Laptop Bootup Problem

**moki** · 03-20-2010

I have Karmic (9.10) installed on my Fujitsu Siemens laptop. After updating around 6 March 2010, I cannot boot up. I get the usual screen showing all the different Kernel & recovery options. It doesn't matter what I select, I get a message saying "VGA=788 deprecated" and then the screen goes blank. If I press "e" and then remove "splash VGA=788 quiet splash" and then pressed ctrl x and I got the following:

A whole string of commands start running. What I am left with on the screen is as follows:

Begin: Loading essential drivers.....
Done
Begin: Mounting root file system.....
Begin: Running /scripts/local-top...
Done
Begin: Waiting for root file system...
Done
Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
-Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
-Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
-Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
-Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/3cf5e4db-78ae-46de-af8a-18aebc95f44 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu7) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built in commands.

(initramfs) _

I have run Boot Script Info and get the following:

Boot Info Script 0.55 dated March 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #1 for /boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x324f4022

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 153,693,854 153,693,792 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 153,693,855 156,296,384 2,602,530 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 153,693,918 156,296,384 2,602,467 82 Linux swap / Solaris

blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/ramzswap0 swap
/dev/sda1: ambivalent result (probably more filesystems on the device)
/dev/sda5 c3ab4ee6-2ee0-476c-8d5b-1ac872bbc270 swap

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (rw)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (rw)

Hope someone can make sense of this. As mentioned earlier my problems started after the update on 06 March 2010.

oz · 03-20-2010

Ubuntu started using GRUB2 by default with version 9.10 so I'm betting the upgrade from GRUB Legacy to GRUB2 is causing this issue. You might need to install GRUB2 again and check your configuration file to make sure all entries are correct.

The Ubuntu wiki has a nice guide for working with GRUB2 here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2

**devils casper** · 03-20-2010

Boot up from LiveCD of Ubuntu or any other Linux distro and mount / partition of Ubuntu. Post the contents of /etc/fstab file here. Post the output of fdisk -l command too.

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

**moki** · 03-20-2010

Thanks for the quick reponse. I did a clean install of 9.10 when it was released, not an upgrade. As requested output of fdisk -l as follows:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x324f4022

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9567 76846896 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9568 9729 1301265 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9568 9729 1301233+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ mount /dev/sda1
mount: can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

Hope I have done the right thing! will appreciate any help.

**devils casper** · 03-21-2010

Execute this

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/ubuntu
sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /media/ubuntu
cd /media/ubuntu
less etc/fstab

**moki** · 03-21-2010

Ran code as suggested. Output as follows:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir /media/ubuntu
mkdir: cannot create directory `/media/ubuntu': File exists
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /media/ubuntu
mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or /media/ubuntu busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sda1 is already mounted on /media/ubuntu
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cd /media/ubuntu
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ less etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=3cf5e4db-78ae-46de-af8a-18baebc95f44 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=c3ab4ee6-2ee0-476c-8d5b-1ac872bbc270 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
etc/fstab (END)

Thanks for the help!

**devils casper** · 03-22-2010

Edit /etc/fstab file and replace UUID with actual Device name.

Code:

cd /media/ubuntu
sudo nano etc/fstab

Replace this line

Code:

UUID=3cf5e4db-78ae-46de-af8a-18baebc95f44 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

with this

Code:

/dev/sda1  / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

Press Ctrl+X, Y and hit Enter key to save file. Unmount /dev/sda1 and reboot machine.

Code:

cd
sudo umount /dev/sda1

**moki** · 03-22-2010

My friend, you are a genius!! I am all smiles. Laptop is booting normally once again. Any idea what went wrong? All I did was update!

Many many thanks to you.

Regards

**moki** · 03-23-2010

I just remembered something. When booting up I get a message saying "Vga=788 is deprecated". Is this anything to worry about or is it normal? Also why is the login window on the bottom right hand side? I just barely see it. Should it not be in the middle of the screen (like my desktop PC)? After booting up everything is normal. I set the display resolution to 1280x800. This is the ideal setting for my laptop. These are not serious issues, but would be nice to resolve.

Thanks in advance

oz · 03-23-2010

Originally Posted by moki

I just remembered something. When booting up I get a message saying "Vga=788 is deprecated". Is this anything to worry about or is it normal?

The VGA option is indeed deprecated in GRUB2 but it still works, or at least it did the last time I used it. There is no problem in continuing to use it, except that at some point along the way, that option might quit working with GRUB2.

Check out the GFXMODE option if you want to replace the VGA option.

More on working with GRUB2 under Ubuntu here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2

Edit: oops, just noticed that I've already posted the GRUB2 link earlier in this thread, but I'll go ahead and leave it here as well.

Thread Tools

Display

Laptop Bootup Problem

Posting Permissions