hitting: e, when the grub menu shows up, and I confirmed the presence of the option: search --no-floppy ...
I also tried deleting --no-floppy from that line.

Any suggestion is welcome !
Otherwise, I may go back to 10.04

Thanks in advance,
Edgardo.

[freeze10108]

^No, I haven't found a solution yet. I've created a question in LaunchPad and on LinuxQuestions and neither has produced a solution yet. Someone on LaunchPad however did say that the problem isn't with the floppy because the floppy message is just a warning, so there must be something else.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of computer are you using (style, make, and model)?

[edgardol]

The laptop is a Compaq Presario R3000, part number: DP533AV, with an AMD Athlon 64 2200 MHz processor and 512 MB RAM, 80GB HDD, 15.4-inch WXGA display 1920x1600, the video card is NVIDIA but I don't remember the model. It has a Phoenix BIOS version F.12. It also has a bunch of ports: PCMCIA, USB, memory card readers, sound, Firewire, and WiFi (B version).

[freeze10108]

Would you be able to run

lshw > hardwareinfo.txt
on either another Linux partition or from the LiveCD (both may require installing lshw) and copying and pasting the the results in the text file into [ code ] [ /code ] tags (minus the spaces) here? That way, I can look at the two and see if there's a common piece of hardware between the two that could be causing the problem.

[edgardol]

I was able to run lshw from a terminal window, by booting with the "try" option of 10.04.
(I also tried with 11.04 first, but it got stacked before even starting.)

The output of lshw is attached. I'm not sure how to use the "CODE" tags, but I'm trying below:


ubuntu
description: Notebook
product: Presario R3200 (DP533AV)
vendor: Hewlett-Packard
version: F.12
serial: CND4280CFP
width: 32 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.31 dmi-2.31
configuration: boot=oem-specific chassis=notebook uuid=B570FE79-C7A6-11D8-BA5A-000FB003B1CA
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: 08A0
vendor: Compal
physical id: 0
version: 32.22
serial: CND4280CFP
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Hewlett-Packard
physical id: 0
version: F.12 (06/08/2004)
size: 114KiB
capacity: 448KiB
capabilities: pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect edd int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb agp ls120boot
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
physical id: 4
bus info: cpu@0
version: 15.4.10
slot: Socket A
size: 800MHz
capacity: 2200MHz
width: 64 bits
clock: 133MHz
capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext x86-64 3dnowext 3dnow up cpufreq
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 8
slot: L1 Cache
size: 128KiB
capabilities: asynchronous internal write-back
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 9
slot: L2 Cache
size: 1MiB
capabilities: synchronous internal write-through unified
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: c
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 512MiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM DRAM Synchronous
physical id: 0
slot: S1
size: 512MiB
width: 32 bits
*-bank:1
description: DIMM DRAM Synchronous [empty]
physical id: 1
slot: S2
*-pci:0
description: Host bridge
product: nForce3 Host Bridge
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: a4
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-amd64
resources: irq:0 memory:e8000000-efffffff(prefetchable)
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: nForce3 LPC Bridge
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
version: a6
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-serial
description: SMBus
product: nForce3 SMBus
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 1.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:01.1
version: a4
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm cap_list
configuration: driver=nForce2_smbus latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:10 ioport:2040(size=64) ioport:2000(size=64)
*-usb:0
description: USB Controller
product: nForce3 USB 1.1
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: a5
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:20 memory:e0000000-e0000fff
*-usb:1
description: USB Controller
product: nForce3 USB 1.1
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 2.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
version: a5
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ohci_hcd latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:22 memory:e0001000-e0001fff
*-usb:2
description: USB Controller
product: nForce3 USB 2.0
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 2.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.2
version: a2
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:21 memory:e0004000-e00040ff
*-multimedia
description: Multimedia audio controller
product: nForce3 Audio
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 6
bus info: pci@0000:00:06.0
version: a2
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=Intel ICH latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=2
resources: irq:21 ioport:1400(size=256) ioport:1c00(size=128) memory:e0002000-e0002fff
*-communication UNCLAIMED
description: Modem
product: nForce3 Audio
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 6.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:06.1
version: a2
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm cap_list
configuration: latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=2
resources: ioport:1800(size=256) ioport:1c80(size=128) memory:e0003000-e0003fff
*-ide
description: IDE interface
product: nForce3 IDE
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0
logical name: scsi0
logical name: scsi1
version: a5
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list emulated
configuration: driver=pata_amd latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:0 ioport:1f0(size=8) ioport:3f6 ioport:170(size=8) ioport:376 ioport:2080(size=16)
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: FUJITSU MHT2080A
vendor: Fujitsu
physical id: 0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 0022
serial: NN4FT4613G4R
size: 74GiB (80GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=000cdb17
*-volume:0
description: EXT4 volume
vendor: Linux
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
version: 1.0
serial: d168a8af-e8e0-4e9c-82d9-9cf39eaab77b
size: 74GiB
capacity: 74GiB
capabilities: primary bootable journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink extents ext4 ext2 initialized
configuration: created=2011-05-28 22:29:54 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/aï¿œ)-ￜￜￜￜHxￜￜ<^ￜￜïￜￜQï¿œHxￜ݀Gￜￜ6ￜￜïￜￜ^ï¿œ ï¿œ6ￜￜïￜￜￜￜￜ\^ￜￜNeï¿œ@ï¿œ modified=2011-05-28 23:54:13 mounted=2011-05-30 23:35:12 state=clean
*-volume:1
description: Extended partition
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
size: 509MiB
capacity: 509MiB
capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
*-logicalvolume
description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
physical id: 5
logical name: /dev/sda5
capacity: 509MiB
capabilities: nofs
*-cdrom
description: DVD reader
product: DVD-ROM GDR8082N
vendor: HL-DT-ST
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/scd0
logical name: /dev/sr0
logical name: /cdrom
version: 0C11
capabilities: removable audio dvd
configuration: ansiversion=5 mount.fstype=iso9660 mount.options=ro,noatime state=mounted status=ready
*-medium
physical id: 0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /cdrom
configuration: mount.fstype=iso9660 mount.options=ro,noatime state=mounted
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: nForce3 PCI Bridge
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
version: a2
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci bus_master
resources: ioport:3000(size=20480) memory:e0100000-e17fffff memory:20000000-27ffffff(prefetchable)
*-firewire
description: FireWire (IEEE 1394)
product: TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ohci1394 latency=64 maxlatency=4 mingnt=2
resources: irq:19 memory:e0108000-e01087ff memory:e0100000-e0103fff
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 00:0f:b0:03:b1:ca
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 100MB/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.88 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:18 ioport:7000(size=256) memory:e0108800-e01088ff
*-network:1
description: Network controller
product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:02:02.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=64
resources: irq:17 memory:e0104000-e0105fff
*-pcmcia:0
description: CardBus bridge
product: PCI1620 PC Card Controller
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: 4
bus info: pci@0000:02:04.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pcmcia bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=yenta_cardbus latency=176 maxlatency=5 mingnt=192
resources: irq:19 memory:e0106000-e0106fff ioport:3000(size=256) ioport:3400(size=256) memory:20000000-23ffffff(prefetchable) memory:e0400000-e07fffff
*-pcmcia:1
description: CardBus bridge
product: PCI1620 PC Card Controller
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: 4.1
bus info: pci@0000:02:04.1
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pcmcia bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=yenta_cardbus latency=176 maxlatency=5 mingnt=192
resources: irq:18 memory:e0107000-e0107fff ioport:3800(size=256) ioport:3c00(size=256) memory:24000000-27ffffff(prefetchable) memory:e0c00000-e0ffffff
*-generic UNCLAIMED
description: System peripheral
product: PCI1620 Firmware Loading Function
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: 4.2
bus info: pci@0000:02:04.2
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=4 mingnt=7
resources: ioport:7400(size=64)
*-pci:1
description: PCI bridge
product: nForce3 AGP Bridge
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: b
bus info: pci@0000:00:0b.0
version: a4
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci bus_master
resources: memory:e2000000-e2ffffff memory:f0000000-f80fffff(prefetchable)
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: NV17 [GeForce4 440 Go 64M]
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a3
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm agp agp-2.0 bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nouveau latency=64 maxlatency=1 mingnt=5
resources: irq:16 memory:e2000000-e2ffffff memory:f0000000-f7ffffff(prefetchable) memory:f8000000-f807ffff(prefetchable) memory:f8080000-f809ffff(prefetchable)
*-pci:1
description: Host bridge
product: K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
physical id: 101
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:2
description: Host bridge
product: K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
physical id: 102
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.1
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:3
description: Host bridge
product: K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
physical id: 103
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.2
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:4
description: Host bridge
product: K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
physical id: 104
bus info: pci@0000:00:18.3
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=k8temp
resources: irq:0
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:90:4b:5b:67:b2
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

[freeze10108]

We have somewhat similar laptops, though I'm not surprised because they're both HPs. I didn't really get this from reading through the reports, but it did occur to me when doing so.

If there's a GRUB menu when you boot up, press "e" on the line with Ubuntu on it. Then add "vesa" to the parameters (I add it after "splash"). Finally, press "Ctrl+X" and see if it boots. I just did it and I'm using Ubuntu to type this post, but I'm not sure if it's a fluke or not.

If there's no GRUB menu (the computer automatically tries booting into Ubuntu), hold "Shift" as you boot up the computer and the GRUB menu should come up. Then proceed as in above (from pressing "e").

If it does boot, don't install any additional hardware drivers if Ubuntu prompts you (I did and can't boot again). Please reboot and see if it works again by adding "vesa" to the parameters again.

BTW, good job on using the CODE tags! :)

[edgardol]

vesa option didn't help with my machine.
I tried twice, once selecting the regular (1st) boot option on the grub menu, then typing: e, adding: vesa (after: splash), and ctrl-x to reboot. I only get a black screen. This is probably a different problem that I'll have to deal with after getting pass the floppy problem.
The second time, in the grub menu, I scrolled down to the recovery option (2nd), and then hit: e. In this case, the linux line doesn't say: splash, but I still added: vesa, at the end of the linux line. Then I hit ctrl-x. It got stacked again at: floppy0: no floppy controllers found. :(

Thanks,
Edgardo.

[psusi]

Can you post more of the kernel output leading up to that? Even if it can't find the floppy it should continue to boot after that error. In the BIOS there should be a screen where you tell it what KIND of floppy you have ( 1.44 MB, 720k, etc ). It needs to be set to NONE.

[edgardol]

Hi psusi,

In the BIOS there isn't any screen telling what kind of floppy I have. The machine is a laptop and does not have any floppy. There are two screens mentioning "floppy". One is the boot order, where floppy is at the bottom after other three items, and where I tried leaving it alone and also disabling it. The second is the Device security screen, where it lists "Floppy Boot" and "CD-ROM boot", with options Enabled or Disabled. I tried both for floppy.

It does not continue to boot after the floppy line. These are the outputs leading to that floppy line:
Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom ... done.
done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... done.
[ 2.784161] firewire_core: created device fw0: GUID 463f0200463f0200, S400
[ 4.904048] floppy0: no floppy controllers found

[psusi]

Either you are missing the option or you have a broken bios that does not have the floppy setup option, but goes ahead and tells the OS you have one anyway even though you don't. That still shouldn't prevent you from booting.