[ubuntu-uk] Two questions: 64bit live USB problem and dual boot with recovery partition

Tue Aug 16 15:47:43 UTC 2011

Neil, thanks again.

[snip]
> Yes, this is the editing bit I referred to. Move to the 'Try Ubuntu...'
> option but press 'e' instead of 'Enter'. This changes to a different
> screen which displays several lines and similar e/c/Enter options at the
> bottom. Move to the line that starts 'linux' and press 'e' again. Delete
> the word(s) 'quiet' and/or 'splash' from the end of the line, then press
> Enter several times until your machine starts booting (I think it's 3
> times, but I'm not sure).
>
> Hopefully, your machine will then boot successfully! If it fails,
> hopefully it will display an error about what caused the failure...
>
> There are also the ACPI/APCI/etc. options that might be causing the boot
> failure. There are 5-10 different options you can add instead of the
> 'quiet splash' that disable various checks that could be causing the
> boot to hang. But that will depend on what you see when you try my
> suggestion.

After hitting 'e' at the original GRUB screen, i get a screen with the
following at the bottom:
"Minimum Emacs - like screen editing is supported. TAB lists
completions. Press Ctrl-x or F10 to boot, Ctrl-c or F2 for a command
line or ESC to discard edits and return to the GRUB menu".

This screen has nothing about editing etc. like there was on the first
GRUB menu. On this screen i am however, able to edit the lines without
hitting 'e'. So i remove the words "quiet splash" from the end of the
line beginning "linux". I am, however, not sure whether to get rid of
the two dashes (--) which come after "splash". [edit: it doesn't make
a difference if i do]

Hitting return after this just seems to allow me to edit the text -
creating new lines. So i presume i should hit Ctrl-x or F10 to boot
with the changes i have made. When i do this i get the blank screen
again. No error message.

> Again, having more than 4GB of RAM is not going to force you to use the
> 64-bit version. You can use all the RAM you have by switching to the PAE
> kernel after upgrading the memory, if the installer doesn't put that on
> for you now.

This is seeming like a significantly easier option at the moment. So
if i don't work this out, i'll just go with this.

> I don't think it's necessarily the fact that video drivers are not
> working on the 64-bit version, it's more likely that the installer
> hasn't picked the right one. Maybe you could check which driver the
> 32-bit version uses, and force the 64-bit one to use the same... but I'm
> getting out of my depth about how to actually accomplish that!

If this is going to be tricky then i might just go with PAE kernel.

To Dave:

I had the same issue with the live cd on 64 bit, the only way I could
get it on was to start with a 10.04 disk and upgrade. It did go
without issue and if you really need to get it on your machine asap
perhaps this is the best route?

Possibly this is the best option. I don't need this on my machine now,
i would just like it to be... I think i might just try and post a bug
and then install the 32 bit version, use PAE kernel and then, if
nothing else comes up, try the upgrading route.

I am however still open to ideas if people have any.

j

On 16 August 2011 16:24, Neil Greenwood <neil.greenwood.lug at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 16.08.11 15:15, James Morrissey wrote:
>> Hi Neil,
>>
>> Thanks for the response.
>>
>>>> Wanting to repartition my HDD (using GParted) so that i can dual boot,
>>>> i 'Try Ubuntu without Installing', at which point the screen goes
>>>> blank and nothing happens. I am then forced into a hard reboot. I get
>>>> the exact same result when i 'Check the disk'.
>>>
>>> That sounds like a video driver issue. I think when the menu is
>>> displayed it mentions pressing different F-keys across the bottom of the
>>> screen. IIRC, one offers a failsafe video option. Use that and see if
>>> you get further. The other thing to try is to edit the boot entry and
>>> remove the 'quiet' option at the end - this will hopefully display a
>>> more-helpful error message than a blank screen! Let us know if you need
>>> help with how to do that...
>>
>> When i get to the GRUB screen i can't seem to see any F-keys listed at
>> the bottom. All i have is the following;
>> "Use the  (up arrow) and (down arrow) keys to select which entry is
>> highlighted. Press enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the
>> commands before booting or 'c' for a command line."
>>
>> I am not sure what to do with this, i am guessing that possibility of
>> editing command lines is the one you were referring to in terms of the
>> 'quiet' option. I have no idea how to do this so if you think it would
>> be useful, some instructions would be great.
>
> I'm getting confused with an older live disk then!
>
> Yes, this is the editing bit I referred to. Move to the 'Try Ubuntu...'
> option but press 'e' instead of 'Enter'. This changes to a different
> screen which displays several lines and similar e/c/Enter options at the
> bottom. Move to the line that starts 'linux' and press 'e' again. Delete
> the word(s) 'quiet' and/or 'splash' from the end of the line, then press
> Enter several times until your machine starts booting (I think it's 3
> times, but I'm not sure).
>
> Hopefully, your machine will then boot successfully! If it fails,
> hopefully it will display an error about what caused the failure...
>
> There are also the ACPI/APCI/etc. options that might be causing the boot
> failure. There are 5-10 different options you can add instead of the
> 'quiet splash' that disable various checks that could be causing the
> boot to hang. But that will depend on what you see when you try my
> suggestion.
>
>>[snip]
>>> If you don't have more than 4Gb of RAM on the new laptop, you won't get
>>> much (any?) benefit running the 64-bit version. Even if you have more
>>> than 4Gb of RAM, the installer will install a special "PAE" kernel that
>>> will use the extra RAM - each process will be limited however. Other
>>> than that, the 32-bit version will do what most people need, even on
>>> 64-bit hardware.
>>
>> At the moment i have 4GB of RAM installed, but space for another 4GB,
>> which i will likely buy in time. So i would like, at some stage, to
>> get the 64 bit version working even if i have to install the 32 bit
>> for the next while - until video driver issues get sorted.
>>
>
> Again, having more than 4GB of RAM is not going to force you to use the
> 64-bit version. You can use all the RAM you have by switching to the PAE
> kernel after upgrading the memory, if the installer doesn't put that on
> for you now.
>
> I don't think it's necessarily the fact that video drivers are not
> working on the 64-bit version, it's more likely that the installer
> hasn't picked the right one. Maybe you could check which driver the
> 32-bit version uses, and force the 64-bit one to use the same... but I'm
> getting out of my depth about how to actually accomplish that!
>
>>[snip]
>
>
> Cofion/Regards,
> Neil.
>
> --
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>