11.04 won't boot with 2.6.38-8-generic-pae kernel

[luvshines]

I have a T61P Thinkpad. After upgrading recently to 11.04, I am not able to boot into the pae kernel.
Choosing any previous kernel works, but then they recognize only 3GB RAM

I googled for this issue and came across this http://davidjb.com/blog/2011/05/ubuntu-11-04-boot-freezes-with-2-6-38-8-generic-pae-kernel
Tried installing/reinstalling all of them but no luck.

Any ideaz what else I can try ?

If I try to boot in recovery mode, I am not able to have a look at the last few messages that appear on the screen before everything goes black. Where can I collect all the logs from ?

Can it be an issue with Nvidia graphics card (01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G84M [Quadro FX 570M] (rev a1))

[Hedgehog1]

That link indicates that only a clean install of 11.04 will allow you to use the PAE kernel properly (the upgrade does not install it correctly).

If you have your data in a separate '/home' partition you can reinstall 11.04 over your defective 11.04 '/' partition and be sure to not format the '/home' partition:

First, define your '/' (root) partition:

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/7520/04allocdrivespace2.png

http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/9673/05allocdrivespace3.png

Then define your '/home' partition:

IF YOU ARE DOING AN UPGRADE OR REINSTALL, DO NOT FORMAT THIS PARTITION!

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/6828/07allocdrivespace5.png

This separates your documents and 'stuff' from the system files and 'stuff' in the '/' partition.

The Hedge

:KS

p.s. To learn how to move your '/home' into it's own partition: SeparateHomePartition (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome)

[luvshines]

I am actually planning to do a clean install and moving back to 10.10 since I am not liking 11.04 much and many of my applications have stopped working.

Just a question, with 10.10 I had only 2GB RAM on my system. After I upgraded to 11.04, I also added another 2GB RAM but since I was not able to boot into PAE kernel, it recognized only 3GB of RAM.

Now if I reinstall 10.10 back, will I be able to utilize 4GB RAM with 32 bit OS ?

I am not planning to install 64 bit OS since many of my office applications are not 64 bit compatible

[luvshines]

bump

[ajinkyaghorpade]

1. I've just upgraded my system to 11.04 and I'm also having problem with booting the system. The system startup gets stuck in the middle of booting process with last error message being about vtun.
Any help to get it running is appreciated.

2. I had previous versions of ubuntu there too the total ram was displayed to be 3GB when infact I had 4GB.

[ajinkyaghorpade]

I got it working.
I started with 2.6.38-8-generic (non pae) , then installed 2.6.38-8-generic-pae using apt-get. Then again started the system with new install and there she goes smooth as butter. :)
Here is how to install the pae kernel image
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic-pae

I hope it helps.

Oh yes, and the ram is displayed as 3.9GB now.

[luvshines]

Could not get it working :(
Anyways, since upgrade to 11.04 broke many of my applications, I shifted back to 10.10 and an active network connection during installation automatically install PAE kernel.
Closing this as SOLVED