Ubuntu

Ubuntu 8.04 hangs after startup or no response.

Asked by Imran Sadiq Khan

I am new to linux (ubuntu) and did a clean fresh installation of 8.04 I386-Desktop version. The machine is Intel Mother board with Intel Core 2 Duo. The installation was fine without any problems but as it restarts for the first time, it has been very slow and then hangs. This happens all the time. For some time the Num-Lock key responds with LED ON/OFF but later on no response for this as well. The mouse pointer however always moves but nothing when clicked some where either left or right click.
I have to power off (complete off or HW reset) to get out of it. Have tried to leave it for a long time (more than two hours) but still the same.

And all this just as the system starts up. I have not used any application at all so far as nothing is even possible.

Any help is appreciated.

Would also like to add that Ubuntu is installed on Second Harddisk (IDE) while I have a SATA drive as well on which Windows XP resides. I was unable to boot Ubuntu if system starts up from SATA drive, even though I copied the boot sector with "dd" from ext3 partition to C:\ drive and including it boot ini for startup. If I choose Linux from XP startup, then only get a black screen with a blinking cursor on top lef side of the screen.
To be able to startup Ubuntu, I have to change the boot sequence in the BIOS for HD. Then Grub loads and from here also possible to load Windows XP on the other HD, but Ubuntu is not really useful after startup.

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Bill Turner, wb4alm (wb4alm) said : 		#1

Having had a similar problem (Can't boot from SATA, system hangs), I know that the folks around here will want to know what motherboard and BIOS, etc. you have. Without really know much on the subject (yet) it sounds like it might be a "APIC" and/or 'APM' issue. While waiting for more experienced help you might try searching the forum on 'APIC' or "system Hangs".

When you get ready to install from the Live CD, select the item and press the "F6" key. You will then be able to move the cursor and delete "the last two words (which I think are 'Splash' and 'Quiet') to see more infprmation about what is happening during the initial startup, etc.

You may find that you need to add one of the following (depending on your BIOS) "NOAPIC" or "PCI=NOACP" or "PCI=BIOSIRQ" or "ACPI=off" to get started. I needed to use the "ACPI=off" to get started, but later discovered that I also had some other major hardware issues with my motherboard - which required that I replace it. The new motherboard runs like a champ --- and I did not have an ACPI issue with it.

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Imran Sadiq Khan (khan-imran-sadiq) said : 		#2

After a few days I managed to get more information in case anybody can help further:
In the meantime, I updated my BIOS from version CR94510J.86A.0049 to CR94510J.86A.0059 and ran the installation again from scratch, but again having exacly the same problem.

Following is the info about motherboard, BIOS etc.

     BIOS: CR94510J.86A.0059.2008.0116.1535

     Mother Board: Intel (R) D945 GCCR - AAD78647 - 304
                Chipset: i945 G/GZ Rev. A2

     Processor: Intel (R) Pentium D 925
                 Package: Socket 775 LGA
                 Family: F , Ext. Family: F
                 Model: 6 , Ext. Model: 6
                 Stepping: 5 , Rev. D0

     Display (Integrated): Intel (R) 82945G Express Chipset Family

As was mentioned earlier, I have a SATA drive and IDE drive. Ubuntu is installed on IDE HD and system boots from the same as well. What I also noticed now during startup that following error is seen:

     Buffer I/O error on device sr0 , few times for different logical segments.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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Imran Sadiq Khan (khan-imran-sadiq) said : 		#3

As suggested above by Bill Turner, I tried using "noapic" as boot parameter and situation seems much much better. Now the OS seems stable and I can work with files/folders and use internet as well with Firefox.
I some other forum posts I had read that maybe APIC issue is older and seemed not valid for new OS version, but seems not really true.

Thanks for the hint as now at least I can use the system.

Revision history for this message
Imran Sadiq Khan (khan-imran-sadiq) said : 		#4

As suggested above by Bill Turner, I tried using "noapic" as boot parameter and situation seems much much better. Now the OS seems stable and I can work with files/folders and use internet as well with Firefox.
I some other forum posts I had read that maybe APIC issue is older and seemed not valid for new OS version, but seems not really true.

Thanks for the hint as now at least I can use the system.

Revision history for this message
Imran Sadiq Khan (khan-imran-sadiq) said : 		#5

Solved.