I've updated my toshiba a40 laptop from ubuntu jackalop3 to ubuntu 9.10 (karmic)

slefave · 12-20-2009, 07:06 PM

Now my system won't start in the 2.6.31-16 kernel and I have to go back to 2.6.28-16 and when I do that there isn't any sound. my sound card is an integrated intel soundmax. I've tried to load the alsa drivers but when I ./configure the utils it comes up with an error msg and it won't continue. Now it wouldn't really be a problem as I've burned the newest release onto a cd but wouldn't ya know it... my dvdrw/cdrw player has gone on the fritz. I'm using the xfce gui and can get my machine up and running but don't want to have to use the esc function on the loader when I'm starting up and it would be good to have sound as I want this machine to be my video player. I have a dell laptop with XP on it and was going to just go to that one but I use it with my tv converter so I can record shows on it and there aren't any linux drivers for the converter. If there were I'd have linux on that one in a heartbeat as well.
I've used linux before but most of what I've done has been mostly luck. If anyone knows of a way to load ubuntu without having to boot from the cd that would be great. I do have an external cd drive but can't set the machine to boot from the usb port. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

linus72 · 12-20-2009, 07:33 PM

OK
first, if you have a working ubuntu install, then even if your computer desnt support boot from usb usb-cdrom,etc
then you need Plop bootmanager
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#download

get it and extract it
find a file named "plpbt.bin"

put that in your /boot folder
open a text editor as root
and edit your /boot/grub/grub.cfg

sudo nautilus/or mousepad/or gedit

what desktop are you using?
xubuntu/kubuntu/ or ubuntu?

edit your grub.cfg so add this entry

Code:

menuentry "Plop (on /dev/hda3)" {
	set root=(hd0,3)
	linux /boot/plpbt.bin 
}

also, if it wont boot, says error or something change

Code:

linux /boot/plpbt.bin

to

Code:

linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin

as sometimes grub2 thinks its a floppy?

anyway
OR
on my ubuntu setup I put plpbt.bin in /boot folder
and ran

Code:

sudo update-grub

and it automatically found it for me and added it to grub.cfg

after you put it in boot folder,etc
reboot
plug in usb-cdrom

choose plop from menu
choose usb
choose cdrom
or whatever works

probably usb

Plop works like 99%

after you get that going you can reinstall

Or chroot in and try to fix too

OH: the screen problem is like mine
it freaks out huh?

edit your grub.cfg after doing update-grub and put on the kernel line

Code:

xforcevesa

so it may look like

Code:

menuentry "CrunchBang, kernel 2.6.28-16-generic (on /dev/hda3)" {
	set root=(hd0,3)
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic xforcevesa root=UUID=0e518d1f-5e85-4c0e-8431-fada5694275f ro quiet splash
	initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-16-generic
}

same for 9.10, just put it on kernel line as above