startup problem after updating ubuntu 10.04
 

Hi all,

i am using dell inspiron 1545 laptop with intel C2D, RAM 3 GB. i have installed ubuntu 10.04 lypid lynx (LTS) using live CD. after this i upgraded the operating system using the update manager.

i had restarted the system after update. the system hangs at the login screen. the system does not respond. the mouse also does not work.

when i launch the recovery mode, the system hangs after the below mentioned code.
once the system also got hanged before this code.


Please tell how to solve this problem.

Thanks in advance,
ntu929.

Greetingz!

"sdb" sounds like you have an additional drive of some kind connected to the laptop (perhaps via USB?).
I would recommend you disconnect all USB peripherals, then give the system a reboot.

Next time it hangs on the GUI, try to hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or Ctrl+Alt+F2, or Ctrl+Alt+F3, etc, etc) and get a terminal session up. Then look at your logs to get a handle on exactly what's hanging.

Hi,

when i press ctrl+fn+alt. the terminal window does not open at the startup. even the mouse does not move and the system clock is the only thing that gets updated. i only have to power off the laptop to restart it.

DURING RECOVERY MODE:

At different times the system hangs at different startup messages.

when i run live cd with option 'Try Ubuntu before installing' the system hangs after the following message:-
if i again use the same option 'try ubuntu before installing' the system hangs after the following message:-

All this is only adding to further confusion

when i select 'install ubuntu' option from the live cd, the system hangs at a black screen cursor with no message.



i fear that all my data present in linux ext2 file system will get lost.

the windows system (Vista and Win 7) are working fine.
Please tell how to go about solving this problem...

Regards,
ntu929.

Does this happen with other distributions? Have you tried booting with something like knoppix?

I said "Ctrl+Alt+F1", not "Fn". You should have a row of keys on your keyboard labeled "F1", "F2", "F3", and so forth, all the way to "F12".
Try the key combo above (Ctrl+Alt+), and one of the Function keys (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6....F12). Note that you have to "Press, and hold" each key.

Basically, you need to go to a virtual (text-based, not graphical) terminal.

Once you're at a working terminal, then you should be able to start digging around your log files and find the root of your problem (or at least some sort of error that you can come back here and post).

Make sense?

Also, go grab a KNOPPIX Live Boot ISO and make sure it boots-up all the way (and it's a bit more forgiving on buggy hardware).

P.S: Any extra USB devices (like a flash drive or something) connected? Remove 'em and boot again.

Re:
 

i have used fedora 12 DVD for startup, the anaconda installer starts normally. i am now downloading live CD of knoppix to check how boot up works with knoppix.

i have tried this key combination but nothing happens. The system simply hangs except for the clock.
By using the installation disc of Fedora 12, i select 'rescue a system'. i am able to get to the terminal with the system's image being mounted at /mnt/sysimage. Please tell where and what contents of the log files need to seen ? The exact details which i need to look for, i do not know.

Started downloading knnopix at slow internet connection speed.
i do not have any extra USB devices attached to the system. i have not installed any extra support (h/w or s/w) for both of them.

Thanks,
ntu929

i tried to burn to ISO image onto a CD but the burning process failed. Is it that the CD was corrupt or the there was some problem with the ISO image ?

Regards,
ntu929

This is not going to help ;)

The message where it hangs does not mean much in Ubuntu because of the way it works using upstart. I have similar issues where it hangs about 50% of the time when trying to boot to GUI (Ubuntu 10.04 / 64 bit). And yes, it is totally unresponsive at that stage. It however starts 100% reliable in text mode.

If you want to give that a shot, edit the grub bootline by pressing 'e' when grub shows; replace quiet splash by text (you can navigate using the arrow keys) and press <ctrl>x to boot with that setting.

If that works, you can login (be aware that you will not see anything when entering the password) and use the startx command or sudo service gdm start to start the graphical environment.

There seem to be some issue when using startx, so I guess the latter is the preferred way and is what I use.

For me, the latter command works 99% reliable (I've had one instance in the last two months or so where where it did not work and that was after I tried startx).

Question. Did you upgrade to 10.10 / 11.04 or did you just do an update? What is the video card in your system? nVidia?

There are certain things which are difficult to appreciate logically....
That what happened with me. initially was trying to boot from the live CD of ubuntu, the system used to hang up again and again. But now, with no changes, the live CD started and i was able to re-install the operating system (Ubuntu 10.04) LTS.

Please tell what all things should i avoid in update to prevent such hang-ups again ?

Regards,
ntu929

I know. If Ubuntu works, it works well. Once it stops working, it's a monster to find the problem.

There is not much that you can do. Updates are a necessary evil.
One thing would be not to use proprietary drivers (e.g. nvidia) if not absolutely necessary; use the drivers from the repository. If you use a proprietary driver, your problem makes sense and you need to recompile it after a kernel update if you encounter the problem.

Is there any edition of Linux which can be said to be trouble-free ?
lets say i do not do any update. Instead i take only install selected packages using apt-get install will that work? Or is it that i will be lost in the dependency checks ?

Can i use propretary drivers for media player ? i dont think that this may again hang the o.s. at the startup ?

Regards,
ntu929.