GRUB hangs if a disk is connected

[Darius]

I have a Gigabyte G33M-DS2R (Core2Duo) system currently running 10.04.4. I tried to boot a 12.04.1 (amd64 server) ISO and it hangs unless I unplug the disk so the BIOS doesn't see it.

If I unplug the disk, then plug it while the kernel loads I can install onto it but rebooting onto it hangs.

I see absolutely no debugging information though - the last message on the screen is "Updating DMI Pool Data ...." which is from the BIOS.

I tried holding down shift as well as tapping escape while GRUB starts but I didn't get given a menu.

Ctrl-alt-del does reset the PC so presume that it must happen very early on.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

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[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

This sounds like a bios problem. Have you been able to boot any other cd with the disk attached? Such as Ubuntu 12.04, or memtest86+?

[Darius (darius-dons)]

I tried booting 12.04 with no luck. Similarly with FreebSD 9, although I definitely installed Ubuntu 10 or so via CD..

I will try a USB install and see if works better.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Come to think of it, grub isn't even used to boot the cd in bios mode, syslinux is. Or are you trying to boot in EFI mode? Is this the 32bit or 64 bit cd?

I wonder if you have a buggy bios that is choking on the new hybrid cd format.

[Darius (darius-dons)]

It isn't EFI, I tried both 32 & 64 bit with exactly the same results.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Can you try other disks? Perhaps the super grub disk? Or the gparted livecd?

[Darius (darius-dons)]

I tried a USB Ubuntu 12 installer and it refused to boot off it (the same key worked in another system) so the BIOS seems really fussy.

Unfortunately it leaves me in an annoying position upgrade wise :(

I have upgraded the BIOS to the latest version (which was a pain, it would not boot a FD image on a CD but the BIOS self updater would read off a USB key..)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Darius (darius-dons)]

This is still and outstanding problem :(

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

If you have managed to install but have trouble booting, please run the boot info script and attach the results and we may be able to troubleshoot.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]