9.10 stops boot sporadically

[xmL]

Hello,

i got the following issue. I have Ubuntu 9.10 (x64) on an AMD Phenom II X4 with a Gigabyte mainboard (chipset AMD 785G) and a SATA II hard disk. Kernel version is 2.6.31-17-generic.

After selecting Ubuntu from grub boot menu, I get a black screen and that's basically it.

This is a snipplet from syslog:

Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap kernel: imklog 4.2.0, log source = /var/run/rsyslog/kmsg started.
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="4.2.0" x-pid="862" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] (re)start
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap rsyslogd: rsyslogd's groupid changed to 102
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap rsyslogd: rsyslogd's userid changed to 101
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.31-17-generic (buildd@crested) (gcc version 4.4.1 (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu8) ) #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 17:01:44 UTC 2009 (Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic)
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap rsyslogd-2039: Could no open output file '/dev/xconsole' [try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2039 ]
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic root=UUID=4668281b-60f6-4ff7-8b65-62dcc7feb88e ro quiet splash
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-gap kernel: [    0.000000] KERNEL supported cpus:
Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-Jan 28 16:47:20 mind-the-gap kernel: imklog 4.2.0, log source = /var/run/rsyslog/kmsg started.

Notice, that the last line contains a "Jan 28 16:46:19 mind-the-" - this is where my pc freezes - followed by "Jan 28 16:47:20" which is after I have pressed the restart button.

The odd think is, that this happens just from time to time (~50% of all boot attempts).
Booting into failsave mode does work every time.
Booting an older kernel (not failsave) doesn't work every time either.

This is a strange and in particular awkward issue.
I would be grateful if anyone could help me with this problem.


Greetings.

[mtcycler]

I know its alpha but...
I have the same problem with 10.04, however it will only boot about a quarter of the time, I do a ctrl + alt + F1 and work from there. Then it works fine, and if I hit it at the perfect time it will always boot properly.