Ubuntu Server 6.06.1 does not boot on VIA EPIA ME6000

[Tod Merley]

On 9/12/06, Reto Stalder <rstalder at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I've successfully finished the installation of Ubuntu Server 6.06.1.
> But the installed system does not start up. It resets after having
> printed the following messages on the screen:
>
>     Booting 'Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-server'
>
>     root (hd0,0)
>       Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
>     kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-server root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet
> splash
>       [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1c00, size=0x16c98f]
>     initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-server
>       [Linux-initrd @ 0x1d93e000, 0x6a1333]
>     savedefault
>     boot
>
> I've tried to consult the logs by booting the rescue system from CD.
> But /var/log/syslog is empty. The hardware platform is a VIA EPIA-
> ME6000 with a 600MHz processor. /var/log/installer/hardware-summary
> shows:
>
>     processor: 0
>     vendor_id  : CentaurHauls
>     cpu family: 6
>     model: 7
>     model name: VIA Samuel 2
>     stepping: 3
>     cpu MHz: 600
>
> Can anybody give me a hint how I could try to fix the problem?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Reto
>
>
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Hi Reto Stalder!

During the "countdown" when the bootloader is counting down to do the
default boot hit "Esc".  You should see the GRUB boot selection
screen.  Read the notes on the screen and I believe hit the "e" key to
edit the boot entry.  First of all, I would like to know exactly what
that screen says (actually, you should be able to find a copy of what
I really want by booting a live CD, mounting your disk, and going to
/boot/grub to examine menu.lst.  I guess I would love to see a copy of
menu.lst.  Anyway on the kernel line edit out "quiet" and "splash".
This should yield a screen that lets us see exactly how far the boot
gets.

Also while in the live CD environment do an "fdisk -l" and copy the
results (like maybe "fdisk -l > fdiskxl.txt" which should redirect the
results normally printed to the screen to "fdiskxl.txt").  If you can
also enter grub and from a grub menu use the tab driven autocomplete
function to see how grub sees things.  Specifically do a "root (" and
then hit the tab key - choose the result (probably 0 or 1) and hit the
tab key probably twice to see how GRUB sees the partitions on the
chosen device.  Do not complete the command with a return, this is
just a check to see what is there.

I am suspicious, however, that you will see the boot process does not
get far.  I am kind of thinking that when the installer checked out
your disk system to point the bootloader to your kernel and ramdisk
(initrd) images it pointed to the wrong place.  How it gets back to
the boot screen without error messages I do not understand.

Good Hunting!

Tod