Lenovo Thinkpad R61i will not run LMDE on live DVD, WHY?

[webwalker]

I've searched the forum and didn't find any posts that pertain to my problem so here goes. OK, here's the problem. My Lenovo Thinkpad R61i will not boot the live DVD version of LMDE or Linux Mint 9. I'm wanting LMDE, but thought I'd try LM 9 to make sure it wasn't a bad DVD. Here is what it does at boot.

Loading /casper/vmlinuz..........................................................................
.............
Loading /casper/initrd.lz...........................................................................
...................
Ready

(flashing cursor)

And that is ALL it will do! Does ANYONE have any ideas? From what I've been able to find here, some people have gotten it to load on an R61i

Thanks in advance for your help.

webwalker
(webby)

[cwsnyder]

Have you checked the MD5SUM on both DVDs or run the disk self-check?

[k3lt01]

What are the computers specs? I know my laptop wouldn't work with 256MB of RAM but would with 512.

[webwalker]

by cwsnyder on Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:59 am
Have you checked the MD5SUM on both DVDs or run the disk self-check?

They will both run on other machines.

by k3lt01 on Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:40 pm
What are the computers specs? I know my laptop wouldn't work with 256MB of RAM but would with 512.

2 GB!

I've NEVER had this problem with any linux distro before. All others I've tried will load and run on it.

[k3lt01]

Any other info you can give us, the more you have the easier it is to find the issue.

[webwalker]

Any other info you can give us, the more you have the easier it is to find the issue.

What else do you need?

I checked with another distro live DVD and it loaded up just fine so it's not my player. I tried compatibility mode and that didn't seem to work either. It just STOPS at "Ready" and a flashing cursor

Webby

[k3lt01]

Go to terminal and type in

Code: Select all

lspci

You may need to sudo th command depending on what terminal you are using.

That should give you something like this output which is from my machine.

Code: Select all

root@michael-laptop:/home/michael# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
02:04.0 Ethernet controller: InProComm Inc. IPN 2220 802.11g
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller


You will see the top 5 lines of mine, not including the lspci command, refer to Intel Corporation 82852/82855 this is a video controller and some kernels don't work well with it causing an issue like the one you are describing. Once you, and by extension the rest of us, know what your hardware actually is we can do some detective googling and hopefully fix your issue if it is hardware related.

[webwalker]

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller(rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (r ev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controll er #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)

[k3lt01]

Hmmmm. it seems that your graphics controller has caused many a linux user a problem or two. Check this out and go through finding any link that suits your situation.

There are some links that suggest some versions simply will not work while others suggest Compiz is the only problem. This thread comes up but I haven't seen any other link mention Mint.

How long have you left the machine for before you reboot?
Have you tried an alternate cd install?

[webwalker]

Well, not sure why, but I decided to try it one more time and it worked. Why after about 10 unsuccessful attempts it would all of a sudden work is beyond me.