ubuntu 10.10 won't install on desktop

[sandyd]

Okay I burned the Live CD and tested it on my laptop that is running Windows Vista. I made sure that my first boot option was my DVD and it booted up and seems to run okay. I tried it on the desktop this morning and only got at far as the ubuntu screen with the five dots it froze up at that point. I think I may also have a keyboard error since my Function, Cap locks and Num locks lights are all flashing.

Thank again for the help.

Jayme

might be kernel panic.

try choosing "more options" -> nomodeset when booting

[Jayme Harris2007]

might be kernel panic.

try choosing "more options" -> nomodeset when booting

Hi Sandy,

I'm not sure what you mean by choosing more options. My Ubuntu never gets to a point where I can choose any kinds of options.

Jayme

[Rubi1200]

When the computer starts and you see the entry for Ubuntu highlighted in the GRUB menu press "e" to edit.

Navigate with the arrow keys and find the line that ends with quiet splash.

Add i915.modeset=1 after quiet splash so it looks like this:

quiet splash i915.modeset=1

Then, "Ctrl" +"x" to boot.

If this helps, we can make it more permanent.

EDIT: sorry, just realized you are still trying to get things going.

When the CD boots press F6 followed by Esc to see the boot line:

file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --

Add the parameter I mentioned above so it looks like this:

file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash i915.modeset=1--

Then Enter to boot.

[Jayme Harris2007]

When the computer starts and you see the entry for Ubuntu highlighted in the GRUB menu press "e" to edit.

Navigate with the arrow keys and find the line that ends with quiet splash.

Add i915.modeset=1 after quiet splash so it looks like this:

Then, "Ctrl" +"x" to boot.

If this helps, we can make it more permanent.

EDIT: sorry, just realized you are still trying to get things going.

When the CD boots press F6 followed by Esc to see the boot line:



Add the parameter I mentioned above so it looks like this:


Then Enter to boot.

Hi Rubi1200,

Thank you for the suggestions. When I booted up the PC with the Live CD in the drive I never saw a GRUB Menu. It always just went straight to the ubuntu screen. The good new is for some reason the Live CD booted up to the demo or install screen twice the first time I clicked on demo and played around with the program for a bit before there was an error and I had to shut down the PC after some restarts it booted to the demo/install screen and I clicked on Install. It's in the process of installing right now.

I appreciate all of the suggestions and will post again after the installation is complete and I've had a chance to check it out.

Jayme

[Jayme Harris2007]

Hi Rubi1200,

Thank you for the suggestions. When I booted up the PC with the Live CD in the drive I never saw a GRUB Menu. It always just went straight to the ubuntu screen. The good new is for some reason the Live CD booted up to the demo or install screen twice the first time I clicked on demo and played around with the program for a bit before there was an error and I had to shut down the PC after some restarts it booted to the demo/install screen and I clicked on Install. It's in the process of installing right now.

I appreciate all of the suggestions and will post again after the installation is complete and I've had a chance to check it out.

Jayme

Well it looks like I spoke to soon. The install got to 45% and then the system froze. I tried to restart the install and the computer wouldn't even read the CD, so I re-formated the hard drive again and started over. This time I got to 39% and got an error message that there was an unrecoverable error. It said that I need to check the disc integrity. How can I do that if it won't install or run. I'm going to run it on my laptop and see what I can see.

Jayme.

[Rubi1200]

Hi,
sorry to hear this is such a difficult beginning.

Please do this:

1. start the Ubuntu CD and choose to check the integrity; perhaps another bad burn?

2. afterwards, choose to try not install Ubuntu. Then, go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal and post the output of this command:

sudo fdisk -lu

lowercase L not 1

[Jayme Harris2007]

Hi,
sorry to hear this is such a difficult beginning.

Please do this:

1. start the Ubuntu CD and choose to check the integrity; perhaps another bad burn?

2. afterwards, choose to try not install Ubuntu. Then, go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal and post the output of this command:

sudo fdisk -lu

lowercase L not 1

Rubi,

I got lucky one for time and the CD booted to the install screen. I typed in the command you posted and attached is an image file of the output. I hope you can read it okay. It would be a lot to have to type

Jayme

[Rubi1200]

Okay, I don't really understand what is happening here.

According to the results of the command you have Ubuntu installed on the computer.

Are you saying that you can't boot into it at all?

There is another thing to do from the LiveCD:

Boot the Ubuntu Live CD/USB. Choose the option "Try Ubuntu without any changes." Once the desktop loads come back here and do the following:

1. Download the boot info script. There is a link in my signature.
2. Once downloaded, move the boot info script to the desktop.
3. Open a terminal and run the command

sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will create a RESULTS.txt file on the desktop. Paste the entire contents of that file back here in a new post. Once pasted highlight all text and click the # sign on the toolbar to place code tags around the text.

[Jayme Harris2007]

Okay, I don't really understand what is happening here.

According to the results of the command you have Ubuntu installed on the computer.

Are you saying that you can't boot into it at all?

There is another thing to do from the LiveCD:

Boot the Ubuntu Live CD/USB. Choose the option "Try Ubuntu without any changes." Once the desktop loads come back here and do the following:

1. Download the boot info script. There is a link in my signature.
2. Once downloaded, move the boot info script to the desktop.
3. Open a terminal and run the command

sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will create a RESULTS.txt file on the desktop. Paste the entire contents of that file back here in a new post. Once pasted highlight all text and click the # sign on the toolbar to place code tags around the text.

Rubi,

Thanks again for your help. If I booted the computer without the Live CD up until the time that I was able to get the desktop to install the program to the 45% mark I always got the Windows XP log in/password screen, even though I had formated the drive. After that I wouldn't boot, all I got was a flashing cursor in the upper left corner of the screen. When I tried again with the Live CD it still wouldn't boot so I used a boot disc to start the system and re-formated the HDD again. After that I got it to start the install again with the Live CD and saw that it said I was running ubuntu. I thought great all I have to do is let the CD complete the install. That's when I got to 39% and got the unrecoverable error message.

Anyway the good news is I'm posting these results from the system in question running from the Live CD. It made it a lot easier to post these results for you.


Jayme

Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
 => Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS
    Boot files/dirs:   /etc/fstab

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info:  

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sdb1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  MSWIN4.1: Fat 32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1               2,048    75,194,367    75,192,320  83 Linux
/dev/sda2          75,196,414    78,163,967     2,967,554   5 Extended
/dev/sda5          75,196,416    78,163,967     2,967,552  82 Linux swap / Solaris


Drive: sdb ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 10.2 GB, 10248118272 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1245 cylinders, total 20015856 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sdb1    *             63    20,000,924    20,000,862   c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/loop0                                              squashfs                                 
/dev/ramzswap0                                          swap                                     
/dev/sda1        03c24b6d-1979-4e33-9c15-95836f6c7369   ext4                                     
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sda5        ae47efcb-af1b-4602-bcde-f73feaf12eca   swap                                     
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sdb1        2E72-1DF3                              vfat                                     
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos" 
error: /dev/sdc: No medium found

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

aufs             /                        aufs       (rw)
/dev/sr0         /cdrom                   iso9660    (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0       /rofs                    squashfs   (ro,noatime)


=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=03c24b6d-1979-4e33-9c15-95836f6c7369 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=ae47efcb-af1b-4602-bcde-f73feaf12eca none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader  on sda2

00000000  cb 88 9f 11 f5 a0 3f 18  29 b0 5b 04 1d c4 d1 3f  |......?.).[....?|
00000010  18 97 74 41 3f 1d c4 d1  3f 18 83 2c 12 dc 16 1d  |..tA?...?..,....|
00000020  f5 3f 18 91 fa 88 06 11  7c 9a 40 18 d8 71 1d a5  |.?......|.@..q..|
00000030  16 4c 23 41 18 9b 87 a9  0c 16 99 2b 41 18 e0 db  |.L#A.......+A...|
00000040  9c 39 16 3f 05 42 18 d2  a9 99 4b 1d b9 43 42 18  |.9.?.B....K..CB.|
00000050  7d 3d 9f f7 1d 09 59 42  18 41 3f 9c 48 1d 74 a9  |}=....YB.A?.H.t.|
00000060  42 18 a3 25 af 2c 14 9e  ec 42 18 23 9f a2 33 16  |B..%.,...B.#..3.|
00000070  bc 5a 43 18 df b4 30 df  1d 58 ab 43 18 98 68 b2  |.ZC...0..X.C..h.|
00000080  89 16 c6 06 44 18 c8 27  62 83 16 ea 4c 44 18 fd  |....D..'b...LD..|
00000090  5a be a7 11 b3 5c 44 18  bc 12 cf d7 16 07 99 44  |Z....\D........D|
000000a0  18 1d 2d 2f f9 17 d0 9d  44 18 ef ce e7 17 1e fc  |..-/....D.......|
000000b0  d1 44 18 24 b8 0f b1 16  47 db 44 18 d5 58 5b 82  |.D.$....G.D..X[.|
000000c0  1d e7 e1 44 18 29 94 ac  75 1f 2d 0b 45 18 f2 7c  |...D.)..u.-.E..||
000000d0  75 8d 16 d1 56 45 18 ae  7a e2 53 16 d1 56 45 18  |u...VE..z.S..VE.|
000000e0  0e a4 30 9b 1e d1 56 45  18 75 70 8b 9f 17 39 65  |..0...VE.up...9e|
000000f0  45 18 77 87 9d 3b 17 39  65 45 18 c1 0d 4a 8a 11  |E.w..;.9eE...J..|
00000100  aa 9e 45 18 6a 0e 8b d8  1d ce df 45 18 b3 f6 aa  |..E.j......E....|
00000110  e7 16 16 04 46 18 11 2e  6a c7 1d ec 89 46 18 45  |....F...j....F.E|
00000120  43 dd 22 14 38 93 47 18  62 9f 69 6f 14 38 93 47  |C.".8.G.b.io.8.G|
00000130  18 79 95 ec a5 14 38 93  47 18 f6 28 e5 af 14 38  |.y....8.G..(...8|
00000140  93 47 18 a5 3b 3f bc 1d  6b a4 47 18 9b 1d ad 8e  |.G..;?..k.G.....|
00000150  1e ef c7 47 18 3e 78 f6  a0 1d 28 e7 47 18 53 db  |...G.>x...(.G.S.|
00000160  27 47 1e 5a 0b 48 18 2d  8d 26 7b 16 61 b5 48 18  |'G.Z.H.-.&{.a.H.|
00000170  42 f4 87 f0 15 3b 50 49  18 ec 83 c8 ca 18 04 6a  |B....;PI.......j|
00000180  49 18 11 72 d2 fe 16 b5  7f 49 18 a4 e2 66 53 16  |I..r.....I...fS.|
00000190  b5 7f 49 18 ea 76 b1 81  16 c1 ca 4a 18 5e 80 a2  |..I..v.....J.^..|
000001a0  17 11 30 d9 4b 18 12 f3  25 58 1d 84 15 4c 18 52  |..0.K...%X...L.R|
000001b0  5a 4b 90 1d 84 15 4c 18  dc bc 05 cf 1d 34 00 fe  |ZK....L......4..|
000001c0  ff ff 82 fe ff ff 02 00  00 00 00 48 2d 00 00 00  |...........H-...|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200


=======Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive==============

sdc

[Rubi1200]

If I am not mistaken, the results indicate a half-installed system.

I want to be careful offering advice about the next step. Therefore, I am going to ask some other users to take a look and offer their perspectives.