11.04 upgrade from 10.10 hangs at boot

[tazzik]

Hi,

I was running 10.10 until this morning when I upgraded to 11.04.

{Some minor grub complaints in the install but mainly due to me having customised the entries.}

I rebooted and went to the new installation, it goes purple and says Ubuntu 11.04 with dots going across, then it hangs and goes to the background text and the last thing it says is "Checking Battery State ................ [OK].

I'm on a desktop, so I'm sure the battery thing isn't an issue, it's probably something before or the next command that freezes it.

I booted into recovery mode repaired grub (no change) then went into failsafe graphics mode and it worked ok.

My guess is that because failsafe graphics was ok, it might be to do with the graphics driver (ATI HD6970 fglrx driver) but I've no idea.

Can anybody help me???

[markhorrocks]

I ma in the middle of fixing this same bug. It seems to be the proprietary ATI driver. Check these

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1701730

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver#Problem:%20%20Need% 20to%20fully%20remove%20-fglrx%20and%20reinstall%20-ati%20from%20scratch

[WinRiddance]

Yeah, that's yet another issue that I experienced with 11.04 too. Without the proprietary driver the system worked fine, but no 3D at all. As soon as I installed the new ATI proprietary drivers I began seeing problems on the screen. The settings that I applied had to be changed after every reboot too, because they wouldn't remain saved. I have never seen a fraction of similar Nvidea problems as I have seen with ATI drivers.

My suggestion ... Live without 3D or revert back to 10.10 with a clean install.
Sure, you can work with it, but either of those two suggestions are a quick fix.
Good luck.

[Tedzdog]

OMG i have the exact same problem, just upgraded from 10.10 to 11.04, reboot but it hangs at
"Checking Battery State ................ [OK]."

My graphics card is a nVIDIA geforce not ATI. I dont know what drivers im using. I never messed arround with my graphics drivers.

Oh and im using ubuntu inside Oracle VM VirtualBox, though i hope this should not make any difference.

[multisystem]

Exactly the same problem, except that this is happening while booting from live cd.

[t2kburl]

similar problem here. I'm using kubuntu. It gets all the way to the desktop ... sound plays ... then it hangs. I think that is when fglrx settings kick in (?). Will try failsafe graphics when I get home.

[charlescva]

Same here... did an upgrade from 10.10... freezes @ checking battery... but am able to switch tty console and login...donno what to do from there... dell latitude e6500. And ubuntu rocks.

Also using nVidia

[The Altruist]

I'm having the same issue using an nVidia. I recompiled my drivers for my kernel. That works fine now. However, I still hang at the Ubuntu screen with the dots. What logs can I check in recovery mode to find out where my system is hanging?

[vks_foe]

I'm having the same issue using an nVidia. I recompiled my drivers for my kernel. That works fine now. However, I still hang at the Ubuntu screen with the dots. What logs can I check in recovery mode to find out where my system is hanging?

it seems to be a prb with graphics driver.

press ctrl+alt+f1 to get a terminal
login as root

try following commands :
"/etc/init.d/gdm restart"

or
"/etc/init.d/kdm restart"

follow what pops up...
this worked for me... no additional effects are avilable now...

[charlescva]

Unfortunately for me, service gdm restart is not working entirely.

I hold Alt + Ctrl + F1 to get to tty1.

after logging in w/ my username and password, i executed,

sudo service gdm restart

I see that it is restarting the gdm, and it gives me a spawned process ID. However nothing else happens. When i switch back to tty7 (Ctrl + Alt + F7), it is still stuck at Checking Battery State... screen...

Anything else I can try? Ive been using ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop for almost a year now and really have a lot of settings and configuration i would like to keep.

Is it possible to restore the system to a point prior to the upgrade?

Thanks,
Charles

[MarkDTS]

I'm hoping to help with this issue.

I was stuck at the same "Checking battery state... [OK]" and decided to do a little research at AMD's site after finding this thread.

It seems that ATI has the driver for Natty directly linked from their wiki page. I took the time to install the new driver and was up and running after a slightly longer than normal reboot.

I hope you guys are able to resolve your issue as quickly as I was good luck!



http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Natty_Installation_Guide

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-11-4-x86.x86_64.run

[maverick280857]

The upgrade may work for some people, but after struggling for over 2 days and trying almost every set of commands that people have suggested to fix things, I think the best is to back up your data using the Live CD and just do a clean install!

[rlees42]

Mythbuntu 11.04 install clean with nvidia card and I have the same problem freezing after battery test. Repeat: NOT upgrade, I think that's a red herring. Tried to install without proprietary video and came back after a 10 minute break to a flashing cursor that I couldn't get out of.

I'll try harder tomorrow - it's too late now - but epic fail for me so far.

[peter.stonecat]

Having same problem since upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 (albeit inside VirtualBox). Hang on boot, stops at check battery state. Seem to have solved it now:

-boot into Grub menu (hold shift on boot)
-choose Ubuntu, with Linux....(recovery mode)
-at 'Recovery Menu' choose 'failsafeX....graphics mode' startup, then say yes to running in low-res graphics mode
-now you have menu called "What would you like to do?"
-choose reconfigure graphics
-then choose restartX and then reboot machine from desktop

This seems to be a graphics issue overall since I can run the desktop in low-res mode.

[varunendra]

For those using Virtual Machines -

Any OS running in a virtual machine sees only the 'virtualized' hardware, not the actual one. So what graphics card (or whatever hardware for that matter) you are using does not matter as long as the 'host' OS is capable to use them properly.

However, after upgrading or making a fresh install inside VirtualBox, you'll need to install/reinstall the compatible virtualbox 'guest additions' inside the guest OS to make it able to use the virtualized hardware properly. Guest additions are just the drivers for the virtual hardware, customized for different OS (if supported).

In VMware, the same thing is called "VMware tools".

Since Natty is rather new, I doubt if stable guest-additions have been released for it yet. But I haven't checked it myself.

Hope it helps eliminating some confusion..

[elisimmer]

I to am experiencing this same problem and have not found any solutions thus far.

-Computer boots
-Get into GRUB, it works fine and I select Ubuntu.
-I get the Ubuntu loading screen with the logo and dots under it, but the dots are not moving
-I have let it sit for a very long time but nothing happens.
-I press the power button, and then the dots DO move and the computer shuts down normally.

Does anybody know of this problem being solved?

[arluijen]

exact same problem as Elislimmer with me too...

[elisimmer]

I solved it. Well at least for me. Here's what I did:
-Boot into safe mode with low graphics or whatever it is called.
-Installed nvidia drivers from the drivers menu in the system settings.
Then I rebooted and no more problems.

[OpenMouth_os]

Had the same freeze issue with a thinkpad w520 and fresh install of 11.04
system would freeze on boot or login on battery.
i noticed that the errors occurred when i disabled nvidia optimus in bios. optimus is a mode for newer thinkpads to support 2 graphics cards at once - discrete and integrated graphics.

seems like that with nivida optimus enabled, things work fine.
im also running the nvidia experimental drivers.

[thorstenmz]

I had exactly the same problem (Natty hangs at boot-time after "Checking Battery State"). It seems to be gone since I made the following change. I'm using the proprietary Nvidia driver. In "System Configuration" → "Additional Drivers" I switched from "Version current (recommended)" to "Version 173".

I hope that this has finally solved the problem for me. Please report your experiences.

[neptun23]

had the same issue, hang after battery state.
Installed the ATI driver again (from the link in this thread - thanks!).
Now working again like a charm - thanks!
At least for me, this one is solved definitely, and it looks like a display driver issue.

[alexgenaud]

I have three machines. Two of them seem to have this issue (I'm afraid to restart this one I'm typing on after an update).

* My Lenovo X200 (ATI) had a clean 11.04 install and is running classic (not Unity) and works

* Old Compaq Evo desktop (Nvidia) had a clean 11.04 install and after basic installations, froze. Reinstalled (11.04 on top of 11.04 keeping user data) and seems to work now (for 24 hours).

* HP Pavilion laptop (not sure about video) has a clean install of 11.04 (keeping old /home partition). Worked for a while, hanging right now on startup after VirtualBox froze/force close.

On each new installation, I ran the following (with intermittent restarts):

sudo apt-get install git gimp stellarium gnupg ubuntu-restricted-extras vlc audacity gparted

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0

[bleedingpowers]

I have the same problem...with an ATI card (using the Ubuntu open-source drivers).

I realized that the radeon module wasn't getting loaded...so I forced it to load by adding radeon to the /etc/modules file...

I stopped noticing the hung situation, so I'm assuming this fixed my problem.

[kristo5747]

Having same problem since upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 (albeit inside VirtualBox). Hang on boot, stops at check battery state. Seem to have solved it now:

-boot into Grub menu (hold shift on boot)
-choose Ubuntu, with Linux....(recovery mode)
-at 'Recovery Menu' choose 'failsafeX....graphics mode' startup, then say yes to running in low-res graphics mode
-now you have menu called "What would you like to do?"
-choose reconfigure graphics
-then choose restartX and then reboot machine from desktop

This seems to be a graphics issue overall since I can run the desktop in low-res mode.

Did exactly that. Went in low-res too. Once I logged in, installed nvidia driver 11.x and rebooted.

My config is: Dell Precision T3400 / HP L1950g

I am back in business.

[guilhermemtr]

same problem.
toshiba satellite l650-11f
ati radeon graphics

[deepaksharma]

Having same problem since upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 (albeit inside VirtualBox). Hang on boot, stops at check battery state. Seem to have solved it now:

-boot into Grub menu (hold shift on boot)
-choose Ubuntu, with Linux....(recovery mode)
-at 'Recovery Menu' choose 'failsafeX....graphics mode' startup, then say yes to running in low-res graphics mode
-now you have menu called "What would you like to do?"
-choose reconfigure graphics
-then choose restartX and then reboot machine from desktop

This seems to be a graphics issue overall since I can run the desktop in low-res mode.

thanks it worked for me.. saved my life ;)
:popcorn:):P

[why789]

I had exactly the same problem (Natty hangs at boot-time after "Checking Battery State"). It seems to be gone since I made the following change. I'm using the proprietary Nvidia driver. In "System Configuration" → "Additional Drivers" I switched from "Version current (recommended)" to "Version 173".

I hope that this has finally solved the problem for me. Please report your experiences.
before, I was using the "Recommended" nVidia driver for my GeForce 9600 GT. Got this problem after a reboot (my computer was working fine before for about a month) did the above fix and worked like a charm (so far...)

my ubuntu is a fresh install from windows (bye windows.. on the most part :D)

good luck all!
why789

[jeffsf]

This continues to be a problem with a clean install of 11.10 on a Dell e6500.

Initial resolution seems to be dropping to a root shell on boot and uninstalling the nvidia-173 package.

[phord2]

I was having this problem on a new W520 with 11.10 64-bit and "discrete mode" "optimus disabled". I finally managed to get around it by adding "noapic" to the end of the "linux" boot console line in grub.

Not sure if this is a permanent solution or not, but it's working so far.

Phil

[jimmydean886-2]

To all who wish this problem to go away:

The FGLRX drivers quite frankly suck. I myself have a laptop with an AMD processor and integrated graphics. When I started it from a liveCD, it was impressive on graphics. Later, I decided to try the proprietary drivers, as Compiz required these on my old '98 refurb compaq desktop to work. As soon as I restarted the computer, the graphics looked amazingly DISAPPOINTING. They hardly seemed fast, let alone the simply amazing that I had at first, and have now after a reinstall.

I first had the problem in 10.10 when I got my laptop early 2011. It persisted all the way up to 11.10, which is what I run now.

Now, as so far as a login screen hang, this can be solved by switching to a display manager called 'lightdm' that is the default in 11.10. It is not only faster, but it is slightly more compatible with graphics drivers like FGLRX.

An upgrade to 11.10 WILL solve the problem.

One thing to watch before upgrading:
make sure you're not too attached to GNOME 2. There are some slight changes in GNOME 3. To revert back, you need to find a way to install something called "MATE" which is a continuation of GNOME 2, complete with the settings panel, appearence prefs, everything. Before you install that, keep in mind that it will BREAK GNOME 3. The easiest way I found of getting it was adding the LinuxMint repos to my ubuntu machine.