SOLVED: Why is there a Log in screen for Mint 8 live CD?

[nuttymango]

I just downloaded the LinuxMint-8.iso and successfully checked the md5 sum. But when I try to boot it on my PIII laptop (Compaq Armada 110) with 576MB RAM and Trident CyberBlade i1 graphics chip (yes, ancient but I've managed to get other distros running), I get a log in screen.

Why a log in screen for a live CD? Oh, by the way, I have to boot with the compatibility option or by manually adding an "xforcevesa" boot option. The log in screen yields nothing but "Authentication failure" messages.

Further info: I once had Mint 7 running great at 1024x768 with the trident driver. But after a long stint on my iMac, and a reinstall of Mint 7 on my ancient Armada 110, I have forgotten where I found recipe for a functional xorg.conf. Something keeps overwriting it on every reboot.

So I moved up to Mint 8. Also, I just booted the "CD Integrity Check" from the Mint 8 CD with the result "No errors found."

Ideas?

[MaddogF16]

? said by nigrunze :

Try one of these suggestions.

1) Wait. On older computers Ubuntu (and Mint) come up with a login screen before automatically logging in to the live user. I think it has something to do with older computers not being able to load the OS fast enough. I don't remember where I read that, I think it was on the Ubuntu forums.
2) Leave the user name blank. Just press enter twice to skip the username and then the password.
3) Try the username mint with either no password or the password mint.
Using mint as the user name and blank password worked. Although he had to use failsafe gnome. He got it installed, but still has to use failsafe gnome, but since he is using it mainly for FAH anyway.

[nuttymango]

I don't know who to thank, MaddogF16 or nigrunze. Both I guess.

1) I think you hit the nail on the head. I left the old laptop booting (for about the fifth try) and got busy on the Mac. After a while, I heard the mint bells and went over to look. No log in screen! It may just take a very long time for the log in screen to disappear on my PIII 850Mhz laptop.

The problem may also be a bad CD even though the md5 and "Integrity check" were both good. I ran the installer and it failed due to errors. I'll report further findings.

2) & 3)
blank
blank

mint
mint

Both resulted in "Authentication failure." Will try this later:

mint
blank

Also, what is FAH?

[MaddogF16]

I just found it in a google search of your issue.

[nuttymango]

Well, thanks again. I didn't have any luck with google or the forums search engine.

Next boot of Mint 8 (compatibility mode) stuck at the log in screen for 30 minutes or more so it seems somewhat random. I'm burning another CD now and I'm going to burn one from a windows PC also.

[MaddogF16]

Wow, have we reached the point where it takes a gig to make things work effectively. It states a 512mb minimum?

[nuttymango]

I think Mint 8 will run successfully in 576MB or RAM if only because Mint 7 did.

The problem was definitely the CD. I burned another one (Staples brand instead of Memorex media), booted in compatibility mode and successfully ran the installer.

Now Grub version 1.97 tells me:

error: no such device: e108188e-something-string-chars-gobbledygook

Press any key to continue ...

I thought Mint 8 was supposed to use Grub2?

[MaddogF16]

Beta 1.97 is Grub2, but not sure why you're getting this? I first thought maybe BIOS wasn't seeing the HD,but now a bright idea has hit me (Is there a floppy drive in this?).

[nuttymango]

There is a floppy drive in this machine. There might even be a disk in the drive. I'll go check.

I think I'll get Mint 8 working eventually. The new CD I burned seems to work just fine in live mode.

1) Do you know where the installer puts grub by default when you tell it (through the partitioner) to mount sda5 and sda6 as your only partitions "/" and "swap" respectively? At the end of the install dialogue, I do not click "advanced" to select a location for grub so the installer puts it in the MBR right? So does that mean grub gets intalled to sda or sda1?

2) This grub error "device not found:" might have something to due with choosing to format sda5 as ext4 instead of ext3. I saw the option in the partioner and thought I'd try it out.

3) We're well off the topic I started this thread with. Do you think I should start a new thread?

[nuttymango]

Here is the answer to the title of my post regarding my ancient Compaq Armada 110 with Trident Cyberblade i1 graphics. It seems likely that the optical media were at fault. All CDs were burned on an intel iMac using Disk Utility.

CD No. 1: Memorex branded media. Passed md5 and CD integrity checks. One successful install. Reboot yielded a Grub 1.97 message: "error: no such device: e108188e-some-other-chars-here." Otherwise, failed to boot each time presenting a log in screen followed by "Authentication failure."

CD No. 2: Staples branded media. Not checked. Booted successfully every time. Many attempted installs each failing. Error message suggested checking CD.

CD No. 3: Staples branded media. Not checked. Booted and installed successfully first time. Reboot yielded a Grub 1.97 message: "error: no such device: 89c4a011-some-other-chars-here."

Now I'm off to solve the Grub "error: no such device:" I'll try formatting with ext3 instead of ext4 next time.

[breaker]

Could be a problem with UUID changing and grub trying to find it. At the grub menu, try dropping to a command shell and doing stuff like ls, or ls /boot or ls (hd0,1)/boot, to see if at least grub can access your Mint partition. Change my example (hd0,1) to the location of your Mint /boot partition.

If UUID is a problem, change your menu entry at boot to remove the search for UUID and try again. IF it works, set labels on your Mint partitions and add custom entries to your menu using said labels.

[nuttymango]

Could be a problem with UUID changing and grub trying to find it. At the grub menu, try dropping to a command shell and doing stuff like ls, or ls /boot or ls (hd0,1)/boot, to see if at least grub can access your Mint partition. Change my example (hd0,1) to the location of your Mint /boot partition.

If UUID is a problem, change your menu entry at boot to remove the search for UUID and try again. IF it works, set labels on your Mint partitions and add custom entries to your menu using said labels.

Thanks for this. I'll need a little help as my Linux book doesn't cover GRUB2. I'm going to start a new thread.