Karmic boot fails (end_request) on Targa 1016 (MSI U120 oem)

[Paddy O'Reilly]

When trying to boot the live usb of either Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 5 (Netbook, moblin & kubuntu) on my Targa Traveller 1016 (a rebadged MSI Wind U120) I am encountering an error about 75% through the graphical boot progress bar.

The errors are first a stream of:
[ 77.895256] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector1082031

then later
[ 125.222939] SQUASHFS error: squashds_read_data dailed to read block 0x1f4a5729
[ 125.224293] SQUASHFS error: Unable to read fragment cache entry [1f4a5729]
[ 125.224293] SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 1f4a5729, size a309
[ 125.224293] SQUASHFS error: Unable to read fragment cache entry [1f4a5729]

and this is repeated down the screen.

I have tried 3 iso images of Alpha 5, and on two different types of media (1 HDSD card and 1 USB drive)
The iso boots correctly when acpi=off is used as a boot parameter.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi a_paddy,

Unfortunately, everything I've seen regarding these SQUASHFS types of errors being reported it was due to either bad media or broken hw. See bug 172937 as well as https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SquashfsErrors . Care to maybe try again with the Alpha 6 image which was just released today? Thanks.

[Oktay Altunergil (oktaya)]

I have a Medion E1210 (also a rebadged MSI WIND U120) and get the same results with 9.10 (final). I've tried with two different USB sticks, one of which is what I've used to install Jaunty successfully.

I've edited the boot parameters to take out 'noprompt', 'queit', and 'splash' to see what was going on. The process goes smooth, it adds the necessary user, turns on shadow passwords, sets keys, etc. Everything seems fine until the installer tries to bring up a graphical screen. (Starting X probably).

I recommend doing the same and actually looking at where the process is failing to other submitters.

Is there a way to capture the boot messages ?

By the way this seems to uniquely effect MSI Wind machines as far as I can find out via google. And please consider that this might be a legitimate non-hardware issue. It's frustrating to be referred to the same SquashfsErrors page all the time.

[Dmitri Petros (radjahshellduck)]

I don't know for sure about the Targa or the Medion, but I get the same errors trying to run a live CD on a Wind U100. That makes me think this bug is probably the same as Bug #435352.

For a live session, there's a workaround in turning off the webcam (on a Wind, you'd use Fn F6) at the boot splash screen.

If you've already installed, you can either turn off the webcam using Fn F6 or blacklist uvcvideo in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.

[Joe (iaido)]

I can confirm that disabling the webcam solves this problem on medion (hofer) akoya E1210. This bug drove me crazy until I found this hint. But now I think to remember that this problem has occured somewhere in the past in a previous release.....

[Crayfish (craig-craigdunn)]

Trying to install 9.10 netbook remix via usb... This problem also seems to be affecting the Dell Mini 9 (which has a webcam incidentally) tried on multiple USB sticks and Im confident it's not a media issue. For me, the GUI loads up fine but dmesg shows loads of SQUASHFS page read errors... The system eventually crashes and the install app doesnt launch.

Booting with acpi=off has no effect.

[Wesley Werner (wesley-werner)]

I'm using the Karmic desktop i386 ISO (instead of the Remix), and this happens on my MSI U100 Plus as well. Disabling the web cam with Fn+F6 has no change (the LED indicator stays off either way at this stage, I can't tell whether it's on or off).

I found creating a bootable USB disk using UNetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) gives better results, It just booted fine into the live environment. Perhaps the issue lies with how usb-creator prepares the USB disk.

[Eric Broneer (ledoc)]

Same here trying to boot Karmic i386 standard (not Netbook Remix) on an Asus Eee PC 1008AH from a USB device. Everything goes fine until the system tries to launch X, at which point SQUASHFS errors pop up followed by end-request, I/O errors and what not. Only way to reboot is the so-called "emergency" reboot by pressing Ctrl-Alt-PrtScrn-B.

[Eric Broneer (ledoc)]

I should add that I tried removing AHCI, also tried noacpi and ide=nodma (and various combinations of these) but the errors persist.

[Eric Broneer (ledoc)]

After looking around, I have found what may be a workaround (although I am unable to test it at present): the problem may come from the version of usb-creator in Karmic. By reverting to the 0.1.10 version, things seem to work for most users.
I found the information (in French) at http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=355414
I will try this as soon as possible and comment on it. This is what I will try :

$ sudo apt-get --purge remove usb-creator-*
$ wget http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/u/usb-creator/usb-creator_0.1.10_all.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i usb-creator_0.1.10_all.deb

[Eric Broneer (ledoc)]

A little better, but still not working. For some strange reason, after trying the above-mentioned commands, I get usb-creator 0.1.8 (go figure). Anyway, using a standard i386 ISO image on my USB stick works a little better: I get the "please wait" cursor, then the Ubuntu splash screen. But instead of going into a session, the screen reverts to the "please wait" cursor, then back to the splash screen, then back to the cursor, then nothing. Ctrl-Alt-F1 shows again a bunch of SQUASHFS errors. Again, I tried disabling AHCI, tried ide=nodma, acpi=off, etc. Various changes happen, but it always ends up with SQUASHFS erros.

To sum things up: usb-creator 0.1.8 gets a little further than the standard Karmic version, but we don't get a session going.

[Oktay Altunergil (oktaya)]

I think like Dmitri said this is the same as #435352 . What's happening is the webcam driver is clashing with USB at some point which is making the USB drive fail after a certain point (although it works initially).

If somebody were to test turning off the camera before install this bug could be put to rest as it is unlikely to happen in the next release. (There's also a BIOS patch from MSI that fixes the problem)

[Eric Broneer (ledoc)]

A workaround : install Jaunty, then upgrade to Karmic.

This of course won't work if you really want to install UNR (which I believe doesn't exist for Jaunty), but at least SquashFS didn't spill its guts all over me with Jaunty.

Whoever is in developing (I would love to help had I the time and energy): something happened between Jaunty and Karmic as far as SquashFS is concerned. On my Asus 1008HA netbook, installing or running live 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04 works fine with a USB stick, but Karmic won't go live because of SquashFS errors.

Whatever works!

Cheers,
Eric

[Oktay Altunergil (oktaya)]

I think I should have been clearer. This has been triaged extensively and has been fixed in Bug #435352 .

[Eric Broneer (ledoc)]

Installing Ubuntu Network Remix (9.10) works fine when launched from the SD card and fails from a USB stick.

So it is indeed hardware related.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu development release http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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