Ubuntu 11.04 does not boot after install

[akhtar1817]

Hi guys

Iv just installed ubuntu 11.04 and the installation went ok. The computer is dual booted with windows 7. When booting up I get the boot loader and can select ubuntu, ubuntu recovery and windows 7. Windows 7 appears to be booting ok, when choosing either of the ubuntu options. a blank purple screen is displayed for roughly 10 seconds which then changes to a black screen with a flashing cursor, the computer then reboots after a few seconds.

I have downloaded boot_info_script.sh which returns the following:



Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
for (,msdos5)/boot/grub on this drive.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files: /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 11.04
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320071851520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625140335 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 * 2,048 206,847 204,800 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 206,848 520,278,015 520,071,168 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 520,280,062 625,139,711 104,859,650 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 520,280,064 616,755,199 96,475,136 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 616,757,248 625,139,711 8,382,464 82 Linux swap / Solaris


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 3E4C2B374C2AE8FB ntfs System Reserved
/dev/sda2 18862E55862E33A2 ntfs
/dev/sda5 01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21 ext4
/dev/sda6 f4911ba0-94ae-4fac-aaee-079ba85cf138 swap

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)


=========================== sda5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
set have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en_GB
insmod gettext
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
if background_color 44,0,30; then
clear
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
if [ ${recordfail} != 1 ]; then
if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then
if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then
if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then
set linux_gfx_mode=keep
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=keep
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
export linux_gfx_mode
if [ "$linux_gfx_mode" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" --class windows --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 3E4C2B374C2AE8FB
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=01ed6779-1bbe-4434-b056-471edb4e2a21 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=f4911ba0-94ae-4fac-aaee-079ba85cf138 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

252.337268829 = 270.945079296 boot/grub/core.img 1
256.395500183 = 275.302572032 boot/grub/grub.cfg 1
249.272552490 = 267.654365184 boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae 2
248.765075684 = 267.109466112 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae 1
249.272552490 = 267.654365184 initrd.img 2
248.765075684 = 267.109466112 vmlinuz 1

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================

Unknown BootLoader on sda3

00000000 9b 84 29 23 00 00 00 00 9b 84 29 23 00 00 00 00 |..)#......)#....|
00000010 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 |............@...|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 00 06 00 28 00 58 00 |............(.X.|
00000030 80 00 00 00 18 00 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 02 00 |................|
00000040 0c 44 00 00 00 00 00 00 22 7a ec 00 00 00 00 00 |.D......"z......|
00000050 90 00 00 00 58 00 00 00 00 04 18 00 00 00 05 00 |....X...........|
00000060 38 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 24 00 49 00 33 00 30 00 |8... ...$.I.3.0.|
00000070 30 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 01 00 00 00 |0...............|
00000080 10 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 |....(...(.......|
00000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 18 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 |................|
000000a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 15 85 29 23 00 00 00 00 |..........)#....|
000000b0 ff 84 29 23 00 00 00 00 ff 84 29 23 00 00 00 00 |..)#......)#....|
000000c0 98 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 |............@...|
000000d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0e 00 0f 00 28 00 70 00 |............(.p.|
000000e0 98 00 00 00 54 18 01 00 00 00 b8 02 00 00 08 00 |....T...........|
000000f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 63 12 2e 00 00 00 00 00 |........c.......|
00000100 37 10 01 00 00 00 01 00 70 00 5c 00 00 00 00 00 |7.......p.\.....|
00000110 30 10 01 00 00 00 01 00 f6 43 af 59 3b 71 ca 01 |0........C.Y;q..|
00000120 f6 43 af 59 3b 71 ca 01 f6 43 af 59 3b 71 ca 01 |.C.Y;q...C.Y;q..|
00000130 f6 43 af 59 3b 71 ca 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.C.Y;q..........|
00000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |........ .......|
00000150 0d 01 6c 00 69 00 62 00 6c 00 64 00 61 00 70 00 |..l.i.b.l.d.a.p.|
00000160 5f 00 72 00 2e 00 64 00 6c 00 6c 00 00 00 00 00 |_.r...d.l.l.....|
00000170 2e 85 29 23 00 00 00 00 15 85 29 23 00 00 00 00 |..)#......)#....|
00000180 15 85 29 23 00 00 00 00 98 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |..)#............|
00000190 01 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |....@...........|
000001a0 0e 00 0f 00 28 00 70 00 98 00 00 00 54 18 01 00 |....(.p.....T...|
000001b0 00 00 28 03 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 fe |..(.............|
000001c0 ff ff 83 fe ff ff 02 00 00 00 00 18 c0 05 00 fe |................|
000001d0 ff ff 05 fe ff ff 02 18 c0 05 00 f0 7f 00 00 00 |................|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200


=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

unlzma: Decoder error



I am currently running of the live cd, any help would be greatly appreciated.

On a side note, I first tried running wubi which installed ok but when rebooting it did exactly the same.

[oldfred]

Boot script looks normal which I would expect since you can get to the grub menu and to boot windows.

The issue is then in booting Ubuntu and one of the main issues is related to video. What video card do you have?

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
I had to do this with my Nvidia 9600GT:
To install Ubuntu, boot from the cd press any key at accessibility circle and keyboard, press F6 and then select the nomodeset option.
USB boot - At the menu press tab on the first option to edit the boot options and replaced the 'splash' option with 'nomodeset'.
then
On first boot after install, press e on getting the GRUB bootloader.
Hold shift from BIOS boot to get menu if only one system installed.
Using arrow keys navigate to and delete quiet and splash and type the word nomodeset in their place
Press Ctrl and X to boot (low graphics mode)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/661939/comments/18

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

[akhtar1817]

hi thanks for the update, I tried added nomodeset to the boot menu which worked the first time, I rdid some system updates, rebooted, tried the same thing which failes to work. The boot sequence i the same as before

My graphics card is a ATI Radeon HD 3800 series if that helps.

[oldfred]

Do not know about ATI as I have nVidia.

Did you try the other settings for either generic or Radion?

[akhtar1817]

hi, i tried all of the options above, all seem to fail. strange that nomodeset worked once and then failed after updates

any other suggestions?

edit: the ubuntu recovery mode also fails to boot

tried i915.modeset=0 which worked, rebooted to test and make sure the fix works and it failed again.

[akhtar1817]

fingers crossed, it may be fixed, If I let the system auto start, in the sense that I dont press enter when ubuntu xxx is highlighted in grub, it starts perfectly each time.

There is a 10 second delay from when I see the boot options until the option is auto selected, services running in the background perhaps?


edit: still failing, very strange, completely random, it makes no sense. I have installed ubuntu 9 on this machine in the past which has worked fine so I'm surprised the video card is causing so many issues this time around

when it does get to the login screen during this auto selection process, the keyboard does not respond lol, great

[oldfred]

If you are just setting it as part of the grub editing it is a one time change. If you need the setting all the time (which I do not know if your Video card needs or not) you have to change permanent settings.

Did you go thru the process posted in my first link above?
Natty Video issues. MAFoElffen

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Then after making changes:
sudo update-grub

[Dscottmc7]

I've been fighting the same problem. Changed "quiet splash" to "nomodeset" and Crtl+X. Booted to command line for the first time, two problems:
1. FATAL: "Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.38-9-generic/modules.dep: No such file...
2. Could not load the binfmt_misc module.
I'm on my HP-AMD64 dual boot right now. My machine that is stuck is an HP Pavilion, M7674n, Intel Dual Core(x2) 4Gb.Ram,2-ATA 200Gb. HDD and 2Tb.external via USB2.
Any ideas? Thanks guys!
(I hate to admit that I started this project 3 full days ago!!...I've been running 11.04 without a hitch from the first beta.) Something's goofy!
Thanks,
Scott

[Dscottmc7]

If it helps (biggest thing!) I have a Nvidia GeForce 7300le card. I said it boots to a command line. Not true. I go through all of the attempts and then it hangs after failing to load binfmt_misc module.

It hangs just after "* Enabling additional executable binary formats binfmt-support [OK]"

I think I've 'over-tinkered' with xorg.conf, xorg.conf.d. If I can get to the actual command line I'll post them.

[akhtar1817]

tried various settings in the following article

Natty Video issues. MAFoElffen

edited: gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Then after making changes:
sudo update-grub

its just so random, sometimes it will boot, most of the time, i would say 8/10 it stuck in a bootloop.

[Dscottmc7]

I appreciate the reply. I hate to say it, but it IS random! I've gone so far as to manually rewrite /etc/X11/xorg.conf AND /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/xorg.conf with a little bit of forward movement.

The manual says that the /usr/.../xorg.conf is queried first, then /etc/X11/xorg.conf. OK, got those right. Then sudo update-grub...then sudo apt-get update
Then sudo reboot (when I've never got 'X' started!)
It seems that no matter what I do I get a "No Usable Screens" error...fatal.
I've tried sudo nvidia-xconfig...screen error and missing elements.
I've pulled hardware info from sudo hwinfo --framebuffer and for the monitor, sudo hwinfo --monitor.
I started over, studied up on "xdm" display manager for two hours only to find out I'm using "xsm" ...

Sorry to be so verbose, but here is what happens with what options...maybe someone can help:
1. reboot Default is 2.6.38-9-generic but when I let it default (15 seconds or so with no action, or Select), the screen simply freezes at "init ramdisk"
2. reboot (Ctrl-Alt-Del) Hold down "Shift" key to make sure I load Grub. Elect the recovery mode. "Try to make space" then Update, then update grub...only way to get to a command line is to drop to shell w/ networking.
3. I check /usr/log/Xorg.0.log (I think that's the path), and it says I have no valid Screen. or "Error in line 7 of "ServerLayout" screen error."
Maybe someone can critique this: I wrote:
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout0”
Screen 0 “Screen0”
InputDevice “Keyboard0”
InputDevice “Mouse0”
EndSection

The "Screen" calls on the Monitor specs merged with the graphics card specs and all of the rest is OK. It has to be in the "Screen" line above...maybe I've been too many days concentrating on it. I must have goofed...tomorrow I'll recheck.
BTW, I'm on my main system right now. The machine in trouble is HP Pavilion m7654n Intel Dual Core (x2) 64bit, 4Gb.RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE (rev a1) card, 200Gb..Sda, 200Gb Sdb(internal HDDs, IDE controlled ATAs) and 2Tb.External USB HDD. Boot is sda1 (/boot/grub)
Very grateful for everyone and this incredible community. Been exclusive Ubuntu since 2005 and have a monster new machine with dual boot (mostly for iTunes/Apple TV).
Oops, getting real putty headed...think I'll head to the arms of Morpheus. See ya all tomorrow...Thank You!
Scotthttp://ubuntuforums.org/images/smilies/eusa_boohoo.gif

[akhtar1817]

just out of curiosity, are you trying the 64 bit or 32 bit version of ubuntu?

my issues is still the same, very random, very strange, I might try ubuntu 10 and see if that makes any difference, must say, its little niggly issues like this that almost puts me of linux, :(

[Dscottmc7]

Hey man, I did it!!! Guess I can mark this SOLVED.
I'm running HP Intel Dual Core x2 -64 with nearly all apps (and OS) -86.

I still have to find out how my files are screwed up. Here's what I did:
I would do an install from the live CD of 11.04 "upgrading 11.04" option. Did that 3 different times...didn't matter...froze on reboot.

BUT when either the boot loader (Grub2) froze its lil' purple screen OR I was able to boot to a "Previous Linux Version" (and then to the recovery mode of that -2.6.38-8-generic) ...ultimately I ended up frozen. I would continually have to hard boot (Crtl+Alt+Del) which slowly but surely destroys a bit more code each time!! BTW, when I let GRUB alone the purple screen gig required the power off! If I held "Shift" I could to to that lessor Linux and ultimately crash but to a valid command line.

I did whatever I could to get to a command line, (Hold "Shift" key through BIOS boot to force Grub loading, then selected the "Previous Linux Versions again. I cleared out my xorg.conf file AND the xorg.conf.d directory contents ("0" so the system goes to the defaults) and reboot. Different (random) error outcome each time, but going to /var/log and reviewing the previous boot log (sudo nano /var/log/Xorg.0.log file) I cleaned up one thing at a time, reboot, etc. BUT...I got to my wit's end and finally got to only ONE error in the log file, that was "Failure to Load Nvidia Kernel" That was the FIRST time I got that (this year).
Each time before reboot I would sudo apt-get update and update-grub, (just covering the bases).

I searched everywhere I could because loading Nvidia didn't seem like the direct answer. Most concluded that Nvidia had a bug with Natty. I found it: Daniel Zappala in Launchpad wrote, "I did it!"
sudo apt-get install --reinstall 2.6.38-8 Linux Headers
sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-current
BINGO! It cleaned up the whole mess. I updated ppa's and grub then hesitantly typed "Start gdm" and that got me the X "factor" and I was up. FYI even though the boot script calls for gdm default display manager, at different times it would load xdm...errors.

Hope this helps. Thanks to all of you!!!
Scott http://ubuntuforums.org/images/smilies/smiley-faces-80.gif