11.04 won't boot on AMD 64-bit computer after installation

[vicfred7]

Installed 11.04 several ways on ACER AMD 64-bit Phenom II computer with Win 7, 1.5 TB HD, and 500 GB Sata removable but none would boot. LiveCD works fine with Unity desktop displayed.
Installed first using Wubi but would not boot. Then installed in 500 GB USB removable allowing entire disk to be used. Installation completed OK but would not boot. Created Super Grub2 disk and booted to it. It recognized Grub.cfg in removable but just got a black screen with blinking cursor in top lefthand corner when tried to boot Ubuntu.
Then I cloned this installation to the primary 1.5 TB HD in an ext4 logical partition. It was recognized by Super Grub2 but would not boot. I tried a fresh installation from the LiveCD with the removable turned off, hoping that the new ext4 partition would be seen, but such was not the case. All I got was the message (during installation attempt), "No root file system is defined". I used the AMD64 version of 11.04 since the computer was 64-bit. Can't think of anything else to try. Would appreciate any suggestions.

[oldfred]

Cursor in upper left corner may mean you have booted thru grub2, but have other issues with Ubuntu which are often video related recently. You can hold down shift key from BIOS boot until menu appears and try recovery mode.

Natty Video issues. MAFoElffen
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743535

How to set NOMODESET and other kernel boot options in grub2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

[vicfred7]

In one of your links I used the nomodeset option and was able to get the Ubuntu 11.04 on the USB removable drive to boot from the BIOS only. From the BIOS, I select the removable HD, and press Enter.
The boot takes 4 minutes and the Ubuntu comes up only in Classic mode. This surprises me since when booted on the TryIt LiveCD the mode is Unity desktop. I am also surprised that the boot takes so long since the computer has a fast 6-core processor.
1/ How do I get this installation to work from Grub2 menu at computer startup? Currently it goes directly to Win7 without any grub menu appearing. That's why I have to press F12 and go directly to BIOS to boot Ubuntu.
2/ How can I get the Unity desktop to appear in the new installation?

[wilee-nilee]

So two things would be helpful here I think first a identification of the video card run this in a terminal and post the card info.
lspci | grep VGA

Also from a booted live Ubuntu cd, thumbdrive, or Ubuntu installation lets see the bootscript read out; in my signature just click on it and follow the instructions. Come back to the thread and click on the (#) in the reply panel this makes code tags paste all the text in between.

This will at the least give us and oldfred, from whom I have learned a great deal I know from; a better shot I think.

[vicfred7]

Video card is
ATI Technologies Inc Juniper [Radeon HD 5750 Series]

[oldfred]

I have nVidia and do not know much about ATI. Lets get you booting first and then work on the other issues.

But if you want to boot the external your should install grub2's boot loader to the MBR of the external drive. Leave windows boot loader in the MBR of the internal. Grub's menu will let you choose windows or Ubuntu. Somehow you did not install grub to a MBR.

If you can boot into your system and 4 minutes is too long. If it is an external it may be sdb or something else so please check.

#reinstall from working (not liveCD) system - first find Ubuntu drive:
sudo fdisk -l
#if it's "/dev/sdb" then just run:
sudo grub-install /dev/sdb
#If that returns any errors run:
sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sdb
sudo update-grub
#to get grub to remember where to reinstall on updates:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
#Enter thru first pages,spacebar to choose/unchoose drive, enter to accept, do not choose partitions
#To see what drive grub2 uses see this line - grub-pc/install_devices:
sudo debconf-show grub-pc

Then change BIOS to boot external first. If external is not plugged in it will default to the internal and automatically boot windows.

You can try some other settings, either Radeon or Generic as generic is usually what liveCD defaults are. Edits on grub menu line are one time only, just to get you into system. Does it offer to install drivers or under system, administration, additional drivers is there a driver offered? With nVidia I just get a pop-up saying driver available. Others may know more about Radeon.

Some other settings:
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2010/05/06/ubuntu-10-04-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup-workaround/
* Older Intel video card: i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0
* nVidia: nomodeset
* Generic: xforcevesa or nouveau.modeset=0
* Radeon: radeon.modeset=0

[vicfred7]

Followed your instructions with no errors. Computer now boots to external drive USB:Samsung HD501I, Grub comes up and picks up vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic, and after about 4min blank screen, with blinking dash in top left hand corner, desktop appears. So far so good. Now ready to work on the ATI Radeon card issue.

[oldfred]

Again I only have worked with nVidia and after adding nomodeset on grub line on first boot, Ubuntu asked if I wanted the proprietary drive and it worked without issue. My laptop with older Intel just works.

Try either the Generic or the Radeon settings to see if that gets you into Ubuntu. At the grub menu press e to edit and replace the quiet & splash with one of the settings. Also since it will show the boot process line by line look to see if it is having trouble loading a driver, or why it is taking so long.
Some other settings:
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2010/05/06/ubuntu-10-04-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup-workaround/
* Older Intel video card: i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0
* nVidia: nomodeset
* Generic: xforcevesa or nouveau.modeset=0
* Radeon: radeon.modeset=0

[vicfred7]

Now I can boot in Ubuntu 11.04 and get Unity desktop. To get the Unity desktop instead of the Classic one, I went to Additional Drivers and noted that ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphic driver was available and so I pressed the Activate button and it download and installed this driver. On the reboot, the desktop appeared in Unity mode which is exactly what I wanted. I have two 24" monitors and when I was using the default graphic driver both were recognized. However with the FGLRX driver the monitors are not recognized when I try to configure and they remain mirrored, that is both the same. So this driver is not the right one for my graphic card, but it does do the job in giving me a Unity desktop.

Summary to make things work: 1/ In Bios set the Hard Disk Priority to USB:Samsung HD502I. 2/ Install Grub2 on HD502I per your instructions. 3/ Use FGLRX driver as noted above to get Unity desktop

I still have a 4-minute boot that I wish were less, but is this because 11.04 is on a USB removable drive and the slowup is due to the limitation of USB speed?

P.S. I did not find that it mattered in setting Grub code by replacing 'quiet splash' with nomodeset or xforcevisa or radeon.modeset=0. it made no change in the final result but did show the text during progress in bootup.

Thanks for all your help. I will consider the PROBLEM SOLVED (mark it that way for me since I don't know how to do it). However you might comment on the long bootup time.

[oldfred]

Four minutes is too long. Unless you somehow are connecting to a USB port that is USB 1.1 not 2.0? I have an install on a flash drive and it boots in about a minute which surprises me, as my desktop takes almost a minute. But the desktop is mounting a bunch of partitions several of which are NTFS which I understand adds to mount time.

You can watch the boot with the quiet & splash edited out or review that same data in your log files. System, Administration, Log File Viewer. I look for long times between an entry or repeated messages where it tries to load something then finally gives up and goes on. That help narrow down where to look.

[vicfred7]

In a series of repeat boots, I had one successful boot of 1min 21sec doing nothing special. However with 6 or 7 other boots the time was over 4 min and typically the extra delay was as here in the syslog:


May 13 03:39:19 vic-Aspire-M5400 kernel: Kernel logging (proc) stopped.
May 13 03:39:19 vic-Aspire-M5400 rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="4.6.4" x-pid="796" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] exiting on signal 15.
May 13 03:46:53 vic-Aspire-M5400 kernel: imklog 4.6.4, log source = /proc/kmsg started.

Another issue. When I boot the machine I don't see the Grub2 menu so what I do when screen goes blank (indicating failure), I immediately press Ctrl-Alt-Del to repeat the boot, and then the Grub2 menu appears and I can edit out Quiet Splash. After this I press Ctrl-X and the screen goes blank for more than a minute before any text appears on screen. When it finally does, I get on screen full of text ending with

[1.248868] Registered Protocol family 1
then after considerable wait many screens of text whiz by and the desktop appears.

I am not a regular user of Ubuntu and lack familiarity with routines and hope this is helpful info.
PS. I like the Unity desktop!

[oldfred]

Do not know enough to be a real help. Have you tried different USB ports. Some computers have the ones in the back at USB1 as mouse & keyboard do not need speed & front ports are 2.0?

Is there a difference between cold boot & warm boot. Sometimes devices do not seem to get registered correctly on the cold boot but work after warm boot (or vice versa).

[vicfred7]

The computer is a newly bought speedy AMD 64-bit 6-core one (Acer Aspire M5400) with 4-usb ports on the top front of the tower and 4-usb ports at the rear. I have tried both -- currently using a high speed one at the rear. Behaviour is the same using either. I have booted with soft & hard boots.

I have tried an installation of 11.04 Natty Narwhal Beta 32-bit on the primary drive in a virtual machine using free VirtualBox software. The boot there, if I recall correctly, was about 1min 21sec but only would give the Classic desktop and it had no option for an ATI Radeon video card which I use. It also lacked integration with Win7. The reason I'm trying a secondary USB drive is to gain integration and the new Unity desktop and have achieved both except for the slow boot issue.