Folks -

First off, thanks for taking the time to help out. It's appreciated, and I'll do my best to give back on that helping just as soon as I get past this hiccup.

I've installed Ubuntu 12.04.1 Desktop AMD 64 on a new set of hardware - new HDD, motherboard, RAM, etc. Upon restarting after the clean install, I'm seeing the following glaring message: "Read Error". No detailed error codes, nothing giving specifics, just Read Error.

Thinking this was something wrong with either a) the install disk or b) the disk drive itself, I made a new install disk and verified the image again, then reinstalled. No change. Then I booted into the Live CD and check the S.M.A.R.T. data and ran an the self-assessment check; everything on the disk checked out. No luck there, so I turned to research.

I did a slew of Googling and found most of those issues starting with this message turned out to be GRUB issues. After a whole lot of poking at things beyond my knowledge (reinstalling & upgrading grub, among others), I went ahead and ran the bootinfoscript (http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/) and got the following output:

Code:
                  Boot Info Script 0.61      [1 April 2012]


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

 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of 
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks 
    for (,msdos1)/boot/grub on this drive.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________________________________

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

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

Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sda1    *          2,048   968,384,511   968,382,464  83 Linux
/dev/sda2         968,386,558   976,771,071     8,384,514   5 Extended
/dev/sda5         968,386,560   976,771,071     8,384,512  82 Linux swap / Solaris


"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL

/dev/loop0                                              squashfs   
/dev/sda1        26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672   ext4       
/dev/sda5        b927ff1c-a5af-45b4-b8d0-dacc1dafe788   swap       
/dev/sr0                                                iso9660    Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS amd64

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

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


=========================== sda1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  set have_grubenv=true
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
  set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
    saved_entry="${chosen}"
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
  insmod vbe
  insmod vga
  insmod video_bochs
  insmod video_cirrus
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=auto
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod part_msdos
  insmod ext2
  set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
  set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
  set lang=en_US
  insmod gettext
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
if background_color 44,0,30; then
  clear
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
function gfxmode {
	set gfxpayload="${1}"
	if [ "${1}" = "keep" ]; then
		set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7
	else
		set vt_handoff=
	fi
}
if [ "${recordfail}" != 1 ]; then
  if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then
    if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then
      if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then
        set linux_gfx_mode=keep
      else
        set linux_gfx_mode=text
      fi
    else
      set linux_gfx_mode=text
    fi
  else
    set linux_gfx_mode=keep
  fi
else
  set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
export linux_gfx_mode
if [ "${linux_gfx_mode}" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-31-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-31-generic-pae root=UUID=26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672 ro   quiet splash $vt_handoff
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-31-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-31-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
	echo	'Loading Linux 3.2.0-31-generic-pae ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-31-generic-pae root=UUID=26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672 ro recovery nomodeset 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-31-generic-pae
}
submenu "Previous Linux versions" {
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-29-generic-pae root=UUID=26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672 ro   quiet splash $vt_handoff
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-29-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
	echo	'Loading Linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-29-generic-pae root=UUID=26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672 ro recovery nomodeset 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-29-generic-pae
}
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ "x${timeout}" != "x-1" ]; then
  if keystatus; then
    if keystatus --shift; then
      set timeout=-1
    else
      set timeout=0
    fi
  else
    if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
      set timeout=0
    fi
  fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f  $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
  source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' 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=26f13cb0-0325-40eb-88c0-ac9d5802d672 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=b927ff1c-a5af-45b4-b8d0-dacc1dafe788 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

           GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)

               =                boot/grub/core.img                             1
               =                boot/grub/grub.cfg                             1
               =                boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-29-generic-pae           1
               =                boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-31-generic-pae           2
               =                boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-29-generic-pae              1
               =                boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-31-generic-pae              2
               =                initrd.img                                     1
               =                vmlinuz                                        1

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

xz: (stdin): Compressed data is corrupt
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in
Unfortunately, I'm way out of my league, and maybe even going down the wrong path to begin with, so I'm hoping someone can take a look at this output and suggest next steps.

Thanks again for all the assistence,

Jen