Blinking cursor during Kubuntu 8.10 install

[sviva]

Hi!
I am trying install Linux MCE. When I boot from the DVD, I get the regular menu and I do Linux MCE. At that point I get a black screen with a white blinking cursor in the top left corner. No keys respond and it never loads. I have tried a different graphics card to no avail. The system is custom built, AMD 880G chipset with a AMD FX processer and a integrated ATI Radeon HD 4250 GPU. ASUS motherboard.

Thanks for any help,
sviva

[purps]

Might be a duff disk. Try downloading again (preferably with torrent) and burn on the slowest speed. Then try again.

If you have another live disk for any other OS try that as well. Have you ever had a Linux OS running on this specific machine?

Cheers,
Matt.

[sviva]

Hi,
I will try to reburn the disk and try it again.  I have tried running just straight Kubuntu 8.10 with the same result.

Thanks a bunch for your answer,
sviva

[purps]

Re-download is the important thing, and do a MD5sum hash check this (google how to do this if you don't know, it's easy). Then re-burn.

Was the Kubuntu you tried a different disk, or did you just select the other option on the same disk?

Cheers,
Matt.

[sviva]

It was a different disk.  Sorry I didn't get a chance to reburn the disk.  I will do it tomorrow!

Thanks,
sviva

[JoakimL]

With two different disks giving you the same result, there's not much hope it will be better with a third.
Take a look a ACPI and APCI settings when booting from the DVD. Also try an logging option, you might spot what's causing this malfunction.

/Joakim

[sviva]

Hi,
I will try the ACPI, but I don't have much experience with it.  Should I disable it in the boot parameters?  Or is there somthing in the BIOS?  I would assume the logging is a boot parameter, right?

Thanks,
sviva

[JoakimL]

This depends on your hardware. On my AM2 motherboard I sometimes get similar behaviour; adding NOAPIC and ACPI=OFF to the kernel boot parameters solve it on my hardware. Logging could be enabled by passing loglevel=n to the kernel; n= 0 (fatal) to 7 (debug)


/Joakim

[sviva]

Hi,
ACPI = off gives me: [0.022701] Kernel panic - not syncing: Boot ACPI ID in local ACPI unexpected
(0 vs 16)

Everything else related to ACPI gives me the same blinking curser.

Thanks,
sviva

[sviva]

Hi,
Thanks to everyone who posted, but I still need help! My boss is threatening to install Windows MCE if I don't get this up and running soon!

Thanks for further help,
sviva

[l3mce]

Look at your bios settings, how SATA is treated (assuming it is a SATA drive), see if you can change the mode to IDE or something similar (the SATA mode is usually under "integrated peripherals"). Turn off extraneous things like Cool n Quiet and AsusGate...

[JoakimL]

Did you search for anything related to your motherboard, BIOS or graphics card and Linux at the kernel level of 8.10? Did you try lmce 10.04 (it have a very different hardware handling).

/Joakim

[gurumaia]

I don't remember having this exact behavior but when I tried my first install, ubiquity wouldn't show up because I was hooked up to a plasma TV and it couldn't handle the resolution. When plugged into a CRT monitor, everything went fine.

[purps]

He's getting a blinking cursor, which suggests it isn't a display issue.

As Joakim suggested, search for a problem relating to your hardware and Linux in general - at this stage, it's not an LMCE issue I'm afraid.

Definitely take a look at 1004.

Cheers,
Matt.

[sviva]

Thanks a ton for all the responses! I think I now have a plan of action on how I will solve the problem.

1. I will look at the BIOS settings as said here:

Look at your bios settings, how SATA is treated (assuming it is a SATA drive), see if you can change the mode to IDE or something similar (the SATA mode is usually under "integrated peripherals"). Turn off extraneous things like Cool n Quiet and AsusGate...

2. If that doesn't work than I will have to go for 10.04.

Thanks,
sviva

ps. Does anyone know more about 10.04?  It says on the wiki that it is highly unstable.  Is this true?  Should I be worried about it crashing or otherwise failing when I need to use it?  Thanks again for any help.