8.04 kernel (2.6.24-22-generic) won't boot

[jsedwards]

Binary package hint: linux-generic

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 that came with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-installed (purchased in Nov. 2007). In December 2007 I installed Kubuntu-7.10 on it and have been using it ever since. When 8.04 came out in April 2008 I tried to install Kubuntu-8.04 and discovered that it would not boot off the CD, part way through it dropped me into "BusyBox". Then I tried to install both Ubuntu-8.04 and Xubuntu-8.04 and they both failed in the same way. I decided to stick with 7.10 because it worked fine and I did not have time to debug the problem.

Last week I decided to try to upgrade to Kubuntu-8.10, I did so and it installed fine. However, I could not get the network configured (even from the command line). It was also the first time I tried KDE 4.1. I applaud the KDE folks for being innovative but I have decided that I do not have time to learn a new interface right now. So I do not want to use 8.10.

I decided that I would drop back to 8.04 because it has LTS, I should be good for a while and I can decide later what I am going to do about the desktop. I was hoping whatever bug there was that was keeping me from booting the 8.04 CDs was fixed in 8.04.1. Not so, the 8.04.1 CD does the same thing as 8.04, it drops me into "BusyBox".

While I don't usually go the upgrade to new version route (I prefer to do clean installs) I decided to try the upgrade from 7.10 to 8.04. It worked, except kernel 2.6.24-22-generic won't boot up on this machine. I am guessing that it is the same problem that keeps me from booting the 8.04 install CD (but I have not confirmed). I can boot into 8.04 if I use the old 2.6.22-16-generic kernel from 7.10.

Since support for 7.10 is going to end in a few months, I was hoping that we could find the problem with booting 2.6.24-22 so that I can continue to use 8.04. I also assume that I am no longer going to get kernel updates from 7.10.

I am not sure what information would be helpful to debug this problem. Please let me know and I will try to gather that information.

Thanks
  -Scott

[jsedwards (j-scott-edwards-nwos)]

I forgot to mention one thing in my description: this machine has a SATA CDROM drive. I think this causes a lot of problems with various Linux distributions. For example the Knoppix 5.1.1 2007-01-04 CD will not boot on this machine (I have not had time to download and test any newer versions of Knoppix).

I also tried to install Arch Linux on this machine and the 2008.06 CD will not boot on this machine either. The previous version of Arch Linux 2008.03 will boot however.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

This may be a duplicate of bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bootcd/+bug/230638 or https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/223187 . Can you try starting the live cd with the option "all_geneirc_ide" ? You can add this by selecting F6 and adding this before the '--' . This should work with either 8.04.1 or 8.10.

[jsedwards (j-scott-edwards-nwos)]

Sorry, I didn't get back to you sooner. I will try to test it this week and report back.

[jsedwards (j-scott-edwards-nwos)]

I finally had time to test it (sorry it took so long) and yes the 8.04.1 CD will boot with "all_generic_ide" added to the boot line. The upgraded to 8.04 system will also boot up if I add "all_generic_ide" to the grub menu.lst.

I guess the question now is there some ineffeciency running with "all_generic_ide"? I.E. is disk access slower than it would be with another driver?

Also as I mentioned above the (8.10 CD and Kernel booted fine without "all_generic_ide".

Thanks,
  Scott

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

This is not a bug in the linux-meta package, moving to the linux package.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, I am closing it because the bug has been fixed in the 9.04 version of Ubuntu. It won't be fixed in previous versions of Ubuntu because the package doesn't fit the requirements for backporting. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBackports for more information.