Desperately need help with Xubuntu 15.04

[cannon_dt]

Hi,
My existing hdd reported close to 11000 bad sectors and fearing that it would soon die, I got another Toshiba 1 TB HDD and tried to get xubuntu 15.04 into it. My existing hdd had linux mint and it works fine.

After booting via a live USB, I created the following using gparted in my new HDD
- an extended partition for 600 GB
- within this extended partition I created a 20 GB "/" partition for the xubuntu install
- within this extended partition I created a 4 GB swap
- within this extended partition I created a 200 GB home partition for xubuntu

I went ahead and installed the OS and all went well. Upon restart I went into my original Mint installation and performed a sudo update-grub and after restarting I was able to see "ubuntu 15.04" on my grub menu. When I hit it and pressed enter I end up with a black screen. Even the processor light flickers for 2 seconds and then dies, its like nothing is happening and all I can do is a cold boot and get back to Mint.

1. Even recovery mode does not work
2. I tried a nomodeset using CTRL+E on the grub menu but that resulted in the same unresponsive black screen
3. I booted my live USB again and installed additional drivers (the proprietary fglrx driver for my Raden 6600 card) and then reinstalled the xubuntu OS but this again did not work.

All I get is a black screen and even CTRL+ALT+Fn keys dont get me to a terminal, its like it is dead.

Is my partitioning wrong? I assumed that I dont need a primary partition and an extended partition would do. Am I wrong?

I desperately need help as I need to back up the contents of my dying HDD and get this new xubuntu working. I dont know if the xfce is causing these graphical issues but seeing the unresponsiveness of my desktop I dont know what is going on, so I am turning to the experts for help.

Please do help.

Peace,
Ananth

[dino99]

ubuntu & the likes can be installed into an extended partition (which is a kind of container; no problem on that side)
so when you have installed xubuntu, you have selected 'something else' option to use the previous partitions set inside the extended one, i suppose.
but are they ext4 or else ? have you also installed grub ? and where ? (you should have set it into /dev/sda or the same as 'mint')
it is strange you cant use the 'recovery mode'. As 15.04 use systemd to boot, maybe try to boot with upstart (you get it into the 'advanced boot menu of grub)
the black screen is a graphic driver issue, try to purge the installed one, then reinstall it (either the opensource, or the closed one)

[cannon_dt]

ubuntu & the likes can be installed into an extended partition (which is a kind of container; no problem on that side)
so when you have installed xubuntu, you have selected 'something else' option to use the previous partitions set inside the extended one, i suppose.
but are they ext4 or else ? have you also installed grub ? and where ? (you should have set it into /dev/sda or the same as 'mint')
it is strange you cant use the 'recovery mode'. As 15.04 use systemd to boot, maybe try to boot with upstart (you get it into the 'advanced boot menu of grub)
the black screen is a graphic driver issue, try to purge the installed one, then reinstall it (either the opensource, or the closed one)

Yes, I did do "something else" to use the created partitions done via gparted

While installing xubuntu, I did use the "change" option and marked them as Ext 4 Journaling system and did a format, so that covers that right? If you mean install bootloader (the drop down that comes in the screen after selecting "something else") I installed it in the newly created "/" partition for xubuntu (I did this so that the Mint bootloader still controls the booting process which is why I did a sudo update-grub in Mint to get the Xubuntu option in the grub menu. Is this wrong?

Upstart also did not work. In fact I went into the EDIT mode of GRUB menu and removed "quiet splash" and replaced with text but again just the black screen. Not even text mode.

Given that it is a graphic driver issue, in the live session I accessed addition drivers and chose fglrx proprietary driver and then performed the install - is this not enough. I do have the amd catalyst bin driver but given that I cannot even get to a terminal I am unable to install it in xubuntu.

The strangest thing is the process flickers exactly for a second before the whole machine goes dead, no response of any sort. I am full stumped :(

[yancek]

I almost always install Grub to the / partition as you say you did, then go back to the primary system I use with Grub and update, again as you did so that should work. You could boot Mint and go to the site below and get the boot repair software and run it and take a look at the output or post it here.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

[cannon_dt]

I almost always install Grub to the / partition as you say you did, then go back to the primary system I use with Grub and update, again as you did so that should work. You could boot Mint and go to the site below and get the boot repair software and run it and take a look at the output or post it here.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Actually I had messed up the boot loader and ended up with grub rescue and has to do a boot repair and it is at http://paste.ubuntu.com/12079221/

But for the problem I am having I dont see the relevance of this. update-grub worked fine and I can see ubuntu in my grub menu, it is only while booting xubuntu that I am having a black screen.

UPDATE EDIT:
I noticed a strange thing in my BIOS. Only me dying hard disk is listed under SATA 2. SATA 1 is undetected and SATA3 is my CD drive, so if gparted can see my new hdd and partition it and I installed an OS in it why is the BIOS acting oblivious to it.... I am going mad :(

[cannon_dt]

Posting my fdisk output


Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009c773

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 195311615 97654784 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 195313662 1722839039 763762689 5 Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5 195313664 203216895 3951616 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 203218944 593842175 195311616 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 593844224 1013274623 209715200 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 1013276672 1034248191 10485760 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 1034250240 1453680639 209715200 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 1453682688 1722839039 134578176 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00046eeb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 4094 629153791 314574849 5 Extended
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sdb5 4096 41947455 20971680 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 41949184 50337791 4194304 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb7 50339840 629153791 289406976 83 Linux


So if fdisk can see my sdb then why is the BIOS not seeing it? Could this have something to do with my problem?

[cannon_dt]

Thanks to all for their comments.
The issue was related to the fact that my BIOS could not see the HDD. It was bad cables at the end of it all - after I switched cables (& sata ports on my MB) both HDDs were detected and then xubuntu was loading fine with no black screen.

Peace