Help..I've just installed Jaunty and now get a blank screen on boot up!

[oxf]

Hi,

I've previously ran Hardy 8-04 without any problem. I just installed Jaunty 9-04 and everything went fast and fine finishing with "remove CD" and "restarting sytem". Everyting was fine and started to configure and set things up etc. Then I shut the PC down.

Now I've come back and when I boot up have problems. Grub is fine. I do get an initial error message though "0.348000 MS Bios bug....8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC"

It obviously is booting because I get the Ubuntu boot up music. But beyond that a totally blank dark screen. Very occasionally it will go through and I get the normal desktop but thats a rarity.

Any ideas how to sort this? I assuming I'm going to have to do something booting from the Live CD?

Thanks

Acer Aspire L100
Chipset NVidea nforce 410
Video card Nvidea GEforce 6150LE

[genericuser]

If your problem gets different results by doing the same thing, you might have a hardware issue. The last acer I owned had one hardware issue after another. Try running the live cd and see if you can reproduce the problem there.
Also, if you used the same user name as you did before, and you have maintained your home directory, your settings stored for that user might be calling for something that doesn't exist on the new OS. Have oyu tried logging in as root?

[oxf]

If your problem gets different results by doing the same thing, you might have a hardware issue. The last acer I owned had one hardware issue after another. Try running the live cd and see if you can reproduce the problem there.
Also, if you used the same user name as you did before, and you have maintained your home directory, your settings stored for that user might be calling for something that doesn't exist on the new OS. Have you tried logging in as root?

I have absolutely no problems when booting from the CD. And no I dont have a separate home directory at this stage. So it's would seem it's either a driver or hardware issue? I would say I manage to get a display maybe 1 in 10 times. The rest of the time its just blank!

[Hal343]

If it runs good from live cd, then it is a problem with the installation. If you can use the live cd to see your filesystem

cd  /var/log
cat messages | less

You can page down through the file with spacebar and look for errors. Please post any error messages back here.

[oxf]

If it runs good from live cd, then it is a problem with the installation. If you can use the live cd to see your filesystem

cd  /var/log
cat messages | less

You can page down through the file with spacebar and look for errors. Please post any error messages back here.

Thanks. OK here's the result of that (below). A couple of things stick out, maybe more if you know what you're looking for.
Line #3 "kernal: Cannot find map file"
Line #26 " BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it around"

Although I still get the bios bug msg at Boot-Up (if that actually has anything to do with this problem?) when running from Live CD everything is just fine!

.................................................. ............................................
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu syslogd 1.5.0#5ubuntu3: restart.
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.6.28-11-generic
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: Cannot find map file.
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: Loaded 57006 symbols from 47 modules.
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS EBDA/lowmem at: 0009f800/0009f800
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Linux version 2.6.28-11-generic (buildd@crested) (gcc version 4.3.3 (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu4) ) #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 (Ubuntu 2.6.28-11.42-generic)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash -- console-setup/layoutcode=gb
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] KERNEL supported cpus:
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Intel GenuineIntel
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] AMD AuthenticAMD
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Centaur CentaurHauls
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000007bff0000 (usable)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000007bff0000 - 000000007bff3000 (ACPI NVS)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000007bff3000 - 000000007c000000 (ACPI data)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000007c000000 - 0000000080000000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000f0000000 - 00000000f4000000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] DMI 2.4 present.
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Phoenix BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it around.
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] last_pfn = 0x7bff0 max_arch_pfn = 0x3ffffffff
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] Scanning 0 areas for low memory corruption
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified physical RAM map:
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 0000000000000000 - 0000000000010000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 0000000000010000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 0000000000100000 - 000000007bff0000 (usable)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 000000007bff0000 - 000000007bff3000 (ACPI NVS)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 000000007bff3000 - 000000007c000000 (ACPI data)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 000000007c000000 - 0000000080000000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 00000000f0000000 - 00000000f4000000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] modified: 00000000fec00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] init_memory_mapping: 0000000000000000-000000007bff0000
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] last_map_addr: 7bff0000 end: 7bff0000
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] RAMDISK: 7b7f5000 - 7bfbf0cd
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 000F7900, 0014 (r0 ACRSYS)
Jun 8 12:34:03 ubuntu kernel: [ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDT 7BFF3040, 003C (r1 ACRSYS ACRPRDCT 42302E31 AWRD 0)
:

[Hal343]

From the live cd

sudo /boot

enter password

ls -a

\you are looking for a file called system.map-2.6.28-24-generic (the number will probably be different)
The third line of your output indicates that the file isn't present, I believe that this will cause the system to crash, because this file is supposed to be generated when the kernel was compiled.
The system.map File has information on this. The number should be the same as the number of your newest kernel, which should be initrd-image-2.6.28-24(this number will be different) but should match the number of system.map. Report back what you find.

[oxf]

From the live cd

sudo /boot

enter password

ls -a

\you are looking for a file called system.map-2.6.28-24-generic (the number will probably be different)
The third line of your output indicates that the file isn't present, I believe that this will cause the system to crash, because this file is supposed to be generated when the kernel was compiled.
inux/system.map/]The system.map File[ has information on this. The number should be the same as the number of your newest kernel, which should be initrd-image-2.6.28-24(this number will be different) but should match the number of system.map. Report back what you find.

Thanks, I appreciate your help so far!

Well the kernel number apears to be the same. I dont see initrd-image- .... though. Hers what I get:

ubuntu@ubuntu:/boot$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
ubuntu@ubuntu:/boot$

ubuntu@ubuntu:/boot$ ls -a
. .. abi-2.6.28-11-generic config-2.6.28-11-generic memtest86+.bin System.map-2.6.28-11-generic vmcoreinfo-2.6.28-11-generic
ubuntu@ubuntu:/boot$

[oxf]

I dont know if the MS BIOS bug error msg at boot up has anything to do with all this or not? However, looking inside system.map file there are several lines refering to broken bios e.g:

ffffffff80b7e580 B pcibios_enable_irq
ffffffff80b7e588 B pcibios_disable_irq

ffffffff80b7e5b4 b broken_hp_bios_irq9

ffffffff80b7e620 B pcibios_scanned

and more....

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here???

[Hal343]

I tried to investigate that & couldn't find an error with a solution, but I wonder if there is an update for that particular bios available. I think it may be worthwhile to go to Acers/motherboard makers site & check for bios update.

[oxf]

Thanks. I'm going to try a bios upgrade and will see if the problem persists afterwards. Will report back. A little nervous about flashing the Bios but....