I have as of yet to see my desktop

[Mecharius]

Working with a Toshiba satelite. Has AMD Turion(tm) II Dual-Core Mobile M500 for its CPU.

Recently acquired the book Ubuntu Unleashed and it came with an install disk for Ubuntu 12.10, I wanted to try this on one of the machines I have laying around. Went through the process, and it installed Ubuntu on the Toshiba, eliminating windows in the process, unfortunately now when I start it up it goes to the GNU GRUB menu. This gives me the options Ubuntu, Advanced options for Ubuntu, as well as two memory tests. So, being the new user that I am, the obvious choice is Ubuntu. Select that and I get a black screen with a flashing _ symbol. if I let this sit for awhile i will eventualy receive
[ 7.808320] sp5100_tco: mmio address 0xfec000f0 already in use

My question here is how would I go about correcting this issue?

[r.stiltskin]

There are bug reports involving the sp5100 module (for example https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1055096), and some people reported that blacklisting that module solved their problems.

Get to a terminal window: try ctrl+alt+F2 from your black screen & see if that gets you to a command line prompt. If so, login there. If that doesn't work reboot and select recovery mode from the grub menu and then choose "drop to root shell".

Run this command:

printf "blacklist sp5100_tco" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-sp5100.conf

(In a root shell you can omit the word sudo.)

That will create a file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-sp5100.conf containing the line blacklist sp5100_tco which should prevent the sp5100 module from loading. Reboot & see if that helps. If not, you can easily delete that file.

[Mecharius]

There are bug reports involving the sp5100 module (for example https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1055096), and some people reported that blacklisting that module solved their problems.

Get to a terminal window: try ctrl+alt+F2 from your black screen & see if that gets you to a command line prompt. If so, login there. If that doesn't work reboot and select recovery mode from the grub menu and then choose "drop to root shell".

Run this command:

printf "blacklist sp5100_tco" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-sp5100.conf

(In a root shell you can omit the word sudo.)

That will create a file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-sp5100.conf containing the line blacklist sp5100_tco which should prevent the sp5100 module from loading. Reboot & see if that helps. If not, you can easily delete that file.

ctrl alt f2 did nothing from the black screen.

The only way i see to access the command line is to have one of the options, such as recovery mode highlighted and then hit c. Typed in what you posted and received:
error: can't find command 'printf'

I have at no point seen anything which allows me to select an option 'drop to root shell'

There has to be something that I am missing.

When I select the recovery mode I am given a black screen with a decent quantity of information scrolling on it that ends at

[ 5.099871] toshiba_acpi : Toshiba Laptop Acpi Extras version 0.19

On this black screen Amidst the provided information I do see

[ 5.011652] microcode ; failed to load file amd-ucode/microcode_amd.bin

Could this have something to do with my problem? Or is it something that will be a problem later on?

[oldfred]

You probably do not have nVidia, but nomodeset sometimes works for other video issues. But it sounds like you may need other boot options.

How to set NOMODESET and other kernel boot options in grub2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions


http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Docum...parameters.txt
noapic nolapic noapci noirqpoll nosmp irqpoll
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentat...parameters.txt
Check BIOS for settings:
try to boot with acpi=off or nomodeset=0 on the boot line
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto

[Mecharius]

in fact, the only command that currently seems to work is date.

I do appreciate any patience and attention that is thrown my way. persistance is one of my qualities, but I can only go so far without help.

[r.stiltskin]

ctrl alt f2 did nothing from the black screen.

The only way i see to access the command line is to have one of the options, such as recovery mode highlighted and then hit c. Typed in what you posted and received:
error: can't find command 'printf'

I have at no point seen anything which allows me to select an option 'drop to root shell'

There has to be something that I am missing.

When I select the recovery mode I am given a black screen with a decent quantity of information scrolling on it that ends at

[ 5.099871] toshiba_acpi : Toshiba Laptop Acpi Extras version 0.19

On this black screen Amidst the provided information I do see

[ 5.011652] microcode ; failed to load file amd-ucode/microcode_amd.bin

Could this have something to do with my problem? Or is it something that will be a problem later on?

Yes there is something you're missing.

When you highlighted recovery mode and then hit 'c', you were opening a grub command line, not a complete linux shell, so you didn't have all of the normal bash commands available. What I wanted you to do is highlight recovery mode and hit enter -- in other words boot into recovery mode, and at the end of that process, after all the scrolling lines, you should be presented with a menu and among the selections is "drop to root shell".

Do you not see that menu? If not, what is the last thing you see when you boot in recovery mode?

Also, please eliminate one mystery: exactly which model of Toshiba Satellite is this?

One more thing: can you boot Ubuntu directly from the CD using the "try Ubuntu" selection from the initial screen?

[Mecharius]

Yes there is something you're missing.

When you highlighted recovery mode and then hit 'c', you were opening a grub command line, not a complete linux shell, so you didn't have all of the normal bash commands available. What I wanted you to do is highlight recovery mode and hit enter -- in other words boot into recovery mode, and at the end of that process, after all the scrolling lines, you should be presented with a menu and among the selections is "drop to root shell".

Do you not see that menu? If not, what is the last thing you see when you boot in recovery mode?

Also, please eliminate one mystery: exactly which model of Toshiba Satellite is this?

One more thing: can you boot Ubuntu directly from the CD using the "try Ubuntu" selection from the initial screen?

The machine does not have which model it is written on it, so I would not know how to check beyond that. I acquired this one off of one of my coworkers when he upgraded. It started off with windows seven on it, if that is in any way helpful. I did understand that there was supposed to be a menu at the end of recovery mode, but no such thing appeared. The last line presented in this was:

[ 5.099871] toshiba_acpi : Toshiba Laptop Acpi Extras version 0.19

try ubuntu is not an available option when I start up the machine with the disk in. As far as I can tell, the only way to access said disk is by hitting f12 and getting into the boot options. From there selecting boot from disk. When I go by this boot option, it begins to load and then freezes at the purple screen with two or three of the circles illuminated below the word UBUNTU.

[Mecharius]

I feel like an idiot, and I have yet again found myself with an example of why I need to do further searching before I come begging fo help. I have to give thanks to oldfred for pointing this out to me. Some how, the push any button when I begin boot had managed to escape me. It was a link posted that managed to show this to me. Yes, I have the option to try ubuntu.

[Mecharius]

And as for the helpfulness of this Try ubuntu option, it leads back to the purple screen which freezes with a few of the circles illuminated. The numerous times I have had to resort to the power button to shutdown the machine so I may get to a different screen cannot be healthy for my machine. But what can be done at this point? moving on...

At the suggestion of a friend who has slightly more experience with computers then I, I tried to install ubuntu again from the disk. unfortunately this had the same effect as everything else which leads to the purple screen. I am going to let this sit for an hour or so while I try to dig up more information that may be helpful, waiting to see if there is any other change to the screen. Maybe it is not frozen, just slowed to a crawl. That is my new hope at least.

[oldfred]

That dammed "any" key. I still am looking for it on my keyboard.

Do you get the accessibility icons at bottom of screen? Tiny keyboard & person?

f6 lets you then choose boot options. If not nomodeset there are others. But what options may be required is trial and error unless you have seen a thread where someone says what works. Since last entry on boot screen has to do with acpi I might try some of those settings. See post #4.