Live CD doesn't work in 9.10 beta on Dell XPS M2010 notebook

[Louis W. Adams, Jr.]

My Dell XPS M2010 laptop has 4 GB RAM, 2 GHz Centrino Duo, ATI Mobility Radeon X1800 graphics card.

I downloaded a CD image for the desktop version of the 9.10 beta. Mounting the CD while Windows Vista is running causes the "Ubuntu Menu" to display. Nothing happens when choosing the first button and "Reboot now": The PC does not reboot as it should. (This operation works correctly in Ubuntu 8.04 and 9.04 on this PC.)

When I manually reboot with the CD in the drive, the Ubuntu boot menu is displayed. I choose the first option ("Try Ubuntu without . . . "). The screen goes black, and then a screen full of text is displayed with a blinking cursor at the bottom left on the screen. The last two lines of text on the screen end with

? unknown_bootoption+0x0/0xab
-- init_begin+0x7x/0x83

And that's it. The machine is dead, and I must manually reboot.

While I validated the CD that I created from the downloaded ISO file, I did not do a checksum for that file. If you can tell me where I can find it, I can do that check.

This is my first venture into Linux. Before trying the 9.10 beta I had the following experiences during the past 30 days:

Ubuntu 8.04: Live CD boots and loads fine. The only feature that does not work is speaker audio. Internet connection OK, the applications (GIMP, calculator, Firefox) all seem to work fine. Have not tried to install 8.04 on the hard disk.

Ubuntu 9.04: Displays the boot menu. When I select Live CD the kernel begins loading, gets about 2/3 of the way, then freezes. I must manually reboot the PC.

I've looked over Ubuntu forum for the Dell M2010 without finding a solution for my 9.04 problem. I was hoping 9.10 would fix the loading issue, but as you can see the situation is worse because no loading-graphic is displayed. I know next to nothing about Linux, but if I can help the 9.10 team test Live CD revisions on the M2010, I'd be happy to help. I'd prefer not to install any version on my hard disk until the Live CD version works correctly.

Lou

[Stefan Pressler (shirotsume)]

same problem here(m2010 9.10 rc amd_64 install), exept that the installation/live boot just stops(kubuntu logo and nothing happens).

maybe some additional info will help to solve the problem.
8.10 no problems
from there upgraded to 9.04
kernel 2.6.24-19 -> works
kernel 2.6.27-14 -> works
kernel 2.6.28-15 -> doesn't work
9.10 amd_64 -> wont run live, neither install (checked it on a desktop pc, no problem with live, e.g disk is fine imho)
i ran it without quiet and splash and the last thing that appears is "x86_64_start_kernel +0xfa/0x109"

(sidenote to the speaker problem: upgrade the alsa package if you dont have the device /dev/snd/hwC0D0, install hda-verb, do
./hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0×1 set_gpio_data 5
./hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0×1 set_gpio_dir 5
./hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0×1 set_gpio_mask 5
thx to andreas demmer for this)

thanks for working on a solution ;)
stefan

[Louis W. Adams, Jr. (lou)]

Today I downloaded the new release of 9.10 (10/29/09) for testing. I obtained the same result: the Ubuntu boot menu is displayed, selecting "Try without . . . " produces a screen full of text (matching the posting I reported in the first entry of this thread), and the PC is dead.

I sure would like to stop using Windows . . .

Lou

[Louis W. Adams, Jr. (lou)]

Here is what I know loads and runs from a Live CD on my Dell M2010:

Ubuntu 8.04: Yes
Ubuntu 8.10: Yes
Ubuntu 9.04: No
Ubuntu 9.10: No

I also created a Knoppix 6.0.1 bootable CD, but that fails to load too.

Lou

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello
Still someone having problem with liveCD ?
Thanks
Fabio

[Louis W. Adams, Jr. (lou)]

Fabio:

I gave up on all releases past Ubuntu 8.10. I've installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my Dell XPS M2010, and it's working fine. I've seen postings where some have installed 9.04 and 9.10, but I don't know how they do it. I tried using Wubi with 9.04 and 10.04, but although they download OK into a Windows Vista folder, booting into Ubuntu hangs, which is what happens with Live CD. I have a book that suggests workarounds when this happens, but none of them work for me. Unless someone can explain to me how to get later releases to run on this machine, I'll be content to use 8.04 until I buy my next PC in a few years.

Lou

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello Louis W. Adams, Jr.

Ubuntu 8.10 will have full support until april 2011, then is still alive and kicking. Enjoy it.

I close this report because the bug is not reproducible by the reporter. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.

Fabio