[Tfug] GRUB hang

[Jeffry Johnston]

The hang happens before the kernel is even involved.  Even before GRUB is
really doing anything.  So at that point, kernel parms aren't going to be an
issue.  It's an HP Pavilion desktop, Pentium 3, in case that matters.

Thanks,
Jeff


On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 10:56 AM, Jim March <1.jim.march at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 10:30 AM, Jeffry Johnston <tfug at kidsquid.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Just installed XUbuntu on an old junker.  When booting the first thing
> that
> > is printed is something like "GRUB 1.5 loading..." (or starting).. just
> that
> > single line.  Normally I would then expect it to continue to print some
> > additional GRUB messages and continue on to loading the kernel.  However,
> it
> > sits on that first line with the HDD light on solid, for a very long time
> > (I'd estimate around 10 minutes), before finally continuing on.  My first
> > thought is that the drive is hosed.. but everything seems fine once the
> > system boots up.  smartctl saw some past failures, but they didn't appear
> to
> > be data related, and none of the stats showed close to failure.  Any
> ideas?
> > Maybe a virus or is it probably the HDD?
> >
> > Jeff
>
> First thing to try is catching the "ESC" thing and see if a "recovery
> boot" works.  That will tell us something about what's up.
>
> Second trick is to google "ubuntu" with the make/model of your lappy
> and see if anybody has some known alterations to the startup line for
> that critter.  In other words, parameters can be edited when you get
> into the grub menu.  "noacpi" is a common one for older lappies.
>
> You're passing parameters to the kernel, which is failing to load
> right now.  At this page you'll find the parameters needed by a
> specific lappy (Acer Travelmate 3004):
>
> http://myy.helia.fi/~karte/acer_travelmate_3004wtmi_with_linux_notes.html<http://myy.helia.fi/%7Ekarte/acer_travelmate_3004wtmi_with_linux_notes.html>
>
> The parameters in that case are:
>
>  linux noapic nolapic acpi=off vga=771 pci=noacpi
>
> Here's a tutorial on how to get to where you edit this:
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions
>
> If you can't find anything specific to your critter, try this first
> (certainly can't make anything worse!):
>
> noapic nolapic acpi=off pci=noacpi
>
> Jim
>
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