lah-ca
May 5th, 2014, 03:43 PM
14.04 x64 seems to be quite nice. But the installation wizard does not seem to work with nVidia hardware.
To try 14.04, I assembled a system from parts kicking around, including an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (nVidia Chipset) and an EVGA 7900 GS (also nVidia).
14.04 will not install on this system, either from a DVD (tried IDE, SATA, and Firewire - all no go) or from a USB key. What happens is that the installer starts to boot, dislplaying the purple splash screen, and then the screen goes black with a cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner of the screen. After a short bit of this, the screen goes black (back-lighting still on), and the installation process is completely hung. Hitting a key at the purple splash screen will display the options menus, but nothing I tired from the menu will run, not even the check media wizard.
So I installed 12.04. This had its own problems. I have two 500 Gb disks in a stripe set, and 12.04 did not like this configuration at all. At the end of the installation process, Grub failed to install properly. I continued the installation and then rebooted to the DVD and ran the boot repair wizard, which reinstalled Grub. The system was then bootable from the stripe set. However, there were a number of peculiar issues on first boot. Also the Update wizard did a partial build update, which also generated a number of errors, some involving Grub. After this wizard ran and the system was rebooted, the wizard was unable to download software lists from the archive, more or less hooped. But no matter, my goal was not another installation of 12.04.
So I did an in place upgrade to 14.04 using the terminal. This proceeded faster than expected but not fast in any normal sense of the word. There were a number of errors, but when the upgrade was done, the system booted to 14.04. There were a large number of unspecified errors on the first boot, which generated error reports. After a reboot these errors seemed to disappear, and the system appeared to be stable. There are some remaining issues: every boot throws up the boot menu rather than just proceeding to boot; boot stalls with a file not found error but continues with the pressing of any key.
So 14.04 does work on my system. It just won't install nicely or easily. I may blow this installation away (or not, depending upon how lazy I feel) and try the mini disk network installer which does not rely much on the graphics card, wherein I suspect lies the problem with normal installation methods. 14.04 does not use nVidia graphics drivers by default but rather uses the new xOrg one. Could this be the installation issue?
Any thoughts? Thx.
To try 14.04, I assembled a system from parts kicking around, including an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (nVidia Chipset) and an EVGA 7900 GS (also nVidia).
14.04 will not install on this system, either from a DVD (tried IDE, SATA, and Firewire - all no go) or from a USB key. What happens is that the installer starts to boot, dislplaying the purple splash screen, and then the screen goes black with a cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner of the screen. After a short bit of this, the screen goes black (back-lighting still on), and the installation process is completely hung. Hitting a key at the purple splash screen will display the options menus, but nothing I tired from the menu will run, not even the check media wizard.
So I installed 12.04. This had its own problems. I have two 500 Gb disks in a stripe set, and 12.04 did not like this configuration at all. At the end of the installation process, Grub failed to install properly. I continued the installation and then rebooted to the DVD and ran the boot repair wizard, which reinstalled Grub. The system was then bootable from the stripe set. However, there were a number of peculiar issues on first boot. Also the Update wizard did a partial build update, which also generated a number of errors, some involving Grub. After this wizard ran and the system was rebooted, the wizard was unable to download software lists from the archive, more or less hooped. But no matter, my goal was not another installation of 12.04.
So I did an in place upgrade to 14.04 using the terminal. This proceeded faster than expected but not fast in any normal sense of the word. There were a number of errors, but when the upgrade was done, the system booted to 14.04. There were a large number of unspecified errors on the first boot, which generated error reports. After a reboot these errors seemed to disappear, and the system appeared to be stable. There are some remaining issues: every boot throws up the boot menu rather than just proceeding to boot; boot stalls with a file not found error but continues with the pressing of any key.
So 14.04 does work on my system. It just won't install nicely or easily. I may blow this installation away (or not, depending upon how lazy I feel) and try the mini disk network installer which does not rely much on the graphics card, wherein I suspect lies the problem with normal installation methods. 14.04 does not use nVidia graphics drivers by default but rather uses the new xOrg one. Could this be the installation issue?
Any thoughts? Thx.