Can't install Ubuntu on desktop, help pls?

Hi to all!
I know it's a little off topic since it's not notebook-related, but I was hoping that some of our fellow Linux/Ubuntu could maybe help me a little bit...?

I would like to install Ubuntu when I get my IFL90, but first would like to try it out... haven't been really able to however...

First of all I am kind of newbie when it comes to Linux, but have fair knowledge of computers and Windows.

I have unsuccessfully trying to install/boot Ubuntu 7.0.4 for 3 days now on my desktop: I downloaded/burnt the LiveCD and on my wife's Toshiba Satellite it boots perfectly (writing this from her notebook).
I checked the MD5 checksum, it's fine
I checked my desktop memory from the CD utility and it didn't find any errors.

My desktop:
P4 2.4Ghz
Motherboard PcChips M909 V5.0A
Chipset Intel i845E/G/PE/GE
512 RAM
2 HD
GPU: GeForce 6200 AGP PRO

There was no way I could boot from the LIveCD, so I got the Alternate CD and was able to install it on a partition of its own, however it will not boot (dualbooting with Win XP Pro; Win still boots fine).
I searched around this forums and tried a *lot* of parameters, here are my errors:

• normal boot: native_apic_write_atomic+0x6/0x10
• recovery mode: native_apic_write_atomic+0x6/0x10
  
• noapic nolapic: error_code+0x7c/0x90
• noapic acpi=noirq: says something about sysfs bridge and then starts displaying a lot of messages (too fast to read)
• noapic acpi=off: lots of messages
• noapictimer: IOAPIC invalid reference to IRQ 0 and then failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40)
• noapictimer irqpoll: IOAPIC invalid reference to IRQ 0 and then unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 030c2444

Similars errors (native_apic_write_atomic+0x6/0x10 or error_code+0x7c/0x90) resulted from the following parameters being used:

• noapic nolapic irqpoll
• apic=off irqpoll
• noapic
• pci=routeirq
• irqpoll
• acpi=off
• ide=dma
• irqpoll pci=noacpi noapic nolapic acpi=off

Any ideas? I'm really running out of options here...

Regards

 

I had a hard time trying to run the Live CD on one of my own machines. The fix for me was to slow down the burn speed. After turning 3 or 4 CD's into coasters, I finally got one to work. Keep at it, Ubuntu/Linux is worth the effort.

Perhaps you'd have better luck with another distro. PCLinuxOS 2007 worked for me on the first try. Good luck.

 

Let's try to break this down a bit into manageable pieces. What happens when you just try to boot with the LiveCD?

 

With the LiveCD, after eliminating both quiet and splash from the boot options, I get a *lot* of messages (too fast to read and the pause key won't work).

However, I noticed that before that I get 5 messages:

end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Buffer I/O error, on device fd0, logical block 0

The partition where I installed Ubuntu was #6 I think, but this was from the LiveCD.

I can see the various steps being completed with [Ok]; then, shortly after it prints "Loading Hardware Drivers" all the problems begin...

Any ideas?

Yeah, I know there are many distros available, but I would really like to do everything possible with Ubuntu before switching (from what I understand the community is HUGE!).

Regards

 

if you don not have floppy disk drive ingore it

fd0 is the device name for you floppy disk

 

Right, fd0 is the floppy. The LiveCD may be probing for devices. Two questions:

1. If you just boot the LiveCD without changing any options what do you get? Do you get a graphical screen to come up at all, a login prompt... ?

2. If you boot the LiveCD with the options that allowed you to see all individual steps, same question, what do you get?

 

1) I get the splash screen, with the bar moving right and left; after a while the bar starts filling the area from the left, but when it has done like 20-30% it freezes.

2) without the splash option, I can see the various steps being completed, the last of which is Loading Hardware Drivers, and then a lot of too-fast-to-be-read messages are displayed. Sometimes it stops and I can see it's reporting error_code+0x7c/0x90

Btw, for the sake of it I tried a PCLinus 2007 LiveCD and got similar problems. This time it printed Detecting video cards and then started displaying lots of messages too. The final message was "BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address e0c2a034" and then "Not tainted VLI".
Eliminatin the acpi=on (in PCLinus) resulted in "Kernel panic - not syncing".

Any ideas?
Geez, on my wife's laptop I got almost everything working on the LiveCD! Even power management and sound... what's so different on my desktop?

 

Try Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. Looking at the spec of your PC, it maybe too old?

I don't know the reason why, but many of the current "popular" distros have issues of some kind or other on older hardware, where as last year those distros had versions that worked well on that generation of PC.

 

maybe do text mode install ? then try to updateing

have you try safemode graphics?

can you also try runing memorey check on machine

is you 512 megs in one or two sticks?

http://www.goldmemory.cz/ is one mem testing program

they is also

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

Yeah, the guys from the ubuntuforums suggested trying 6.0.6 LTS, downloading right now...

As for the other questions:

In the end I did use the alternate CD to install Feisty; it installed just fine (pretty quick too), but once I try to boot I get the same errors I get with the LiveCD.

Tried safe mode: same problems

I have 1 stick 512Mb

I ran the memtest from the boot options: it found no errors to report...

Jeez, I'm close to downloading 3Gb to get Linux working... X_X

Still can't understand why on wife's old Toshiba Satellite everything works perfectly.

I'm thinking about removing the video card and see if it makes any difference... what do you think?

Regards and thank you for the replies!

 

Try booting with;

Code:

agp=off

If that works then you probably have a similar problem with your motherboard that the person who posted this question at Linuxquestions.org did. He was able to get Linux running on his PCChips M909 motherboard based system again, after upgrading to an nVidia 6200 video card killed his prior running system. He was able to follow these instructions at Ubuntu, in order to correctly setup his system. But remember his system was installed and running correctly prior to installing his video card.

If you can't get the installer to work with the agp=off boot command, then I would guess that you would be best off trying to install Linux on your computer with a different video card, (standard VGA), then once it was installed, follow the instructions in the Ubuntu HowTo above to configure your system for an nVidia card, then shut the system down, reinstall your nVidia card, and hope it works.

Incidentally it looks like the problem probably lies with your motherboard. You could try and visit the website and download and install the latest BIOS, then make sure all of the BIOS settings are standard, and then try booting with the regular install disk as is, but you're probably going to need to do something to get around what is apparently some flaky AGP part of the motherboard.

Good Luck..

 

Humm, maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel? Will it work? Will our intrepid Linux newbie finally be able to enjoy it?

Stay tuned...

 

short story:
Hurrrrrrray! It worked! I'm writing from my desktop PC! (wife says thank you as she finally got her laptop back)

long story:
Booting with agp=off didn't work, same error es always; I then proceeded to enable the on board graphic card and was thus able to boot; X however complained that couldn't find the specified PUI; I guess it was due to the fact that when I installed the system, the GeForce card was present. Basically X told me to fix my issue and come back later.
But... I was finally in; it was a matter of adding the entries to the blacklist and install nvidia-glx; reboot, switched back to AGP card in BIOS and all good.

Oh well, I guess it's the Linux way of welcoming Window users... =P

Anyway, just wanted to thank everybody that tried to help, I truly appreciate it.
Also to notice that posting at ubuntuforums I got like 2 replies, probably due to the HUGE volume of threads over there.

Sincerely, THANK YOU ALL! (specially jas who nailed the problem )

 

I'm glad it is finally working.

 

Enjoy glad you got it working