Ubuntu 2.9 won't reboot after install

[dougal]

Harry - here's my run down when ever I try to walk someone through an install;

You say you have a partition spare for it, that's fine. So we start the install, we follow the options through to the stage where you have a choice of installing completely or alongside Windows. At this stage you have a third option - Something Else.
I always chose Something Else. It is not as ominous as it sound.
Once you choose this you are presented with the GParted screen. Nothing to be afraid of here, just follow instructions;
click the partition you want to install Linux onto. Make sure you delete it. this will take it back to scratch.
Now click (or right-click) on the Free space and make sure you create an Ext4 partition in the Free space and select / from the drop down list and make sure that the size in KB will leave twice the amount of RAM your machine has, this will be used for the SWAP area. (I have a feeling that the SWAP area may be getting missed). Anyways, I like to have twice the amount of machine RAM for the SWAP area size. I have never had problems using this amount.
Now when you click OK the program should create your Linux Root partition which will contain all the paths for your system files once the install continues.
Now we have to create the SWAP area. Click or Right-click on the small Free space that you have left and select SWAP from the pull down list and click OK. This should bring you back once again to the partitions list.
If all looks ok you will have your Windows partition, your Linux / or Root partition and your Swap area. Sometimes you might have a tiny bit of hard disk left - ignore it if you have.
Now if it is all as I have said, click ok and follow the prompts. If it doesn't look right you can go back and try again just make sure you don't click OK at this stage if things don't look right.
So off we go if all is well and like Moebius said sometimes depending upon your CD/DVD drive you will have to press Enter after you have ejected the start-up disk. I have found it doesn't really matter if you hit the PC power button but, hitting Enter usually breaks the programming loop and restarts the machine.
By the way, I have found that during install on older, slower machines it is not uncommon to have a blank screen for around 40 minutes to one hour while a main part of the system installs. this would seem to be an install bug as there should be something on the screen to indicate that the system is still installing. If you feel that it is this point you get to then have a little more patience and let it go for a while longer. Have supper watch telly, etc.
I hope I have helped.
Let us know how you get on...

[Hornbeck]

Thanks guys for the advice and the pep talk I have a new found confidence and will attempt another install. Unfortunately time is always an issue and this week I have a funeral to go to and the junk that happens after so it will be towards the end of the week before I take another crack at it. When I do I'll report back with my success 'he says with a positive attitude'......

Thanks again, I was ready to throw in the towel....
Harry

[Billie Cowie]

Hi Harry,
I think you may have made this more complicated than it needed to be.
I think Moebius was right to begin with.So lets go over the simple method you should have used.
1/ Insert disc in CD-rom drive and boot from CD-rom.
2/ Choose "install release" or run as live DVD and then choose" install release." If you are installing alongside there should be no need to manually partition anything. Likewise if you have an empty partition already.
3/Choose "install alongside other operating systems"
At this point you should see a screen similar to what Blackwolf showed you but not necessarily exactly the same. that is, there should be a coloured line for Windows followed by a seperator and another coloured line for "Ubuntu" or " Ultimate Edition " It could say either as Ultimate Edition is built on Ubuntu.If you are new to Linux or unsure about mount-points etc, which I suspect you may be,then do not worry. You do not need to do anything more at this point than follow the install instructions.
4/ Follow Install instructions.
5/ If installation is successful you should receive a message something like this " to complete installation reboot/restart after removing DVD/CD from drive and press enter."

Unless you have a pretty unique computer the Installation will not complete until
a/ you have removed the disc from the drive and closed it
b/ pressed enter
If you were sitting there with the tray open and the disc still in it, Installation would not be completed.
If you did not press enter Installation would not be complete.
If you missed either of the above two and then powered off and on again Installation would not be complete.
So far ,so good.
If Installation was successful you would have a black " Grub " Screen with a white window box giving you a choice between booting from Ultimate Edition 2.9 and WindowsXP. This is plain black and has no pretty background like the Windows start-up screen.
If you do not have a black " Grub" screen , which actually says " Grub" then your Installation is not complete.
At this point you would need to start over.
First I would check with either gparted, which if you do not have it you would need to download from the net or use Windows Disc Utility to check the partitions, if there is no EXT.4 there is no U.E.install.
You have two options as I see it.
Try a new install from the disc this time taking careful note of the final two steps. after pressing "enter" your system should restart itself without you needing to touch the power-button.

If Ultimate Edition has not completed installation due to the afore-mentioned oversights a fresh re-install from DVD/CD should solve that problem.
If it has been partially installed then it has not been written to the Master Boot Record and you should do what Dougal has suggested.
You do not mention the Grub screen which leads me to believe you have not got a complete install, if it has installed at all.When Installation is complete then unless you manually configure the MBR to boot from XP then you should have seen the Grub screen, and Ultimate Edition 2.9 would be the first boot-option.Whenever a Linux distro is installed Grub is installed and the new OS is automatically the first to boot-option at start-up, unless, like I say, you have told your computer otherwise.So, before going further write back confirming whether or not you have Grub.If you do then do what Dougal said , carefully following his advice step by step. Any problems along the way just let us know and remember to tell us what you actually see on screen as well as what you do.We are all here to help.
If you want Ultimate Edition we will give you Ultimate edition!

[Hornbeck]

Man you guys are the greatest!!! I really appreciate all of the comments suggestions and pep talks. Even though I know my way around a Windows system I feel like I’ve just started using computers trying to get this thing going.

That being said I am certain that I can get Ultimate installed the next time I try.

To answer your questions Billie I did exactly what you said I should do when the installation was complete. I let the software choose the partition and pressed continue, it installed without any hiccups and I pressed enter at the prompt to reboot I removed the disk and closed the tray. This happened twice, the first time I waited about 35 minutes, the second time I waited about 2 hours. Each time all I saw was the fiery looking graphic and the Ultimate Edition icon in the middle of the screen. There was no disk activity and the only thing that was moving was the mouse pointer spinning, slowly. Also each time when I forced my machine to shut down and then turned it back on there was no GRUB screen no option to select any OS it just booted into Windows. I read back on the posts just now and I saw where I said that I couldn’t remember if I pressed enter. What I meant there was after I had pressed enter and removed the disk and closed the tray, I hope I cleared that up. As I mentioned in the beginning this is a Dell GX620 I got it from the company I work for when they upgraded all their PCs. It has a 3.4ghz CPU and I added two gig of ram bringing it up to 3 gig. I installed Win XP though it is an OEM disk they sell you for $20. I don’t know if this would have anything to do with anything I thought I would just give as much info as I can.

Anyway I’ll be trying again in a few days and I’ll be paying extra attention to everything step then report back.

Thanks again I know I’ll get it.

Harry

[Reticent]

In XP, I edit boot.ini and append "/sos" (without the quotes, of course) to the line (in the [operating systems] section) that labels my Windows boot partition, so I can see drivers being loaded. I get to it with a right-click on "My Computer", Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Edit (the protected system file boot.ini with notepad). (KB833721)

Similarly, when booting a Linux distro, tapping F2 may reveal the startup dialog hidden by a "splash".

When I start an install, I look for a method to view and edit boot options (like tapping Tab during a few seconds of startup menu display) so I can change "splash" to "nosplash" and remove "quiet". Guess I'm just nosy enough to want to see any messages or device-detection loops.

You know, I wonder if there's some way this system is preventing changes to how your computer starts? That's popular in the large corporate culture.

[Hornbeck]

Ok here’s what happened……

I decided to get a fresh copy of Ubuntu and try the install again. This time the install went a little faster and when it came time to reboot I pressed the reboot button removed the disk closed the tray and three seconds later the machine rebooted itself.

Now the bad news, it booted into windows without and choice to use Ubuntu. After getting into Windows I did some checking on the partitions and Windows reports three unrecognized partitions on two hard drives. I’m beginning to think that it did install properly… three times, but something is happening with the boot process and Grub is not getting a chance to work or is not being installed.

To add insult to injury my wife caught her foot on the third step from the bottom of our stairs and fell beating herself up pretty bad. No broken bones or concussion but I’ll be taking care of her until she gets to feeling better. That means I’ll have to wait a little longer to back to work on the install. I know that I will have to delete those partitions before I make another attempt but after that I’m not sure why I don’t get the Grub to work.

Thanks again to everyone who commented and made suggestions. I’ll write back when I get my wife up and around and I have more time.

Harry

[Billie Cowie]

Hi Harry,
by Ubuntu I presume you mean U.E?
Anyway, looks like your linux boot-loader may have been messed up.
You could try reinstalling the boot-loader from the liveCD/DVD.( remember you are just re-installing the boot-loader not the whole OS )
After running the live CD/DVD type this in the terminal , ' sudo grub-install /dev/sda '
then press enter
restart and take out your CD/DVD.
If it's successful you can now boot from GRUB.This will give you a choice between booting from Windows or Linux, though since Linux was the last OS installed, it should boot into Linux by default.That's what should happen but if not then either something else is wrong or the GRUB bootloader may actually be corrupted on your CD/DVD.
If the latter, you will need to download a new ISO but check with the other guys advice first.
I think you are right, and Ultimate Edition is on your system but if you need to delete partitions before reinstalling I would advise you to check with the other guys before deleting anything. Manual Partitioning is not my strong point.

[dougal]

Hi Harry - Billie's help is very informative and what you should follow as it is logical and straightforward.
If it helps, I am using a Dell GX620 every day at work and have it dual booted with Ultimate Edition 2.9. There are three partitions, one for Windows (coz I have to use it at work), one for Ultimate Edition Root system and one for the SWAP area.
I wonder as to the graphics you have with yours. linux in general is notorius for graphics problems not of their own making. Lack of up-to-date support from the manufacturers is the problem.Can't remember what you said your machine specs are but I would have a look at the BIOS and make sure your option to use the graphics card is selected or leave it on Auto and try that. It may be that if you have a card in the AGP slot but, the BIOS is selecting the onboard graphics.
There is a safe graphics mode you can select at install. Perhaps and just perhaps this will get you to the Grub screen.
I know it sounds crazy but, I have an older Dell Dimension that I can't install any recent Ultimate Edition version onto and have installed XUbuntu 7.10 as it does work with this older machine. It trundles along nicely if a bit limited.
So, having said this you could try an older version. Try say Ubuntu 7.10 and if that works, try Ultimate Edition 2.6.
that's the way I go now with older equipment. The Dell you have should handle 2.9 though. I just think it may be a graphics problem. I know it's time consuming too and if you could make a USB boot key it would go faster than DVD.
I'm sure others here might shoot me down in flames for suggesting such but, hey, it has worked for me in the past.
Good luck.

[jslick1jim]

Hello Guys

Is it possible boot block is locked in bios? he said got it from work! just a thought.

[Hornbeck]

That's a good question since this machine is a basic business machine. I looked in the BIOS but didn't find something that looked like a boot lock so I'm wondering if it could be named something else. The only thing I found was something about some OS's won't install with more than 2gb ram. I doubt that is the issue but there may be something with a different name.

Harry