Won't boot

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lmuser

Won't boot

Post by lmuser »

Hi,
Using Linux Mint 11 "Katya" - DVD (64-bit) as a Live CD and it simply won't boot. I've done an MD5 hash on the ISO it matches the website, also re-burnt the disk.

Problems:
a) I leave it to boot from live CD, I get the "Linux Mint 11" spash screen where it auto-boots or you select a layer. I chose "Start Linux Mint". It does the "Loading" for the two /casper/ things with lots of dots after them, then it says "Ready" below them, then the screen flashes a couple of times and the monitor goes off and stays off. Neither the DVD nor HDD are in use at this point. I've tried swapping to the built-in graphics card (different monitor too), but the same thing happens.


b) At the splash screen I chose "Start Linux Mint (compatibility mode)". This proceeds to do various things and I get a little scrolling text. It then stops and hangs at the following point. (didn't bother typing the numbers as I guess they're times - they're at 2.9s for the last item).

Code: Select all

usb 2-4: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 3
ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
nouveau 0000:00:0d.0 enablind device (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LMC9] enabled at IRQ10
Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+
2gb RAM
ASRock N68C-S UCC
GeForce 6800

Works with WIndows 7 (though it did hang a couple of times during install).
Doesn't work with Ubuntu either (same as item (a))
Windows XP doesn't install either (hangs early in the setup). So now I'm thinking hardware issue. Any ideas? Does the "compatability mode" bit give any indications what it might be?
Thanks
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
SimonTS

Re: Won't boot

Post by SimonTS »

At the GRUB menu, leave the highlight on the default option, but press <TAB> to edit the command line. Replace the words 'quiet' and 'splash' with 'noquiet' and 'nosplash, then add the word 'nomodeset' before the '--' and press <ENTER> to boot. See if this gets you there.
lmuser

Re: Won't boot

Post by lmuser »

Thanks SimonTS, that worked. What does "nomodeset" do that would have fixed it?

I now have another problem. I got into the live CD, used it to install Linux Mint, then installed the updates. Problem is, I'm back to "doesn't boot" with it hanging after GRUB, although with slightly different symptoms.
I get:

Code: Select all

                                 * Checking battery state...      mixe[OK]
(s)                                                                    [ok]
the "mixe" and "(s)" are in green. rest is in white.

I changed the grub thing to "noquiet nosplash", any got a little more descriptive stuff turn up on the hang:
"stopping save kernel messages [ok]"
Next time it hangs having appeared to have gotton further, with lots of text having scrolled past. The last entry is:

Code: Select all

*Starting set console keymap [ok]
And the next time I just end up with a black screen after seeing a few lines of text for a while. Not even getting to grub now!

Also, GRUB was taking a very long time to load, 30-40s when it was loading. Windows used to boot from scratch on that computer in much less time. Is it supposed to be that slow? I know my previous experiences with lilo/grub were much faster (i.e., immediately after "post" finished".
Any thoughts?
lmuser

Re: Won't boot

Post by lmuser »

*bump*
Anyone?
SimonTS

Re: Won't boot

Post by SimonTS »

Sorry - I missed your first update :oops: Been a busy few days.

GRUB should be up within a second or so - for it to take longer than that would suggest to me that something is seriously wrong. Do you still have your LiveCD handy? If so, could you boot off it and follow the instructions on this page to reinstall GRUB.

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/245
lmuser

Re: Won't boot

Post by lmuser »

Hi Simon,
I followed the instructions but it appears to have made no difference, there's still no sign of the grub menu, though I do get a couple of lines of text appear after about 30-40 seconds before it goes black and hangs.

What does the "nomodeset" do that I have to enter to get the live cd to boot?
Thanks
SimonTS

Re: Won't boot

Post by SimonTS »

The 'nomodeset' basically forces an nVidia graphics card into a low-resolution mode to make it more compatible with the drivers in the Live image - they can't include every driver for every card.
I still don't understand the issue with GRUB here. I have never heard of it taking that long to come up. Are you certain it isn't just running as a 'hidden' GRUB - you normally have to set this yourself from what I remember? To find out, keep pressing (not hold-down, just press over and over again) the <SHIFT> key and the <ESC> key (could be either, but is normally <SHIFT> I believe) as the computer starts to boot.
lmuser

Re: Won't boot

Post by lmuser »

In the interim I've just reinstalled Mint from the live CD (over-writing the old one rather than augmenting it). I just restarted it (without updating anything) and it's worked fine, though there was no GRUB, it just went straight into Mint. I suspect that installing the updates gave me options for GRUB to pop up (a new kernel?), which in turn is where my current problems seem to lie. I'll test that by installing the updates later today.

Incidentally, what tools should I use for testing: RAM, CPU, Motherboard for *nix? I suspect there's a hardware fault with one of those three but have no way of pinning it down (it's probably not the RAM though - the mobo is new).

Thanks!
lwrver

Re: Won't boot

Post by lwrver »

SimonTS wrote:At the GRUB menu, leave the highlight on the default option, but press <TAB> to edit the command line. Replace the words 'quiet' and 'splash' with 'noquiet' and 'nosplash, then add the word 'nomodeset' before the '--' and press <ENTER> to boot. See if this gets you there.
I used the above procedure to boot LM9 to the desktop so I could access the install icon, and installed it successfully to the HDD. When I rebooted from the HDD I don't see the grub menu and I had the same original problem of no display and no way to get to the boot resolution screens. What now? How can I get into the configuration to set the screen resolution, since the default boot for a new system is a blank screen. The chipset is nvidia 6150.

Thanks!
SimonTS

Re: Won't boot

Post by SimonTS »

@ lwrver...

If you have installed Mint as the only OS on a system then my understanding is that it will automatically set the GRUB options to hidden so that it auto-loads through to the desktop. You should be able to get the GRUB menu back up by pressing either <SHIFT> or <ESC> as the computer first starts to access the hard-drive - play around and see if you can get access. Otherwise you can boot off your LiveCD and modify the GRUB settings on the installed system.
If you get the GRUB menu then you can edit the command string with 'nomodeset' again to get to a desktop and then install the correct drivers for your graphics card.
lwrver

Re: Won't boot

Post by lwrver »

SimonTS wrote:@ lwrver...

If you have installed Mint as the only OS on a system then my understanding is that it will automatically set the GRUB options to hidden so that it auto-loads through to the desktop. You should be able to get the GRUB menu back up by pressing either <SHIFT> or <ESC> as the computer first starts to access the hard-drive - play around and see if you can get access. Otherwise you can boot off your LiveCD and modify the GRUB settings on the installed system.
If you get the GRUB menu then you can edit the command string with 'nomodeset' again to get to a desktop and then install the correct drivers for your graphics card.
I've tried about every combination of keys I can think of and none will take me back to the grub menu. Do you know the path to the grub menu on the HDD so I can get there from the live disk?
jp734

Re: Won't boot

Post by jp734 »

the path is /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
good luck
lwrver

Re: Won't boot

Post by lwrver »

jp734 wrote:the path is /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
good luck
Thanks guys! I renamed the original grub.cfg to grub.cfg.old and edited grub.cfg to include "nomodeset" on the kernel launch line. It worked great and now boots up OK. Then I installed the nvidia driver from the repository. All is well..
bboykrafty

Re: Won't boot

Post by bboykrafty »

lwrver wrote:
SimonTS wrote:@ lwrver...

If you have installed Mint as the only OS on a system then my understanding is that it will automatically set the GRUB options to hidden so that it auto-loads through to the desktop. You should be able to get the GRUB menu back up by pressing either <SHIFT> or <ESC> as the computer first starts to access the hard-drive - play around and see if you can get access. Otherwise you can boot off your LiveCD and modify the GRUB settings on the installed system.
If you get the GRUB menu then you can edit the command string with 'nomodeset' again to get to a desktop and then install the correct drivers for your graphics card.
I've tried about every combination of keys I can think of and none will take me back to the grub menu. Do you know the path to the grub menu on the HDD so I can get there from the live disk?

hey, signed up today reading what you guys where going though, well I have made it to this set, as I was having similar problem buddy was having who created the thread, so I have made it to the install screen, with the efforts of changing the quiet, splash and nomodeset, then after installation and removed the livecd, am stuck booting up, a blank screen, but able to get to another screen Via tapping Shift and/or Esc bring me to another menu where it shows to options for linuxmint 11 and linux mint 11 recovery, and couple options for memtest, I used the Dvd version, but now wonder what am I left to do, I have options to
" Press enter to boot selected OS, "e" to edit commends before booting or 'c' for a command line
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