Solved: Linux won't boot!!

[big_dog1968]

Linux won't boot properly
by big_dog1968 on Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:46 pm

I installed the KDE version of Mint 4.0 Daryna, and also tried the Gnome version of Daryna, as a dual boot with a clean install of XP Professional updated to SP2.

At first when I boot, sometimes the boot completes normally and sometimes it hangs right after it gets to the put up the first graphic. I have reinstalled it and had the same problem again. Are there any known issues with KDE version of Daryna, that would cause this to happen. The last few times I tried to boot linus it hung on the first welcome screen. The progress bar never starts. No activity from the hard drive once the welcome screen comes.

I am not sure if hardware is the problem, but if it helps, I have ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor, DIAMOND 3850PE3256SB Radeon HD 3850 RV650, A-DATA Extreme Edition 2GB Dual Channel Memory.

Is it possible that Mint doesn't work with my hardware?

[big_dog1968]

I got lucky and got it to boot. When it did, I had the following error message pop up:
There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon.

Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work correctly.

The last error message was:

Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-ebe5MR2H3n: Connection refused

GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in.

I hope that this helps anybody who may have a suggestion, or experience to share. I am at my wits end. I literally had said that if it didn't boot this time that I would attempt one last re-install before giving up. I am enjoying Mint when it works, I just need to figure out what is happening, so I can enjoy it more!

[big_dog1968]

Any suggestions. I read a similar thread, but did not quite understand what finally worked. Any ideas will be appreciated. I have new equipment including SATA drive, 64bit Intel Quad core processor and an ATI 3850 chipset video card if that helps.

[cmost]

You do have some pretty cutting edge hardware and it's possible Mint is taking issue with something on your system. Since there aren't a flood of users complaining about the same problem, I would suspect there's something about your particular setup that is causing the issue. By the way, the gnome-settings error pops up periodically; on some systems after the first boot but typically doesn't show up again (at least not in my experience) and theming will appear normally. What I would suggest is for you to download the latest Sidux or Sabayon Linux live CD and test your hardware with one of those. These distributions are more cutting edge and tend to support newer hardware a bit better than Ubuntu & its derivatives. If these your hardware works fine with Sidux or Sabayon, then we'll have to dig a bit deeper to figure out why Mint doesn't like your particular setup and see if we can tweak it to get it working. Post back your progress. Thanks!

[Fred]

big_dog1968,

If I had to guess, and it would only be a semi-educated guess at that, I would say:

Quad-Core processor

ATI graphics card

Bad cd

Did you burn the cd s-l-o-w and check the md5sum. Just because the md5 sum will check right one time doesn't guarantee the cd is good.

cmost's advice will at least tell you if you have a chance of getting it to work.

Fred

[big_dog1968]

Fred I just don't get why it loads and runs normally once and then three times fails to load and then loads again, and then maybe 6 times fails, then maybe loads several times in a row, before failing. If the install were bad, wouldn't it fail every time?

[Fred]

big_dog1968 wrote:

Fred I just don't get why it loads and runs normally once and then three times fails to load and then loads again, and then maybe 6 times fails, then maybe loads several times in a row, before failing. If the install were bad, wouldn't it fail every time?

Probably but not necessarily. A bad install cd can yield some pretty erratic and inconsistent behavior. What you are seeing may be just a symptom of something that does go wrong every time. You are just not seeing that particular symptom every time.

You haven't set your bios to over clock or changed your ram timing for better performance have you?

Go with cmost's suggestions, and like he said, let's see where it leads.

Fred

[big_dog1968]

big_dog1968 wrote:

Fred I just don't get why it loads and runs normally once and then three times fails to load and then loads again, and then maybe 6 times fails, then maybe loads several times in a row, before failing. If the install were bad, wouldn't it fail every time?

Probably but not necessarily. A bad install cd can yield some pretty erratic and inconsistent behavior. What you are seeing may be just a symptom of something that does go wrong every time. You are just not seeing that particular symptom every time.

You haven't set your bios to over clock or changed your ram timing for better performance have you?

Go with cmost's suggestions, and like he said, let's see where it leads.

Fred

I am downloading Sabayon. All 4.7 Gig of it. Even at 785KB/s it takes forever, but hopefully it will work.
I will post my experience with it once it is up and running. Hopefully it is not to technical to get running, since I am a lowly Windows user and have an instinctive fear of the command prompt!

[big_dog1968]

I downloaded and installed Sabayon. I initially had problems getting the live CD to work, but someone suggested that I add xdriver=ati res1440x900 at grub. The version on Linux Kernal was released before my card vame out. I am not sure how I can do something similar with mint. Once I did that, Sabayon installed, and the desktop appeared. I will say this though, Sabayon is not nearly as user friendly as mint for a newbie. If anyone can suggest how to do something similar in mint to get it running consisten, I would appreciate.

I attached the thread so you can see what helped in the case of Sabayon http://www.sabayonlinux.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=12741

[big_dog1968]

Update:
1. I downloaded, and md5summed a new iso (it was good). Then I burned it, and installed it.
2. I had trouble getting my ATI card installed, but eventually got to the ENVY site and downloaded the latest version, which has the driver that runs the 3850 video cards. The video is perfect now and 3d games are flying.
3. The boot problem is there still. I ran the boot without quiet splash and noticed an error at the end. Something like - SDA4 /dev/blah blah blah does not exist.
That is what is happening sometimes. For some reason, it sometimes doesn't see my hard drive. So I still need help, but maybe that message means something that is solvable.
4. Whenever it runs Mint is excellent!

BTW: for some reason, Synaptic shows as installed, but does not appear in the menu, unless I un-install and re-install. I did it and it works fine now, but thought you would like to know.

[Fred]

big_dog1968,

Well it looks like you have made some progress.

I need some information in order to help you at this point. If you will post a copy of Mint "/boot/grub/menu.lst" and "/etc/fstab" it would be helpful. Also, I need a copy of your partition table. If you look in the menu you will find a program called "Gparted." Open it and you will see what I am talking about. You can post a screen shot if that is easier for you. Try to make it large if you would.... old eyes.

Fred

[big_dog1968]

big_dog1968,

Well it looks like you have made some progress.

I need some information in order to help you at this point. If you will post a copy of Mint "/boot/grub/menu.lst" and "/etc/fstab" it would be helpful. Also, I need a copy of your partition table. If you look in the menu you will find a program called "Gparted." Open it and you will see what I am talking about. You can post a screen shot if that is easier for you. Try to make it large if you would.... old eyes.

Fred

Fred,
The menu.lst and fstab files would not upload as is, so I copied the contents into open office word documents and attached them that way. I also attached a picture of the gpart.
Thanks

[Fred]

big_dog1968,

I need you to check something else for me. Open a terminal and type:

sudo vol_id -u /dev/sda4

You will get back a string of numbers/letters. That is the UIDD of your root partition. Post it for me please sir.

Fred

[big_dog1968]

big_dog1968,

I need you to check something else for me. Open a terminal and type:

sudo vol_id -u /dev/sda4

You will get back a string of numbers/letters. That is the UIDD of your root partition. Post it for me please sir.

Fred

abe96828-cd54-4216-98cb-b04b22f78023

[Fred]

big_dog1968

Well, so far the only thing I see wrong is the swap partition. You have 2 Gig. of ram. The total of your swap and ram shouldn't be more than 4 Gig. So your swap partition should be 2 Gig. instead of almost 7.5 Gig.

I can't say that is the problem you are having though. That is a very large swap. I don't know if it could be a problem or not. I really kind of doubt it, but it is worth a try to fix it.

Boot your live cd and and open Gparted from the live cd. Click on the swap partition, right click and resize to 2 Gig. and set that one 2 Gig. partition to reformat as swap. Commit the changes and quit. Reboot and remove the cd so it will go to the boot screen.

Remove the "quiet splash" boot option and boot Mint. I need to know what the sda/ bla. bla, bla you mentioned earlier is.

Fred

[big_dog1968]

I'll resize the swap. The only reason I made it that size was that I had read it should be 4x your memory. I have 2 gig so I thought 8 gig was appropriate. I'll let you know what happens after changes.

[big_dog1968]

Fred,
These are pics of what I see when I delete quiet splash and boot fails. pic9 shows the message about the drive not existing. The others sho that it is failing to "recover some devices" including my HD. I can only attach three pics at a time so I made three posts.

[big_dog1968]

Pic 4,5,6.

[big_dog1968]

Pic9.jpg is the money shot. "alert! /dev/sda4 does not exist"

[Fred]

Very strange. I would make more sense to me if it happened all the time. Oh well, I am tired. Let me think about it a while and I'll get back to you.

In the mean time, let's go ahead and fix the UUID for the swap partition you modified. Any time you repartition/format a partition the UUID changes. When you can get back into the system, open a terminal and type:

sudo vol_id -u /dev/sda3

You will get that string of numbers/letters again. Open an editor with sudo or kdesu if you are using the kde version. Then open /etc/fstab. Be careful, this is an important file. Just under the line # /dev/sda3 you will see a line beginning with UUID= 32 numbers/letters.

Replace that string with the UUID you just calculated. Double check your work, save the file, and close the editor. Your UUIDs should be right again.

Let me give this some thought.

Fred