12.04 try without installing freezes

[palloy]

I have a severely slow internet connection, so I downloaded lubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386.iso (it took 11 hours).
Burned it to CD and verified it OK.
Booted from the CD and got a Lubuntu menu.
Selected Try without installing.
After about a minute of loading, the dots stop changing and nothing happens.
Repeated many times.

Tried Install to hard drive - same thing.
Tried Check files for errors - OK.
Burned another DVD and started again - same thing.
Burned another DVD using a different DVD drive and started again - same thing.

Meanwhile Win 7 Ult(32) runs fine.
What next ?

BTW, I looked up the packages bundled in Lubuntu and there is all kinds of bloatware in there that I don't want - video, music, office-ware, games, programming languages. Is there a Lubuntu Very Lite ?

[MG&TL]

I'm afraid I can't help with your installation problems-but a list of hardware specs for those who can would be helpful. :)

On the bloatware front-I wouldn't have said they were bloat-they are useful applications (the full versions!) and they run fine. If you don't want them, you can remove them via the software centre. If you're really bothered about it, you can do a minimal install (bit scary though) and install lubuntu-core.

[palloy]

I have just tried it on my EEEPC netbook and it works, so I suspect a driver problem on the desktop machine.

Desktop Specs:
Mobo: ECS G41T-M x86
CPU: Pentium Dual Core E6300 2.8 GHz
Chipset: Intel 82801G (ICH7 family) G41 Express (including video)
RAM: 2 GB DDR2
Drives: OCZ 60 GB SSD, Samsung 500 GB SATA2, Seagate 2TB external via USB2
DVD-RW IDE, DVD-RW USB(SATA2)
Monitor: LG Flatron E2441, runs native 1920x1440 @60Hz, and VGA compatible
Network: Atheros L2 Ethernet 10/100, Atheros AR5005G Wireless (PCI card)

The netbook switches its video driver at more or less the point where the desktop freezes, but the menu screen came up OK, so there should be no reason for it not to be able to continue.

Is there any way to run it with verbose debugging ?

[dino99]

might help

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

[palloy]

Thanks.
Tried the boot line without the "quiet slash --" and got a log on the screen.
The last 2 lines are:

Loading the saved-state of the serial devices...
* Starting NTP server ntpd

With Netbook I checked with the router's Attached Devices and it wasn't seeing Desktop.
Shut down Desktop and removed the wireless PCI card, (I don't use it anyway and had it disabled in Win7) leaving only the ethernet connection.
Rebooted and it loaded to LXDE desktop OK :p

Installed to hard drive, but it didn't give me an option to choose which partition to use.
I think it said it chose Partition 9 on sdc.
On reboot without CD, it didn't do Grub, but the normal Win7 bootmgr, and since there was only one entry in that menu, it loaded Win7.
Win7 cannot see where Lubuntu is living.
The only drive with 9 partitions is the external USB drive, and that partition is too small.
Win7 sees partition 8 and 9 with file system "other".
The Win app Ext2explore can see it though - on /dev/sdc9
If Linux partitions are numbered from 5 for the logicals, that would make sense.
But where is Grub ? Is it on the USB drive's MBR ?

As far as my bloatware comments are concerned, it would seem Lubuntu decided to fill a CD rather than package a lite version. All those apps are only useful if you are going to use them. I only intend to use a web browser - Chrome if you must, but Firefox for preference, so how much stuff have I had to download (very slooooowly) and install, just to never use.

I need to get some sleep.
Thanks for the help.

[MG&TL]

As far as my bloatware comments are concerned, it would seem Lubuntu decided to fill a CD rather than package a lite version. All those apps are only useful if you are going to use them. I only intend to use a web browser - Chrome if you must, but Firefox for preference, so how much stuff have I had to download (very slooooowly) and install, just to never use.


We (I contribute to Lubuntu) have to go by the general population's wishes. Generally, people use most of the apps we provide, myself included. For your personal situation, I'd recommend a minimal install and then installing only lubuntu-core.

We haven't filled a CD, we've still got a lot of space left. :) And most people have reasonable internet these days, hence the increase in popularity of downloadable distributions.
But you are of course entitled to your opinion, I was just explaining so we didn't appear as stupid.

[palloy]

We haven't filled a CD, we've still got a lot of space left

Why is the .iso 688 MB then ?
The boot log mentioned finding 4 package lists. Would it be a simple job to do a stripped down version with just a File Manager and Software Centre ?
Or is that what Lubuntu-core is ?

Returning to the original problem, my router's DHCP server is set up to allocate the same local IPs to specific machines, and to allow no other machines. I think when both wireless and ethernet adapters are present, the second adapter is given an unusual IP that can't get thru the router's firewall. I'm guessing that's why NTP Server locked up and stopped the boot sequence. When the second adapter is removed, that fixes it. Is that a bug in Lubuntu install ?

[palloy]

I tried Lubuntu-core which gave me mini.iso 27 MB.
It gave me the option of which partition to use .
It did a lot of downloading as well (the updates ?)
After about 2 hours it got stuck on "Configuring apt - retrieving file 49 of 68".
Pressed Cancel, which took me to a list of installation processes it was going through.
I chose to continue with the next one "Writing Grub to MBR".
That refused to run.
I chose "don't write any boot-loader", and it finished soon after - about 3 hours altogether.

So now I have 2 Lubuntu installations and still no Grub on my SSD drive (first boot hard drive).

I never did understand Grub, but Grub4DOS scans for all types of OSs and allows you to amend the menu list and put it on whatever MBR you say. Do you think I could fix things this way ?

[MG&TL]

Why is the .iso 688 MB then ?
The boot log mentioned finding 4 package lists. Would it be a simple job to do a stripped down version with just a File Manager and Software Centre ?
Or is that what Lubuntu-core is ?

Returning to the original problem, my router's DHCP server is set up to allocate the same local IPs to specific machines, and to allow no other machines. I think when both wireless and ethernet adapters are present, the second adapter is given an unusual IP that can't get thru the router's firewall. I'm guessing that's why NTP Server locked up and stopped the boot sequence. When the second adapter is removed, that fixes it. Is that a bug in Lubuntu install ?

You can fit a lot of applications (compressed) in 22 MB. If you want to see what lubuntu-desktop and lubuntu-core installs, use:


apt-cache depends lubuntu-desktop


apt-cache depends lubuntu-core

I personally would use a live cd such as the one you already made, then follow this guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows