AMD 64 - Clean install problems - seeking divine intervention

[ldiener]

Dear Guardian Angels of the LinuxMCE world,

First off, thank you for your willingness to help new folks like me get into or make the transition to Linux.  I hope someday to be among you helping out the next guy or gal. But today, I ask for your help in getting through some difficulty I'm having with a new intallation on a clean (just assembled machine). 

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Here's my hardware:

XFX nForce - NVIDIA 750a SLI (MD-A72P-7509)  <<= correction 08/27/08 12:20pm EST I had originally posted the wrong part number
  (ATX, HDMI, DVI, PCIe 2.0, eSATA, RAID SLI Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Processor ADO4400IAA5DO - 2.30GHz, 1MB Cache, 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) FSB, Brisbane, Dual-Core, OEM, Socket AM2, Processor
2 GB RAM (Corsair DDR2, 667mhz)
Seagate 500GB SATA HD (7200/32MB/SATA-3G)
LiteOn SuperAllWrite DVD-RW (iHAS220-08 6)
RubyOrb CPU fan (CL-P0391-01)
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250
PS2 Optical Mouse
PS2 Keyboard
VGA Monitor
Gladiator Ultra ATX Case/500watt power supply
===========================================================

Here's what I've tried:

I have attempted three different installations:

LinuxMCE DVD 0704 32bit (purchased from linuxmce.org not burned)
 -- Ended with Busybox initramfs prompt
 -- tried F6 and adding vga=791 all_generic_ide noacpi pci=routeirq in various combinations
 -- tried F6 and removing ro quiet splash
 -- No Go.

The new 0710 installation as described here with 64 bit .ISOs:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Installation_Guide#New_installation
 -- Ended with Busybox initramfs prompt
 -- tried F6 and adding vga=791 all_generic_ide noacpi pci=routeirq in various combinations
 -- tried F6 and removing ro quiet splash
 -- At one point I actually got what looked like the KDE desktop but I lost mouse control


and a LinuxMCE 0710 DVD D/L'd from the torrent below and burned to DVD at 4x (http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4175299/LinuxMCE_Install_DVD_for_AMD64_-_0710_RC2.4175299.TPB.torrent)
 -- After what appeared to be a stop or break in the install, I think I typed exit and the install continued.
 -- The installation appeared to proceed to completion, formatted disk, uncompressed and copied the DVD to the HD, DVD drawer opened, installation complete, remove CD and reboot.
 -- On reboot, hang black screen, hard drive light on.  Left that way over night, no change by morning.
 -- rebooted, used F6 to interrupt GRUB and modified start script in various ways as described in the forum and as above.  see photos below:

Grub details
http://picasaweb.google.com/lwdiener/LinuxMCE/photo?authkey=hEWrW49oylI#5238850873287784130

Error message
http://picasaweb.google.com/lwdiener/LinuxMCE/photo?authkey=hEWrW49oylI#5238850862867479634
==============================================
   Check root= bootarg cat /proc/cmdline
   or missing modules, devices: cat /proc/modules ls /dev
ALERT! /dev/dusk/by-uuid/82bcede9-2ffa-4c00-b69f-7dcb33927fbf does not exist.  Dropping to a shell!
==============================================

I've have read a great many forum threads here, and on the Ubuntu and Kubuntu boards before posting this request and have attempted several things as recommended.  I was not sure how to actually try some of the modifications (such as that described by LeeAdkins at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=580903  because I don't know how to get into the editors without first having a working installation.  Any assistance regarding how I might proceed would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Larry

[ldiener]

Hi Dave,

The last thing I did this morning before heading out to work was to take out the Hauppage card (really the only thing I can take out and still do an install) and retried the DVD install without success.  I'll try to disable the onboard sound but it may already be disabled because I only hear occasional beeps from the motherboard speaker, nothing from the external speakers when the system boots.  I'll try the i386 32bit dvd route tonight and see if that gets me any closer.  By the way, the motherboard debug display shows "b1" which I think is OK based on what I read in the install guide.

Thanks again,

Larry

[ldiener]

Hi Technoobie,

Thanks for your questions and suggestions.  The motherboard is ..

XFX nForce - NVIDIA 750a SLI (PVT96GYDDU)
  (ATX, HDMI, DVI, PCIe 2.0, eSATA, RAID SLI Motherboard

The graphics are integrated and I bought the 667 memory because I was on a budget and chose to save a few dollars on the slower memory.  I had also think I read somewhere on this forum that some users reported more reliable performance with the slower memory.  In any case, the memory doesn't seem to be the problem.  I've run several memory checks on the system and they all pass.

I will try the i386 version tonight and report back.

Thanks,

Larry

[colinjones]

Larry

Basically, what you are saying is you have an nVidia 9600GT graphics chipset integrated with your motherboard. It is the graphics chipset that is important here. Essentially, it is way off the scale in terms of requirements, far more than you will ever need for LMCE and at the bleeding edge, which is why it isn't supported in the current versions. Specifically, the nVidia driver 169.12 that comes with 0710 does not support that chipset. Search for 9600 in the forums for advice, but this thread has a promising conclusion - http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=5703.0

[ldiener]

Well Rats!  I was so intent on getting a motherboard with nVidia graphics that I didn't focus on the version of the chipset.  What I'm hearing is that my on-board chipset is not supported by the current dist. So, based on what I've read in other threads, I need to install a simpler card and disable the on-board graphics for now.  Is that correct?

By the way, I tried the official 0704 i386 dist DVD with the f4 option "1024 x 768 x 32" and F6 options "all_generic_ide pci=routeirq" (removed quiet and spash) and the install seemed to work beautifully.  There were no stops and only one fail message, something to do with memory scanning, I think.  When prompted to reboot the system seemed to hang but eventually broke out with into busybox with the initramfs prompt.

I just finished downloading and burning the 0710 i386 dist DVD ISO.  Trying that now...

Is there a way to dumb-down the on-board graphics short of disabling it and putting in a simpler card?  I'll search for 9600 GT and read what comes up.

Thanks,

Larry

[colinjones]

I guess the nVidia driver either supports the chipset or it doesn't - no way to dumb down. You can follow the advice in the link I sent you to download and install a later version (but not the latest version) of the driver that does support that chipset, after you have installed LMCE. If you can get the onboard chipset working that will be easier (and cheaper) than negotiating disabling the onboard and configuring for a card, but the choice is yours.

[ldiener]

Thanks Dave for confirming the chipset as 8200.  I suspect this will help in troubleshooting and following threads for things to try.  If I do try a secondary graphics card is the 7200/7300 chipset supported or should I try to find older 6100 series cards?

I have no add-in graphics cards, only the on-board 8200 chip set.  I do have the Hauppage TV card I mentioned previously but I have not attempted to install it yet.

I have a PDF copy of the manual on the CD that came with the MoBo and will post a link tonight when I get home.  For now, screen shots of the bios options are available here if you are interested (no expectations implied, just FYI)
http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1801_5.html and here http://www.bjorn3d.com/read_pf.php?cID=1302.

I've tried registering on the XFX support web site but it keeps failing - probably not a good sign.

This morning I tried installing the Kubuntu 8.04 amd 64 dist off a CD .iso just to see if I could get any where.  I chose to partition the 500GB HD into two 250s so I can play with both 0710 for MCE and 0804 for general computing.  I had to leave for work before it finished partitioning so more on that later if anything comes of it.

Thanks to all (Dave/rodercot, technoobie, colinjones) for your support as I feel my way through this.  Even though it's a bit frustrating, it's kinda fun to have a challenge and see little breakthroughs.

Larry

[Zaerc]

Install latest nvidia drivers, configure them properly, done.  http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers  Or simply get a graphics card that is listed in the wiki as working out of the box.

[ldiener]

Dave and Zaerc,

Dave - Thank you for the detailed information.  I don't see this as bad news.  Anything that provides clarity or defines a potential solution is good news in my book, even if it requires a change in path.

Zaerc - I'll try that route next.  I had been using the DVD install.  I'll now try the stepwise CD install for Kubuntu 0710 first then install the LinuxMCE stuff.   If I get past the install I'll try the process suggested in the wiki for the video setup (thanks for that pointer, I had missed it) and hope for the best.

Regards,

Larry

[ldiener]

Good News!

I was able to get a working install using the Kubuntu i386 0710 Desktop CD 32bit.  I had to choose "Safe Graphics Mode" and make the following changes to the GRUB boot script before booting...

• second line: removed "ro quiet splash" added "all_generic_ide pci=routeirq"
• fourth line: deleted quiet

The system booted from the Live CD without a hitch and opened to the KDE desktop!

I then ran the install using the icon on the desktop and the system partitioned my drive and  installed without any error messages that I could detect (things were scrolling by very quickly).  I was then prompted me for a reboot.

I interrupted the GRUB loader, selected the first line option, and edited the boot script to make the same changes as above.  The system booted up perfectly.  I was able to edit /Boot/Grub/menu.lst to make the changes above permanent and open and run programs in the applications and systems menus.  I also noted that the system is running under the generic VESA driver for video and that no sound components are being detected.

I don't appear to have any sound yet and I still have to install the latest nVidia drivers as directed by Zaerc, so there's light at the end of the tunnel but it doesn't appear to be a train!

I'm going to try installing the video drivers and getting sound working before attempting to install the LinuxMCE packages.  I'd welcome any other input now that things have gotten this far.

Thanks for everyone's help in getting me to this point.  This is fun stuff.

Regards,

Larry

[Zaerc]

Good, a few pointers though.  You should never remove "ro" from the line in menu.lst.  And it's better to install lmce first, then fix the drivers.  Also important: do not update kubuntu.

[ldiener]

Thanks Zaerc.  I really appreciate the pointers.  I'll install LMCE 7.10 i386/32bit to match the Kubuntu desktop and then work on the drivers for sound and video as you suggest.

Two follow-up questions if I may:

• I ran a search and learned that the "ro" in the menu.lst file stands for "Read Only".  What is it exactly that is being set to Read Only?  It follows the kernal "name" so is it the kernal image?  Is this a safety measure so that critical system files don't get overwritten?  I'm just trying to understand what it is I'm doing when I change this kind of stuff.
  
• I had read about not trying to run LMCE 7.10 on top of later versions of Kubuntu so I figured there was a tight connection.  But when you say "do not update kubuntu",  are you referring to updating to the next point version using another install disk or something else?  In other words, can I assume it's OK to update application packages as long as I don't upgrade to, say kubuntu 8.04 and thus to a different kernal?  Where's the line when it comes to system drivers/apps that show an "upgrade available" in the application manager?

Thanks,

Larry

[Zaerc]

The "ro" tells the kernel to initially mount the root file system read-only, so it can be checked for defects if necessary.

I mean don't update anything unless you have to, unfortunately the system is very fragile.  So you'll have to be very careful, any upgrade or even the installing of some packages can break it, and then you get to keep both pieces.   Usually only a reinstall can fix it, with the possibility that you have to start all over again.