PDA

View Full Version : [SOLVED] 16.10 fresh install fails



rplantz
October 29th, 2016, 12:31 AM
Home-build desktop system. I've been running Ubuntu (dual boot with Windows) since it was built six years ago. I like doing fresh installs to get rid of the junk that accumulates. The installation of 16.10 (over 16.04) seemed to go smoothly, but when I reboot I get the grub> prompt. I have two partitions, '/' and '/home'. I install over the '/' (system) partition and leave '/home' as is.

My dual boot set up is based on using the Windows boot loader. Windows and Ubuntu are on two separate SSDs. I use easyBCD to add the Ubuntu '/' partition to the Windows bootloader menu. I reinstalled 16.04, and all works fine, so I know that the installation procedure I'm using is correct (at least through 16.04).

Any thoughts? Is is possible that my 6-year old motherboard (MSI X58 PRO-E) is too old for the new kernel? Seems like linux kernel should be at least as forgiving at Windows 10.1.

ubfan1
October 29th, 2016, 02:16 AM
Any error messages before you get thrown into the grub prompt? At the grub prompt, can you see the expected disk(s) and the expected contents (use ls and tab to get choices on devices or partitions)? Can't think of any reason your mb should be a problem. You're not running in UEFI mode on a machine that old I'd guess, so that should not be a factor.

rplantz
October 29th, 2016, 03:22 AM
Thanks for the suggestions, ubfan1.

Hmm, I don't recall the message(s) before the grub prompt. It's too late for me to retry the installation tonight. I'll give it another try tomorrow and pay more attention to what I'm doing. In particular, I need to read up a bit on the grub commands so I can use that to try to diagnose the problem. You're right that my machine is too old for UEFI. The fact that 16.04 reinstalled with no problems suggests that I should be able to make this work.

ubfan1
October 29th, 2016, 04:29 AM
I guess you'd need "nomodeset" on the kernel line until you get the Nvidia drivers installed, but that should be the same for 16.04 and 16.10.

rplantz
October 29th, 2016, 09:21 PM
I finally got 16.10 to install. I do not know what the problem was.

Here is what I did:
1. Reinstalled 16.04, which went smoothly.
2. Performed a version upgrade, which failed.
3. Did another (my third try) fresh install (from DVD) of 16.10. All went smoothly until time to restart. It hung with the message:
[* ] A start job is running for Ubuntu live CD installer (1 min 44s / no limit)

Esc, ctrl-alt-del did not work, so I held my breath and did a hard restart. It booted right up and all seems well. The only configuration I did differently is that I have it boot without requiring a password, but I can't imagine that would have been the problem with my first attempts to install. I think the installer behaved better this time because I kept careful notes of any error messages. ("Don't anthropomorphize computers --- they don't like it.")

I've been running Ubuntu since 4.10, and this is by far the most trouble I've had with installation.

Thanks again, ubfan1, for your help and suggestions.