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benji2
June 4th, 2014, 09:19 PM
Hello all! This is my first time attempting to install Ubuntu. I'm installing it on an old Dell Optiplex 745, which previously ran Windows XP. When booting into Ubuntu, I successfully reach the Ubuntu loading screen (the one with the dots beneath the Ubuntu logo).
However, after about a minute of loading the screen switches to this:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/pdrqbaZ.jpg

Then to this terminal (I am able to enter commands, but there are many messages streaming):
[img]https://i.imgur.com/gLzTNnV.jpg

And then to another glitchy screen:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/gupkLDH.jpg

Then it just alternates between that glitchy screen and the terminal randomly. Not entirely sure how to go about resolving this issue. Any help is greatly appreciated!

P.S. Possibly relevant information:

I've tried booting from both USB and Disc, both had this same result.
I'm running an Nvidia graphics card.
I've attempted updating drivers by using "sudo atp-get install nvidia-current" in the terminal. It appeared to start the download, but nothing had changed afterwards.
Once, after allowing the cycle to run overnight, there was a message saying the system was in "low graphics mode", but I could do nothing to resolve that.

Bashing-om
June 4th, 2014, 09:48 PM
benji2; Hi ! : Welcome to the forum;

Also of prime consideration is the amount of ram that is installed. For a good experience in (u)buntu - the flagship edition, a minimum of 2 gigs is recommended.
From the spec sheet of your machine, maybe a better alternative for your machines is (L)ubuntu - designed to run on older hardware.


Minimum memory Dual-channel: 1GB
Single-channel: 512 MB
Maximum memory 8 GB (2GB per channel) 4 GB (2GB per channel)
Bandwidth 533MHz: Up to 8.5 GB/s in dual channel mode

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu

verify the .iso file:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/LQ_ISO/Checking_the_md5sum_in_Windows

Burn as an image s l o w l y :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

CDIntegrityCheck:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/CDIntegrityCheck

Then boot to "try ubuntu" from that liveDVD and insure all devices function as expected.

Now install 'buntu !



enjoy and have fun

benji2
June 4th, 2014, 11:36 PM
@Bashing-om Thank you very much for the prompt response! I went with your suggestion and followed your steps to run Lubuntu. Unfortunately, it gave the same exact result. My thought is that it is some sort of driver issue. Is there anything else I could try?

Bashing-om
June 5th, 2014, 01:27 AM
benji2; OK,

So far so good, installing (L)umbuntu:
Assuming that you have not to this time got it to install.
Try:
from the initial install screen;
DO NOT check "install updates while installing"
DO NOT check "install 3rd party software"

With those setting not checked, should install with the open source graphics driver; and once the install is completed we can take care of the detail of package updates and seeing what to do about the graphics driver.



we can do this

benji2
June 5th, 2014, 04:22 AM
@Bashing-om Again, thank you for the help. I couldn't find the options you mentioned. However, by checking "acpi=off" and "noapic" in the Boot Options I was able to finally make it to the desktop with no problems. I'm actually writing this reply on Lubuntu! It's somewhat exciting haha. Before I attempt to do the final install, is this a permanent fix? or is there something more I should do?

Bashing-om
June 5th, 2014, 04:52 AM
benji2; Hey hey !

Great you are making progress. -
The options I mentioned are in the actual install - the 1st screen. From your last post I understand that you are booting the liveDVD to "try ubuntu" mode (?).

It is a great probability that these boot options will also have to - at least temporarily - be employed in the install.
Go ahead at this time and use 'buntu, make sure that all your devices are functioning. Once satisfied; from that "try ubuntu" mode, click on the "install" icon on the desk top. The boot parameters you have set will persist to the install. Once installed we will see what we can do to lessen the impact of using those boot conditions; as there may be adverse effects of making them permanent. We shall see.



The longest journey


begins with these first steps

benji2
June 5th, 2014, 02:40 PM
@Bashing-om Alright! I have installed Lubuntu as the sole OS on this machine. I did as you said earlier and left the "updates" and "third-party" boxes unchecked for the install. Everything seems to be working fine, except for a low screen resolution (locked at 640x480).

So, what steps do we take from here?
Thanks.

Bashing-om
June 5th, 2014, 06:21 PM
benji2; Outstanding ;

Feeling good are you ? - Hey you should, big step taken.
OK, all installed and looking as well as could be expected at this point. Let's finish the install and see what (L)ubuntu looks like.
Boot the install to that degraded desk top; do key combo ctl+alt+t to get a terminal:
issue terminal commands:


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


Reboot the system, The greater probability is that the system comes up all rosy.
Else: we will take a look at the graphics driver situation.



Ain't no step for a stepper

benji2
June 6th, 2014, 01:10 AM
@Bashing-om Ok, so I've entered the commands and they appeared to execute just fine. I've rebooted the system, but the resolution is still locked at 640x480 (Important: My monitor's max resolution is far greater than this haha). So I assume now we'll need to download/install the required driver. Also, just curious, will we need to deal with those "apci" and "apic" settings I fiddled with earlier? or are those alright?

We've certainly come a long way from the start of all this!

Bashing-om
June 6th, 2014, 03:09 AM
benji2; Hey,

OK, let's take a look at what the graphics card is, and what driver (if any) is installed.
Post back the outputs of terminal commands:


lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
sudo lshw -C display


Then we will take a look at the ACPI and APIC parameteres.



all in the process

benji2
June 6th, 2014, 03:18 PM
@Bashing-om Ok, here are the outputs:

benji@benji-OptiPlex745:~$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GT215 [GeForce GT 240] [10de:0ca3] (rev a2)
Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device [3842:1240]
01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation High Definition Audio Controller [10de:0be4] (rev a1)
Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device [3842:1240]
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:167a] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell OptiPlex 745 [1028:01da]
benji@benji-OptiPlex745:~$ sudo lshw -C display
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: GT215 [GeForce GT 240]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a2
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:de000000-deffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:dc80(size=128) memory:dfe00000-dfe7ffff



Those commands seem nifty. They yield a lot of information that I'd normally have to look up on the Internet haha.

Bashing-om
June 7th, 2014, 11:37 PM
benji2; Shucks,

As suspected, there is no graphics driver loaded. ( *-display UNCLAIMED ) Let me have a bit of time to do some research on the Nvidia GT215 [GeForce GT 240] and see what I can come up with . I am surprised that there is no default "nouveau" (open source) driver loaded !..

Off topic: "Those commands seem nifty." Yeah ! I mess about with this operating system a lot and I am frequently amazed at what the system will tell you, if you only know what to ask.



I do hope this



ain't nothing but a thing

Bashing-om
June 8th, 2014, 09:09 PM
benji2; Hello;

That card is well supported by Nvidia, and in the past there were problems with the open source driver; so what results with installing the proprietary driver from "Additional Drivers" utility ?
Make sure:
Graphical: open Ubuntu Software Center and select Edit->Software Sources..., then check the boxes for "Community maintained free and open-source software (universe)" and "Software restricted by copyright or legal issues (multiverse)" in the Software Sources window.
Prior to installing the proprietary driver.

Reboot and lets see the results.




maybe yes

benji2
June 16th, 2014, 04:37 PM
@Bashing-om Yes. I've installed the proprietary driver and the resolution has been fixed. My desktop now looks beautiful! Thank you very much. So now a look at those two parameters and I should be good to go, correct?

P.S. Sorry for the delay! I just returned home from a week-long vacation :)

Bashing-om
June 16th, 2014, 08:19 PM
benji2; Hey, hey !

Looking better alla the time !

Let's take a look at how you are booting presently, then see about making any adjustments.
Post back the output of terminal command:


cat /etc/default/grub

To tell that tale.

Off topic: Our role here is to guide, assist and teach - at your pace as only you can set at that console ( we do not remote into your box ) -> we promote ubuntu to the community at large.




ain't nothing but a thing

benji2
June 18th, 2014, 03:25 AM
@Bashing-om The deed is done. Here is the output:

benji@benji-OptiPlex745:~$ cat /etc/default/grub
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi=off noapic"

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"



Thank you for the guidance. If I'm reading this correctly, it would seem that the " GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi=off noapic" " indicates that those parameters are still in effect. Although I'm not entirely sure what they do, I assume we shall next revert them to their default states!

Bashing-om
June 18th, 2014, 05:44 AM
benji2; Hey ;

Yepper, lets remove the boot parameters, one option at the time, reboot and see if there are ill effects. We really would prefer to have the use of the system's 'acpi' , if at all possible,

so boot to the desktop; key combo ctl+alt+t for a terminal -> terminal commands:
##are comments only.


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade ##just in case you have not to this time updated the installed software##
sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub-18jun14

to make a backup of the file we are going to edit ( standard operating procedure, anything can happen ).
Now fire up the text editor with the admin privilege [gksudo = graphical sudo] to edit a system file :


gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Remove that term 'acpi=off'. save the file and exit back to terminal.

Propagate the change to the boot control file :


sudo update-grub

Reboot, and play with the system. If all is well, remove 'noapic' following the same procedure. Leaving that line as:


GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
note that the quotes are left in to denote an empty string.
Remember you MUST update-grub to propagate the change.

We can hope that as you are now installed and all up to date we can do away with those parameters. But, It is still a possibility we may have to help the kernel to talk to the hardware, IF so maybe with a lighter less restrictive means (??) ..
It remains to be seen at this point how the system performs with no help.



ain't nothing but a thing

benji2
June 18th, 2014, 04:37 PM
@Bashing-om Like magic! The parameters were removed and all seems to be working just fine. Now I can finally explore the possibilities of Linux and ubuntu! All your help and guidance has been greatly apreciated. I have definitely learned a lot about my system and the true power of the terminal haha. Thank you!

Bashing-om
June 18th, 2014, 10:50 PM
benji2; Outstandingly great !

Pleased things worked out.

Please mark this thread solved; aides others seeking the solution,
helps keep the forum clean and
precludes others miss-directing efforts to aid.

To help you on your adventures:
See the link in my sig;
Read the stickies in the sub-forums;
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Trusty <-The ubuntu_guide ;
AND, Google is our friend.



open source



one for all and all for 1