Forcepae: Unable to boot live or install from 14.04 - blank screen

[megsona]

I have an old Toshiba R100 (non-PAE Pentium M) which has been running 12.04 happily. When I read 14.04 now included the forcepae fix as a boot option I burnt a Lubuntu DVD and gave it a go.

I'm adding the forcepae option and getting the 'warning: forcing pae in cpu' message as you'd expect so I think that's all fine. I then get the Lubuntu 14.04 blue loading screen with dots below followed by two messages,

"starting lightdm display manager"
"stopping send an event to indicate plymouth is up".

Then the screen goes blank and I can hear the dvd drive spin down, additionally ctrl+alt+f1 doesn't give me a tty terminal. I have to power off with the button.

I've tried Xubuntu and Ubuntu as well, Xubuntu does the same, ends with a freeze on a blank screen. Ubuntu gives me the 'running in low graphics mode' dialog, none of the options get me any further though (either another blank freeze or returned to that dialog).

Be glad of any advice,

Thanks.

Here's my lshw output for starters,


computer
description: Notebook
version: PPR10E-04M8Z-EN
width: 32 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3
configuration: administrator_password=disabled boot=normal chassis=notebook frontpanel_password=disabled keyboard_password=disabled power-on_password=disabled uuid=[REMOVED]
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: Portable PC
vendor: TOSHIBA
physical id: 0
version: Version A0
serial: [REMOVED]
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: TOSHIBA
physical id: 0
version: Version 1.60
date: 05/17/2005
size: 128KiB
capacity: 448KiB
capabilities: isa pci pcmcia pnp apm upgrade shadowing vesa cdboot bootselect pcmciaboot edd int13floppytoshiba int13floppy720 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb agp biosbootspecification netboot
*-cpu:0 DISABLED
description: CPU [empty]
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 4
slot: uFC-PGA Socket
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 12
slot: CPU Internal
size: 64KiB
capacity: 64KiB
clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
capabilities: internal write-back unified
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 13
slot: CPU Internal
size: 1MiB
capacity: 1MiB
clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
capabilities: internal write-back unified
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 81
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 1280MiB
capacity: 1280MiB
*-bank:0
description: Project-Id-Version: lshwReport-Msgid-Bugs-To: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>POT-Creation-Date: 2009-10-08 14:02+0200PO-Revision-Date: 2012-02-05 00:26+0000Last-Translator: Andi Chandler <Unknown>Language-Team: English (United Kingdom) <en_GB@li.org>MIME-Version: 1.0Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bitX-Launchpad-Export-Date: 2014-01-06 21:08+0000X-Generator: Launchpad (build 16877) SDRAM Synchronous
physical id: 0
slot: System 0
size: 256MiB
width: 64 bits
*-bank:1
description: SODIMM SDRAM Synchronous
physical id: 1
slot: DIMM 1
size: 1GiB
width: 64 bits
*-cpu:1
product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1000MHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 1
bus info: cpu@0
version: 6.9.5
size: 1GHz
capacity: 1GHz
width: 32 bits
capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm pbe up bts est tm2 cpufreq
*-pci
description: Host bridge
product: 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-intel
resources: irq:0 memory:c0000000-cfffffff
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master
resources: memory:dff00000-f7ffffff memory:50000000-500fffff
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: CyberBlade XP4m32
vendor: Trident Microsystems
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 91
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: agp agp-2.0 pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=8
resources: memory:f0000000-f7ffffff memory:efc00000-efffffff memory:e0000000-e7ffffff memory:dfff8000-dfffffff memory:50000000-5003ffff
*-usb:0
description: USB controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:11 ioport:efe0(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:11 ioport:ef80(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB controller
product: 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:11 memory:50100000-501003ff
*-pci:1
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1e
bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
version: 83
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master
resources: ioport:c000(size=4096) memory:dfd00000-dfdfffff memory:54000000-57ffffff
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@0000:02:08.0
logical name: eth0
version: 83
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 10Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e100 driverversion=3.5.24-k2-NAPI duplex=half firmware=N/A latency=64 link=no maxlatency=56 mingnt=8 multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
resources: irq:11 memory:dfdff000-dfdfffff ioport:cf40(size=64)
*-network:1
description: Wireless interface
product: PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:02:0a.0
logical name: eth1
version: 04
serial: [REMOVED]
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ipw2100 driverversion=git-1.2.2 firmware=712.0.3:3:00000001 ip=[REMOVED] latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=34 mingnt=2 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b
resources: irq:11 memory:dfdfe000-dfdfefff
*-pcmcia
description: CardBus bridge
product: ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support
vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems
physical id: b
bus info: pci@0000:02:0b.0
version: 33
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pcmcia bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=yenta_cardbus latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=128
resources: irq:11 memory:58000000-58000fff ioport:c400(size=256) ioport:c000(size=256) memory:54000000-57ffffff memory:5c000000-5fffffff
*-generic UNCLAIMED
description: System peripheral
product: SD TypA Controller
vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems
physical id: d
bus info: pci@0000:02:0d.0
version: 05
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:dfd00000-dfd001ff
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-ide
description: IDE interface
product: 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.1
logical name: scsi0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide bus_master emulated
configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
resources: irq:11 ioport:1f0(size=8) ioport:3f6 ioport:170(size=8) ioport:376 ioport:bfa0(size=16) memory:50100400-501007ff
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: KingSpec KSD-CF1
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 2012
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 29GiB (31GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=000502e5
*-volume:0
description: EXT4 volume
vendor: Linux
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
logical name: /
version: 1.0
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 28GiB
capacity: 28GiB
capabilities: primary bootable journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized
configuration: created=2014-04-02 19:00:01 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/ modified=2014-04-02 19:13:49 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered mounted=2014-04-21 23:46:39 state=mounted
*-volume:1
description: Extended partition
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
size: 1277MiB
capacity: 1277MiB
capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
*-logicalvolume
description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
physical id: 5
logical name: /dev/sda5
capacity: 1277MiB
capabilities: nofs
*-multimedia
description: Multimedia audio controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.5
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=snd_intel8x0 latency=0
resources: irq:11 ioport:1000(size=256) ioport:1880(size=64) memory:50100800-501009ff memory:50100a00-50100aff
*-communication
description: Modem
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.6
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm generic bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=snd_intel8x0m latency=0
resources: irq:11 ioport:1400(size=256) ioport:1800(size=128)
*-scsi:0
physical id: 2
bus info: usb@1:2
logical name: scsi2
capabilities: emulated scsi-host
configuration: driver=usb-storage
*-cdrom
description: DVD-RAM writer
product: DVD+-RW GH50N
vendor: HL-DT-ST
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/cdrw
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/dvdrw
logical name: /dev/sr0
logical name: /media/Lubuntu 14.04 LTS i386
version: B104
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
configuration: mount.fstype=iso9660 mount.options=ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gi d=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500 state=mounted status=ready
*-medium
physical id: 0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /media/Lubuntu 14.04 LTS i386
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: mount.fstype=iso9660 mount.options=ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gi d=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500 signature=0e838d4d state=mounted
*-volume UNCLAIMED
description: Hidden HPFS/NTFS partition
physical id: 1
capacity: 682MiB
capabilities: primary bootable hidden
*-scsi:1
physical id: 3
logical name: scsi3
capabilities: emulated
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: SanDisk SDP3B-12
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
version: Vdg
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 1221MiB (1280MB)
capabilities: removable
configuration: ansiversion=5
*-medium
physical id: 0
logical name: /dev/sdb
size: 1221MiB (1280MB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: signature=000b8fa4
*-volume
description: Windows FAT volume
vendor: mkdosfs
physical id: 1
logical name: /dev/sdb1
version: FAT32
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 1214MiB
capacity: 1214MiB
capabilities: primary fat initialized
configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat
*-battery
description: Lithium-Polymer Battery
product: L6113A
vendor: TOSHIBA
physical id: 1
version: 09/04/03
serial: [REMOVED]
slot: 1st Battery
configuration: voltage=10.8V

[mörgæs]

Have you tried the same option for the alternate ISO (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Alternate_ISO)?

By the way, Lubuntu fits to a CD. There's no need for a DVD.

[megsona]

Hi thanks for the reply, yes, I tried the lubuntu alternate iso while it was still in beta 2 (not since). As I recall I could go through the text-based setup ok but I never got to a desktop. After the 'Lubuntu 14.04' splash screen with activity indicator dots below I got the blank screen freeze.

I'm all out of CD's at the moment, DVD-RW's I've got plenty...

[kalehrl]

AFAIK, force pae is intended for processors which do have pae capability but do not advertise it in the cpu flags.
Are you sure your processor supports pae?
You've got plenty of RAM for the installation so that's not the cause of your problems.

[megsona]

hi kalehrl, that seems like a possibility. It seems difficult to determine if that is the case though. Obviously if a cpu reports the pae flag then that's fine, but of the ones that don't how can we know if they really do but just aren't saying?

Is there some test I can do beyond just checking for the flag in cpuinfo?

[kalehrl]

Check this out:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu-fake-PAE#Test
There was also a mention of non-pae kernel build on Lubuntu mailing list but I don't know how far that has gone.

[mörgæs]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2216356

Until that the easiest solution is probably LXLE or Bodhi Linux.

[megsona]

Thanks for the links and advice, I'll follow those up.

Had also read that debian still offer a non-pae kernel, so may give that a try...

[megsona]

here's my output from cpuid


eax in eax ebx ecx edx
00000000 00000002 756e6547 6c65746e 49656e69
00000001 00000695 00000816 00000180 a7e9f9bf
00000002 02b3b001 00000000 00000000 2c043087
80000000 80000004 00000000 00000000 00000000
80000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
80000002 20202020 20202020 65746e49 2952286c
80000003 6e655020 6d756974 20295228 7270204d
80000004 7365636f 20726f73 30303031 007a484d

Vendor ID: "GenuineIntel"; CPUID level 2

Intel-specific functions:
Version 00000695:
Type 0 - Original OEM
Family 6 - Pentium Pro
Model 9 -
Stepping 5
Reserved 0

Brand index: 22 [not in table]
Extended brand string: " Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1000MHz"
CLFLUSH instruction cache line size: 8

Feature flags a7e9f9bf:
FPU Floating Point Unit
VME Virtual 8086 Mode Enhancements
DE Debugging Extensions
PSE Page Size Extensions
TSC Time Stamp Counter
MSR Model Specific Registers
MCE Machine Check Exception
CX8 COMPXCHG8B Instruction
SEP Fast System Call
MTRR Memory Type Range Registers
PGE PTE Global Flag
MCA Machine Check Architecture
CMOV Conditional Move and Compare Instructions
FGPAT Page Attribute Table
CLFSH CFLUSH instruction
DS Debug store
ACPI Thermal Monitor and Clock Ctrl
MMX MMX instruction set
FXSR Fast FP/MMX Streaming SIMD Extensions save/restore
SSE Streaming SIMD Extensions instruction set
SSE2 SSE2 extensions
TM Thermal monitor
31 reserved

TLB and cache info:
b0: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
b3: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
02: Instruction TLB: 4MB pages, 4-way set assoc, 2 entries
87: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
30: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
04: Data TLB: 4MB pages, 4-way set assoc, 8 entries
2c: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
megsona@R100:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 9
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1000MHz
stepping : 5
microcode : 0x7
cpu MHz : 600.000
cache size : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm pbe up bts est tm2
bogomips : 1197.04
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:



The second last line doesn't look too promising...

[megsona]

Just to close this thread off, I torrented the live lxde version of debian 7.4. The boot menu from that offers a 486 pae option as well as a 686 non-pae. Went for the 486 and it installed no problem. Quite happy with that.

Thanks for your help.

[sudodus]

here's my output from cpuid


eax in eax ebx ecx edx
00000000 00000002 756e6547 6c65746e 49656e69
00000001 00000695 00000816 00000180 a7e9f9bf
00000002 02b3b001 00000000 00000000 2c043087
80000000 80000004 00000000 00000000 00000000
80000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
80000002 20202020 20202020 65746e49 2952286c
80000003 6e655020 6d756974 20295228 7270204d
80000004 7365636f 20726f73 30303031 007a484d

The red line is the same as for another Pentium M which is PAE capable, but that CPU has a higher frequency, 1.4 GHz. This CPU is very slow and is probably quite old, so an early version of Pentium M.

Maybe it is not working properly with PAE, maybe the problem is due to the old Intel graphics.




Vendor ID: "GenuineIntel"; CPUID level 2

Intel-specific functions:
Version 00000695:
Type 0 - Original OEM
Family 6 - Pentium Pro
Model 9 -
Stepping 5
Reserved 0

Brand index: 22 [not in table]
Extended brand string: " Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1000MHz"
CLFLUSH instruction cache line size: 8

Feature flags a7e9f9bf:
FPU Floating Point Unit
VME Virtual 8086 Mode Enhancements
DE Debugging Extensions
PSE Page Size Extensions
TSC Time Stamp Counter
MSR Model Specific Registers
MCE Machine Check Exception
CX8 COMPXCHG8B Instruction
SEP Fast System Call
MTRR Memory Type Range Registers
PGE PTE Global Flag
MCA Machine Check Architecture
CMOV Conditional Move and Compare Instructions
FGPAT Page Attribute Table
CLFSH CFLUSH instruction
DS Debug store
ACPI Thermal Monitor and Clock Ctrl
MMX MMX instruction set
FXSR Fast FP/MMX Streaming SIMD Extensions save/restore
SSE Streaming SIMD Extensions instruction set
SSE2 SSE2 extensions
TM Thermal monitor
31 reserved

TLB and cache info:
b0: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
b3: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
02: Instruction TLB: 4MB pages, 4-way set assoc, 2 entries
87: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
30: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
04: Data TLB: 4MB pages, 4-way set assoc, 8 entries
2c: unknown TLB/cache descriptor
megsona@R100:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 9
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1000MHz
stepping : 5
microcode : 0x7
cpu MHz : 600.000
cache size : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm pbe up bts est tm2
bogomips : 1197.04
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:




The second last line doesn't look too promising...

This is normal when running a non-pae kernel. Only when running a PAE kernel, you will see 36 bits physical address size.


Just to close this thread off, I torrented the live lxde version of debian 7.4. The boot menu from that offers a 486 pae option as well as a 686 non-pae. Went for the 486 and it installed no problem. Quite happy with that.

Thanks for your help.

I'm glad debian 7.4 with lxde works for you :-)

As mörgæs wrote, LXLE or Bodhi would probably work for you too.

We are not sure, if the problem is caused by problems with PAE or with the graphics. If you want to explore it further (not installing, only testing from a live CD/DVD/USB drive), I suggest trying with the two boot options (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions) forcepae text at the same time

And if you test it, please let us know the result: Will the computer run in text mode?

[megsona]

Thanks for your continued suggestions.

I've now tried Lubuntu 14.04 with forcepae text and I can report success. My laptop boots without issue to a command prompt. So, I then did a cat /proc/cpuinfo and it reports 36 bit physical, 32 bit virtual.

From this I assume we can discount a pae problem, I'd like to look further down the graphics avenue.

Again, if you have any guidance I'd be glad to continue the investigation.

[sudodus]

I'm glad that your old Pentium M works with forcepae :-)

Often problems with old Intel graphics can be solved with UXA acceleration in newer versions of Lubuntu (13.10 and 14.04 LTS). See these links

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/AdvancedMethods#Old_Intel_graphics

Old hardware brought back to life (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2130640)