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Old 08-19-2010, 08:42 AM   #1
obnascar
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What Is Wrong With My Computer Specs ?


The reason I am posting this in the newbie area is I have never encountered a problem such as this before, I am not very knowledgeable about compatible chip-sets or what ever is wrong in this case. The new computer I just purchased will not boot up any Linux distros live cd. It sees the first splash screen where you can choose the live cd options, but when it starts loading it does a quick exit and sits there with the cursor blinking, there seems to be no error message except that it is exiting. I have tried to boot up at least 20 or more Linux Live CD's, the CD's are good because I have tried them all on two other computers with success with all of them.

The best I can do at this point would be to post my specs and hope someone recognizes a major compatibility problem. I wish I could supply an error message, I will work on that some more because I know it would be essential. In the mean time my specs are:

Code:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 6
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIB (ICH10) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller #1
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller #2
cheers,
obnascar
 
Old 08-20-2010, 04:04 AM   #2
aus9
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hi

how did you get that lspci output pls?

2) what boot codes did you try?

eg since you have 20 distros....you are likely to have knoppix and try.......knoppix 2.....boot to runlevel 2 meaning no graphical system but boring old 2d.

3) It appears you have only onboard stuff....can you confirm pls?

4) It appears you have no detection of ethernet.....do you have a wireless device not being recognised by the kernel by any chance?

.......Please name your computer make and model.....and in case its the wireless that is causing the crash....name the wireless.

a link to the motherboard site would be helpful.....I assume you have searched the HCL?

good luck
 
Old 08-20-2010, 06:05 AM   #3
johnsfine
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Quote:
Originally Posted by obnascar View Post
when it starts loading it does a quick exit and sits there with the cursor blinking
I can only guess what "exit" means. If you could explain what you mean we wouldn't need to guess. Meanwhile my guess is:

Starting graphics mode failed, dumping you into command line only Linux.

I'm still surprised you were able to post the lspci output you posted. That's easy to get without GUI, but transferring it to somewhere from which you could post it is less easy without GUI.

If you can do that, I would have thought you already know to look in /var/log/Xorg.0.log for the info on why starting graphics mode failed.

So maybe my guess at what you mean by "exit" is all wrong.

Last edited by johnsfine; 08-20-2010 at 06:14 AM.
 
Old 08-20-2010, 08:06 AM   #4
obnascar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aus9 View Post
hi

how did you get that lspci output pls?
I was able to install PCL 2009 previously and obtained that info at that time. Now 2010 will not load the live cd as described in my first post. The only distro that will load the live cd and install now is Ubuntu 10.10 alfa 3 and it does not like the graphic driver. All the rest of the distros I tried will not load the live cd as described in my first post.

Quote:
what boot codes did you try?
sorry, I do not know what you mean by what codes ???

Quote:
eg since you have 20 distros....you are likely to have knoppix and try.......knoppix 2.....boot to runlevel 2 meaning no graphical system but boring old 2d.
20 distros was just a figure of speach, it may be 19 distros, 17 or 21 ect. I could name them all that I have tried if you wish. I do not have a knoppix live cd but I can surely burn one if need be

Quote:
3) It appears you have only onboard stuff....can you confirm pls?
Yes

Quote:
4) It appears you have no detection of ethernet.....do you have a wireless device not being recognised by the kernel by any chance?
Wireless

Quote:
.......Please name your computer make and model.....and in case its the wireless that is causing the crash....name the wireless.
Asus-CM5571-BR003 > Edimax RT2571

Quote:
a link to the motherboard site would be helpful.....I assume you have searched the HCL?
not sure what HCL means > MB: P5QL-M EPU/CM5571/DP > http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us

Code:
Bios: American Megatrends v02.61 1985-2009
ASUS CM5571 ACPI Bios Rev 0221
64-0221-000001-00101111-110309-Eaglelake-A1432001-42KC
Code:
Processor: Intel Pentium E5400 / 2.7 GHz 
Ram: DDR3 SDRAM 
Graphics: Intel GMA X4500 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0
I sincerly have answered your questions the best of my ability and will continue to acknowledge any futher questions you have for me. I truely did not know where to begin trying to explain my problem in my first post.

thank you for responding aus9
 
Old 08-20-2010, 08:30 AM   #5
obnascar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnsfine View Post
I can only guess what "exit" means. If you could explain what you mean we wouldn't need to guess. Meanwhile my guess is:
the text screen shows the word "exiting" with no particular error message...the word "exit" I thought was the best I could explain it. Another explanation of it would be: "it stops loading the live cd" and goes to a blinking cursor in a text screen.

Quote:
Starting graphics mode failed, dumping you into command line only Linux.
no, it did not display that type of message

Quote:
I'm still surprised you were able to post the lspci output you posted. That's easy to get without GUI, but transferring it to somewhere from which you could post it is less easy without GUI.
I do not blame you at all for wondering about this one.....see my answer above to "aus9", I never considered that someone would question this info...sorry !!!

Quote:
If you can do that, I would have thought you already know to look in /var/log/Xorg.0.log for the info on why starting graphics mode failed.
of course my problem is now, the live cd's won't load....therefore there is no /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Quote:
So maybe my guess at what you mean by "exit" is all wrong.
anything is possible ! I for one surely would not know what is going on.

thank you johnsfine for you reply also,
best regards,
obnascar

Last edited by obnascar; 08-20-2010 at 08:32 AM.
 
Old 08-20-2010, 09:10 AM   #6
r3sistance
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I would suggest the possibility of an issue with graphics drivers, Linux itself might still be loading, have you tried hitting (I believe) Control + Alt + F3 and seeing if you can drop to a command line interface? If so you might be able to see the occurring error in /var/log/messages. That would be my guess in this situation, you could try loading explicitly into text mode, some distributions allow you to enter the option for isolinux "linux text" what will just load up a CLI only, this would likely not show the error message if it is graphics related at all since it won't be touching graphical drivers. Just a suggestion I am tossing out there...
 
Old 08-20-2010, 10:03 AM   #7
obnascar
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What Is Wrong With My Computer Specs ?

I was able to produce one image of an error message on one of the distro's live cd. I hope this one can help.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	DSC00458.jpg
Views:	47
Size:	210.7 KB
ID:	4360  

Last edited by obnascar; 08-20-2010 at 10:13 AM. Reason: revised image
 
Old 08-20-2010, 10:43 AM   #8
obnascar
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One more image of another live cd trying to load. The error message is in the middle of the screen "unexpected exit with status 0x0009"
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	DSC00463.jpg
Views:	35
Size:	267.0 KB
ID:	4362  
 
Old 08-20-2010, 12:35 PM   #9
fbobraga
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the model of your motherboard is "P5QL-VM EPU"? (there is no "P5QL-M" on http://www.asus.com/)

anyway, your hardware is "too recent" to have any issue: if there is one, probably it's from a fabrication problem (for what warranty exists :P) - try reseting your BIOS/SETUP to default values (if this doesn't work, maybe a BIOS update may do it... but it is far more dangerous to do)

Last edited by fbobraga; 08-20-2010 at 12:44 PM.
 
Old 08-20-2010, 12:45 PM   #10
obnascar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fbobraga View Post
your Motherboard is P5QL-VM EPU? (there is no "P5QL-M" in http://www.asus.com/)
I just read in a google search after I posted that, other Asus users have been reporting the same thing. I am not of course able to give you the reason for that. But that is the correct MB#

Quote:
anyway - try reseting your BIOS/SETUP to default values
I think I have already tried that but I will again to make sure.
 
Old 08-20-2010, 02:58 PM   #11
r3sistance
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From what I can see, that error does not appear Fatal, it looks like it is still attempting to load after it too, so I don't think that is your issue, it might mean there is an issue, but I don't think it is what is causing the system to appear to crash.
 
Old 08-20-2010, 03:18 PM   #12
obnascar
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I tried disabling the wireless device and all other usb devices with no different results than before.

EDIT: any chance a bios upgrade might help ??

Last edited by obnascar; 08-20-2010 at 03:21 PM.
 
Old 08-20-2010, 03:51 PM   #13
xtacease
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Quote:
Originally Posted by obnascar View Post
I tried disabling the wireless device and all other usb devices with no different results than before.
perhaps your live CDs have older versions of X that are unsupported by the northbridge. Maybe burning newer editions or updating your X11/Free86/etc on your current distros will remedy the problem.

Quote:
EDIT: any chance a bios upgrade might help ??
possibly, but the releases don't seem to correlate to your issue, but you never know.

[EDIT]Perhaps the default settings in the BIOS are the root of your problem. See if fiddling with them (within reason of course) helps [/EDIT]

Last edited by xtacease; 08-20-2010 at 03:54 PM. Reason: addition
 
Old 08-20-2010, 05:22 PM   #14
r3sistance
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Did you do as I suggested in my first response and see if you can get it to boot to console/terminal? Or if it errors when trying to load a console, you might get to see more information that way. If you can enter an isolinux option do "linux text" or "linux expert".
 
Old 08-20-2010, 06:13 PM   #15
RockDoctor
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you might also try booting with "nomodeset" or "xdriver=vesa" (withoutthe quotes)
 
  


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