Lucid install on Toshiba NB305 stuck in grub busybox

[Jasonr]

I expected my fresh install to boot. It didn't.

Problem description:

A fresh install of Lucid (10.04) Netbook Edition from USB onto a Toshiba NB305, dual booting with Windows 7.
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Install goes fine, first boot fails with following type of error:
Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Check root= (did the system wait for right device?)
-Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/1d82191f-51f8-4b55-8af7-4024eb04cb39 does not exist. Dropping to shell!

BusyBox .............
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Neither the default boot or the recovery boot would work get far enough to do anything - always busybox.

If I left my USB stick in the machine, the recovery boot would complete and give me the recovery options. The regular boot would still not complete. I modified /etc/default/grub to not use UUID on the boot line (and ran update-grub) it made no difference.

Finally in desperation, I tried a suggestion for a workaround for BUG 508516 and appended "nohz=off highres=off" to the linux boot line and everything works. No idea why - but my Toshiba now boots AND wakes from sleep.

[Carl Liebold (carl-liebold)]

Had this exact problem, and fixed it as described. Really sucks as the fix really hurst power management on the netbook. Please fix!

[jim_charlton (charltn)]

Putting highres=off on the GRUB kernel command line corrupts the audio on the Toshiba NB305. I have posted these same comments to other bug reports about sound and suspend/reawaken problems on the NB305. I am hoping that it will stimulate a resolution of the sleep/suspend/reawaken problem without turning off the highres timers.
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The easiest test to see if the audio is working on the Toshiba NB305 is to go to preferences-> sound and make sure the ubuntu sound theme is selected. Then open a terminal window (accessories->terminal) and when the CLI appears, press and hold the back arrow. You will get a system "bong or ping" indicating an incorrect key entry) just hold it down and after 10 to 20 bongs the sound will distort. It requires 6 seconds before you can get normal sound again. Other programs that stress the sound system will cause this sudden distortion.

The problem can be avoided for many programs by removing pulseaudio (apt-get remove pulseaudio) and reboot. You will lose the volume control applet (and other pulseaudio stuff) but you can use alsamixer to set volumes. Like I said... it is hardly a solution.... but many programs will still work perfectly without pulseaudio installed.

It appears that pulseaudio requires the kernel highres timers in order to work reliably. When you deactivate the timers by putting highres=off on the GRUB kernel command line, it dooms pulseaudio. Or at least this has been my experience. I tried it with a completely clean install, with and without the "nohz=off highres=off". Without those parameters the sound is just fine.

What is really required is a patch to make the machine suspend and reawaken properly when the lid is closed... *without* ... deactivating the highres timers.

As always... take anything I say with a grain of salt. It is just my interpretation of what I observe.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Declining the Lucid and Maverick specific nominations for now and leaving this open against the actively developed Ubuntu kernel (which happens to be Maverick at this time). Will re-open the nominations should a fix be narrowed down which we can confirm specifically resolves this issue in Lucid and Maverick and qualifies for a Stable Release Update.

[jim_charlton (charltn)]

This bug has been worked on extensively. Please see this forum thread... http://ohioloco.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1382481. Also see https://bugs.launchpad.net/opensuse/+source/linux/+bug/508516 which discusses this bug.... ad nauseum. I believe that the root of the problem is outlined in the later bug report in... https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/601986. I don't believe that anyone has yet tackled the disk driver problem on this system.

Note that using nohz=off highres=off will cause the NB305 to run hot and the time the machine will run on battery to be shortened. The other work-arounds described elsewhere (see above) seem to be better alternatives.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Jasonr, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please do not test the kernel in the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. As well, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested.

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream', and comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it.

Please let us know your results. Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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