Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

[Computersleuth]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. How is it that an LTS release that is supposedly rock solid stable is unable to even boot on so many machines? That's inexcusable. I'm really disappointed in the Mint team for this one. For now I'll stick with Daryna until this ridiculous bug is fixed.

On software of any significant size, there exists bugs. I suggest you get used to it.

[Missed]

When the iso is updated for the "mintassistant bug", I'll download it and try a fresh install with ext2 for the root.

Would be nice to see some input from Clem or Husse about this issue.

[Computersleuth]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. How is it that an LTS release that is supposedly rock solid stable is unable to even boot on so many machines? That's inexcusable. I'm really disappointed in the Mint team for this one. For now I'll stick with Daryna until this ridiculous bug is fixed.

This is not a Mint-isolated problem. The same thing is happening with Ubuntu Hardy.

BTW, I reinstalled Elyssa and adding:
"all_generic_ide floppy=off irqpoll" after "quiet_splash" in /boot/grub/menu.lst

And so far it works

What is the procedure for modifying /boot/grub/menu.lst when we are unable to boot into Linux? Do we use the text editor off of the live-cd?

[Computersleuth]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. How is it that an LTS release that is supposedly rock solid stable is unable to even boot on so many machines? That's inexcusable. I'm really disappointed in the Mint team for this one. For now I'll stick with Daryna until this ridiculous bug is fixed.

This is not a Mint-isolated problem. The same thing is happening with Ubuntu Hardy.

BTW, I reinstalled Elyssa and adding:
"all_generic_ide floppy=off irqpoll" after "quiet_splash" in /boot/grub/menu.lst

And so far it works

What is the procedure for modifying /boot/grub/menu.lst when we are unable to boot into Linux? Do we use the text editor off of the live-cd?

[Missed]

I reinstalled using EXT2 for root. Couldn't get to the desktop at all. Reinstalled with EXT3, and got to the desktop first try.
So, no nearer to a solution.

If the problem reappears I'll try the modified boot argument.

[Missed]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. How is it that an LTS release that is supposedly rock solid stable is unable to even boot on so many machines? That's inexcusable. I'm really disappointed in the Mint team for this one. For now I'll stick with Daryna until this ridiculous bug is fixed.

This is not a Mint-isolated problem. The same thing is happening with Ubuntu Hardy.

BTW, I reinstalled Elyssa and adding:
"all_generic_ide floppy=off irqpoll" after "quiet_splash" in /boot/grub/menu.lst

And so far it works

What is the procedure for modifying /boot/grub/menu.lst when we are unable to boot into Linux? Do we use the text editor off of the live-cd?

Yes.

[Joe Mama]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. How is it that an LTS release that is supposedly rock solid stable is unable to even boot on so many machines? That's inexcusable. I'm really disappointed in the Mint team for this one. For now I'll stick with Daryna until this ridiculous bug is fixed.

On software of any significant size, there exists bugs. I suggest you get used to it.

I realize that bugs will alwas exist, and that's fine. Maybe I can't watch youtube or play mp3's or access my email or whatever, but being unable to boot my computer is in fact inexcusable. This being an LTS release makes it even more so.

Mint is supposed to be the most user friendly linux, a kind of way to ween pc users off of windows, but when they try an OS that isn't even going to boot for them do you think they'll check the forums and see if there's a solution? No, they'll probably just chuck the CD deciding that this is a garbage OS without even trying it.

"Getting used to it" really isn't a viable answer to most people's problems.

[Computersleuth]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. How is it that an LTS release that is supposedly rock solid stable is unable to even boot on so many machines? That's inexcusable. I'm really disappointed in the Mint team for this one. For now I'll stick with Daryna until this ridiculous bug is fixed.

On software of any significant size, there exists bugs. I suggest you get used to it.

I realize that bugs will alwas exist, and that's fine. Maybe I can't watch youtube or play mp3's or access my email or whatever, but being unable to boot my computer is in fact inexcusable. This being an LTS release makes it even more so.

Mint is supposed to be the most user friendly linux, a kind of way to ween pc users off of windows, but when they try an OS that isn't even going to boot for them do you think they'll check the forums and see if there's a solution? No, they'll probably just chuck the CD deciding that this is a garbage OS without even trying it.

"Getting used to it" really isn't a viable answer to most people's problems.

I apologize. I did not mean to come across as angry or judgmental. It is a fact, however, that all software has bugs.

[clem]

Hi,

I'll be away for a week so I won't be able to help much with that.. but it looks like it's a problem with the 2.6.24-16 kernel and your hardware. One of my box has the same issue.. the solution is to use kernel boot options.

To do it once: in the grub screen... choose 2.6.24-16-generic and edit the boot line to add "all_generic_ide floppy=off irqpoll" after "quiet_splash".

To do it permanently, edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst, find the line for 2.6.24-16-generic and do the same in there.

On my box, adding "irqpoll" in the end of the boot line does the trick.. I don't need the other options, but some of you might, depending on your hardware. This new kernel is great but as with every new kernel we find we need new boot options to make it behave nicely... that's the trade off.. with innovation comes regressions.

Once everything is fixed I would recommend getting the new kernel from the repositories (mintUpdate level 4/5) and giving it a try to see if it works fine without any option.

Clem.

[Guest]

That's strange because Hardy worked fine for me...

Isn't it the same kernel? Oh well, I'll give this a go. Thanks Clem.

[Missed]

Thanks Clem. Nice to get some definite info about this issue,

[Missed]

I found that this "floppy=off irqpoll" worked for me.

[Nessa]

So... I just installed Mint 5 on my Compaq Presario v2000z notebook. I've successfully ran Ubuntu 8.04 back to 5.something on it. I also had Mint 4 installed and working properly before. I opted to install a fresh copy per advisement. Now I am without a GUI. I'm not of the command line exactly but I don't know what I need to do to make things work. I get GRUB up fine (graphical version at that) and then Mint starts booting. However, it takes an extraordinarily long time to boot (as I'm sure its looking for something that doesn't exist or is corrupted?). Eventually I'm left with a black screen stating "BusyBox v.1.1.3 (Debian ...) Built-in shell (ash) / Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

So help um helps me about as much as an Amish man driving a car. Thus my plea to those of you with far greater knowledge, what do I do?

By the way, I also had the same problem with Mint 5 Beta.

Specs...
Compaq Presario v2000z
ATI graphics
Sempron 2800
30 GB partition
2 GB RAM
2 GB swap
what else do you need to know?


Chris
http://www.muddygeek.com

I ran into the same issue and was able to use a temporary fix (adding "all_generic_ide floppy=off irqpoll") to get the gui working for me to be able to update the kernel. Remove "quiet splash" when you boot and check where it stops. That will give us a clue and point to the device that's causing the problem.

[Raffael]

Ok, some info to help You.

My specs:
AMD Athlon 64
MSI K9N Platinum
1GB RAM
1x SATA Seagate hdd with Windows XP
1x IDE Seagate hdd (through JMicron controller) with Linux Mint 5
1x LG DVD-RW

1.I've used

all_generic_ide floppy=off irqpoll

and it worked. I was able to update everything in my system through mintUpdate, I even chose updates with 4th and 5th level.
I haven't updated the kernel.
It didn't change a thing during booting - error is still there so updating won't help You.

2.When I remove quiet_splash i get:

Code: Select all

Running /scripts/init-bottom
Mounting /root/dev on /dev/.static/dev failed: no such file or directory
Done
Mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: no such file or directory 
Mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: no such file or directory 
Target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init

and the I get into busybox.

3.I've repaired it in my case by disabling all sata devices in my bios (so the HDD with WinXP isn't visible).
I've installed Linux Mint 5 with my SATA drives disabled to prevent MBR modification by GRUB so I have 2 HDD with MBR.
I use mainboard's built-in boot manager to choose from drive to boot.
After disabling SATA in BIOS everything works fine, Linux boots normally.

Maybe Linux Mint is trying to access system folders on SATA drive? That would explain the error about non existing file or directory.

UPDATE: New Kernel won't solve the problem. When I updated it through mintUpdate and after reboot enabled SATA devices everything went back to the beggining of this problem and I wasn't able to log into GUI. It's not the kernel problem.

[-al-]

Had this problem myself, for some reason when booting it couldnt find "/dev/hda1" , tried a few of the kernel boot option suggested here but no luck. Finally i reinstalled LM5 but formatted the filesystem as ext2 rather than ext3. Dont know if that has any significance as im still new at linux.


Al.

[rbanavara]

I am not sure if this helps, but I had read some where when I was having issues with ubuntu 7.04 booting on my inspiron 1520. There are some commands, rather options to kernel line in grub (break=top or break=bottom) using which you can stop boot halfway. Now you can amend the xorg.conf if its there & continue booting by pressing exit. This didn't help me with 7.04 live CD though! But may be worth giving it a try.

[Raffael]

So I guess were stuck with this little annoying problem...

Ok, maybe it's an effect of installing Linux on IDE drive while my SATA drive was disabled in BIOS (so no GRUB would be placed on SATA drive) and enabling the drive after installation perturbs drive numbers (hda(0,0) maybe should be hda(1,0)) for the Linux boot manager. Any idea if it's possible?

[T-L]

So... I just installed Mint 5 on my Compaq Presario v2000z notebook. I've successfully ran Ubuntu 8.04 back to 5.something on it. I also had Mint 4 installed and working properly before. I opted to install a fresh copy per advisement. Now I am without a GUI. I'm not of the command line exactly but I don't know what I need to do to make things work. I get GRUB up fine (graphical version at that) and then Mint starts booting. However, it takes an extraordinarily long time to boot (as I'm sure its looking for something that doesn't exist or is corrupted?). Eventually I'm left with a black screen stating "BusyBox v.1.1.3 (Debian ...) Built-in shell (ash) / Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

So help um helps me about as much as an Amish man driving a car. Thus my plea to those of you with far greater knowledge, what do I do?

By the way, I also had the same problem with Mint 5 Beta.

Specs...
Compaq Presario v2000z
ATI graphics
Sempron 2800
30 GB partition
2 GB RAM
2 GB swap
what else do you need to know?


Chris
http://www.muddygeek.com

I've seen this on a few installs.. namly on Compaq and HP laptops. Try this: When you power on and get to the grub menu hit the arrow keys before it automatically boots. Depending on your setup, you will have a list of all your installed operating systems.. if you did a default Mint install, then the first line should be your Linux Mint system. Make sure that line is highlighted, and you will see at the bottom of the screen the boot options. Arrow left until you see hda. Change this to say sda. Should look somthing like root=/dev/sdaX (X being the number of your drive where Mint is installed) Hit enter and see if it boots. If it does, you just need to edit your menu.lst to make it permanent. Let us know how it goes...

[reactiv8]

So... I just installed Mint 5 on my Compaq Presario v2000z notebook. I've successfully ran Ubuntu 8.04 back to 5.something on it. I also had Mint 4 installed and working properly before. I opted to install a fresh copy per advisement. Now I am without a GUI. I'm not of the command line exactly but I don't know what I need to do to make things work. I get GRUB up fine (graphical version at that) and then Mint starts booting. However, it takes an extraordinarily long time to boot (as I'm sure its looking for something that doesn't exist or is corrupted?). Eventually I'm left with a black screen stating "BusyBox v.1.1.3 (Debian ...) Built-in shell (ash) / Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

So help um helps me about as much as an Amish man driving a car. Thus my plea to those of you with far greater knowledge, what do I do?

By the way, I also had the same problem with Mint 5 Beta.

Specs...
Compaq Presario v2000z
ATI graphics
Sempron 2800
30 GB partition
2 GB RAM
2 GB swap
what else do you need to know?


Chris
http://www.muddygeek.com

I've seen this on a few installs.. namly on Compaq and HP laptops. Try this: When you power on and get to the grub menu hit the arrow keys before it automatically boots. Depending on your setup, you will have a list of all your installed operating systems.. if you did a default Mint install, then the first line should be your Linux Mint system. Make sure that line is highlighted, and you will see at the bottom of the screen the boot options. Arrow left until you see hda. Change this to say sda. Should look somthing like root=/dev/sdaX (X being the number of your drive where Mint is installed) Hit enter and see if it boots. If it does, you just need to edit your menu.lst to make it permanent. Let us know how it goes...

I had to re-install Minty Fresh 5 with my other HDD physically disconnected to get around this. It seems as though BusyBl**dyBox doesn't like EIDE drives, and/or Windows, but I'm going to try your suggestion, it looks like the first sensible idea I've had on this one, so a BIG:~ "NOT WORTHY" to You Sir! - (assuming it works of course ... we shall see! - Hang on ...) Oh, and, where is 'menu.lst' Pretty Please?

Chris. (I'm another one!)

[reactiv8]

So... I just installed Mint 5 on my Compaq Presario v2000z notebook. I've successfully ran Ubuntu 8.04 back to 5.something on it. I also had Mint 4 installed and working properly before. I opted to install a fresh copy per advisement. Now I am without a GUI. I'm not of the command line exactly but I don't know what I need to do to make things work. I get GRUB up fine (graphical version at that) and then Mint starts booting. However, it takes an extraordinarily long time to boot (as I'm sure its looking for something that doesn't exist or is corrupted?). Eventually I'm left with a black screen stating "BusyBox v.1.1.3 (Debian ...) Built-in shell (ash) / Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

So help um helps me about as much as an Amish man driving a car. Thus my plea to those of you with far greater knowledge, what do I do?

By the way, I also had the same problem with Mint 5 Beta.

Specs...
Compaq Presario v2000z
ATI graphics
Sempron 2800
30 GB partition
2 GB RAM
2 GB swap
what else do you need to know?


Chris
http://www.muddygeek.com

I've seen this on a few installs.. namly on Compaq and HP laptops. Try this: When you power on and get to the grub menu hit the arrow keys before it automatically boots. Depending on your setup, you will have a list of all your installed operating systems.. if you did a default Mint install, then the first line should be your Linux Mint system. Make sure that line is highlighted, and you will see at the bottom of the screen the boot options. Arrow left until you see hda. Change this to say sda. Should look somthing like root=/dev/sdaX (X being the number of your drive where Mint is installed) Hit enter and see if it boots. If it does, you just need to edit your menu.lst to make it permanent. Let us know how it goes...

You're on the right track here matey, but it didn't work when I tried it ... However, I've got Vista on a Seagate EIDE, Mint 5 on a SCSI SATA and BusyBl**dyBox doesn't like it! - I can only talk to you now with Minty Freshness, with the Vista HDD physically disconnected ... Ho Hum ... "ide=nodma" just made Minty hang in limbo ...