LUbuntu 11.10 liveCD boots to console

[peterzay]

LUbuntu 11.10 Oneiric liveCD boots to console. You never get the try/install screen.

From console, if you switch to desktop (CTRL-ALT-F7), you get
* Starting NTP server ntpd [OK]
* Starting bluetooth [OK]
and then the system hangs.

You can toggle back to console (CTRL-ALT-F1) and then back again to desktop, but nothing happens.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

I get this problem on a Lenovo SL500 laptop and an old HP desktop: HP Pavilion 061 D7222P-ABA M400Y.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

The original attached Apport information in this bug report is from an Ubuntu 10.04 LTS system and not relevant to this report. This bug actually affects Oneiric and not Lucid. I am removing the original Apport information and changing this bug's tagging to reflect this. The original description can still be viewed (I am not destroying any information). I am leaving the original Dependencies.txt, but it pertains to Lucid, so is unlikely to be useful.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

Please check the MD5 sum on the .iso image that you used to create the Lubuntu Oneiric live CD (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM). The MD5 sums for Lubuntu Oneiric .iso images are at http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/11.10/release/MD5SUMS (make sure to compare to the one that corresponds to the .iso image you are testing). Please also verify that the CD was correctly written and is fully readable in the machine(s) on which you were attempting to test/install Lubuntu. To do this, press Spacebar when the person and keyboard icons appear the bottom center of the screen, then select your language and "Check disc for defects". Make sure to do this on one of the machines on which the problem occurred, as this will also report failure for some hardware problems and physical media incompatibilities.

If the MD5 sum does not check out, redownload the image, make sure you get a correct MD5 sum this time, then burn a new CD and see if the problem persists. If the MD5 sum checks out but verifying the CD as described above does not, then re-burn the CD (burn it at the slowest possible speed). If you are still unable to burn a CD that checks out from an .iso image whose MD5 sum does check out, or if you have trouble following any of the above instructions, please post a question to get assistance (https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+addquestion), post a link to the question here, and link the question to this bug using "Link existing bug" on the question page. (You can also feel free to subscribe me to the question.) If after correcting a bad .iso or bad burn this problem goes away, then that means there is no bug, so in that case, please change this bug's status to Invalid.

If everything checks out and this bug still occurs, then please check and see if the terminal you have when you boot from the CD is usable (try typing commands on it). If it is usable, then connect the machine to the Internet with an Ethernet cable (if both your machines use wireless, then you could share the other machine's network connection with this machine via an Ethernet cable--if you don't know how to do this, please post a new question about that using https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-nettool and link it as described in the previous paragraph). Install openssh-server on it by running the command "sudo apt-get install openssh-server" (without the quotes). Set a password with "passwd" (*not* "sudo passwd"). Discover its ipv4 address with "ifconfig". Then SSH into it from the other machine by running the command "ssh -c blowfish -X ubuntu@IP" where IP is replaced by the ipv4 address of the machine running the live CD.

Now, you can run graphical programs on the live CD system, by entering the commands to launch them in the SSH session. Their windows will appear on the machine on which you are physically working (the installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS system from which you are SSHing). You can open a web browser (run "chromium-browser") and attach the files /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /home/ubuntu/.xsession-errors to this bug report (attach them at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lubuntu-meta/+bug/878210, not by e...

[peterzay (peterzay)]

Both the MD5 and disc check are ok.

After finishing the check, it asks to hit any key to reboot. When I do, you get no console, you do get the 2 [OK] lines, and then you get the LUbuntu desktop.

The disc check must have forced slightly different boot parameters.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

Here is the .xsession-errors file.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

May I suggest you download lubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso and test on your own hardware?

[peterzay (peterzay)]

Another user has advised me that he is also experiencing the same problem.

Note that startx at the console will give the desktop but the look is slightly different. No big deal, but enough to give the marketing/branding dept. some discomfort.

[Phill Whiteside (phillw)]

Hi,

sudo service lxdm start

should bring up the standard LXDM (Lubuntu) system.

Regards,

Phill.

On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 2:48 PM, peterzay <email address hidden> wrote:

> Another user has advised me that he is also experiencing the same
> problem.
>
> Note that startx at the console will give the desktop but the look is
> slightly different. No big deal, but enough to give the
> marketing/branding dept. some discomfort.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Lubuntu
> Packages Team, which is subscribed to lubuntu-meta in Ubuntu.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/878210
>
> Title:
> LUbuntu 11.10 liveCD boots to console
>
> Status in “lubuntu-meta” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> LUbuntu 11.10 Oneiric liveCD boots to console. You never get the
> try/install screen.
>
> From console, if you switch to desktop (CTRL-ALT-F7), you get
> * Starting NTP server ntpd [OK]
> * Starting bluetooth [OK]
> and then the system hangs.
>
> You can toggle back to console (CTRL-ALT-F1) and then back again to
> desktop, but nothing happens.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lubuntu-meta/+bug/878210/+subscriptions
>

--
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/phillw

[Phill Whiteside (phillw)]

Hi,

sudo service lxdm start

should bring up the standard LXDM (Lubuntu) system.

Regards,

Phill.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

The attached .xsession-errors file is strongly indicative of a machine with at least a minimally functional Lubuntu desktop. Are you sure the files you attached are from the correct machine? Was that file attached after the machine *failed* to start the Lubuntu desktop session? A file attached from a different, working session, whether it be on the same machine or a different machine, is unlikely to be relevant to this bug.

"The disc check must have forced slightly different boot parameters."

The only two likely sets of parameters are those associated with "Try Lubuntu without installing" and "Install Lubuntu". Do both of those trigger this bug, or does only one of them trigger it? (If you have not tested each explicitly, please do so now if possible.)

Also, when I select "Check disc for defects" it will not resume booting after checking--it will only prompt me to press any key to reboot my system. Is it different for you? Did you get a keyboard and person icon at the bottom of the screen as I had described? (You shouldn't have--it was a mistake for me to describe it that way, as that applies to the Ubuntu desktop CD but not to the Lubuntu desktop CD which never displays a graphical Try/Install menu, but which instead always goes to the nongraphical boot menu.)

"May I suggest you download lubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso and test on your own hardware?"

I have tested with the Lubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot i386 CD on a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop as well as on a VMware Workstation 8 8.0.0 build-471780 virtual machine (running on an Oneiric amd64 host with a 3.0.0-12-generic kernel), and I have tested with the Lubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot amd64 CD on a Dell Studio XPS 8100. On each of those three machines, I tried both "Try Lubuntu without installing" and "Install Lubuntu", and both worked--I was unable to reproduce this bug in any of those six distinct tries.

It would be strange if I could have reproduced this bug, since a bug like this would have been unlikely to affect a large percentage of all systems, and still make it into the release version of the Lubuntu desktop CD.

You had said, "LUbuntu 11.10 Oneiric liveCD boots to console. You never get the try/install screen." But you must have gotten to the menu where you can select to Try or to Install, because that is the same menu that gives you the ability to check the disc for defects. Do you mean that you never get the graphical Try/Install screen? (Not getting that is intended behavior on Lubuntu, but obviously what you're experiencing--where there is not GUI--is not intended behavior.) Is it possible that you had booted while your computer was unattended, and the menu timed out? (If that happened, that should be equivalent to manually selecting "Try Lubuntu without installing." (I have tested and verified this behavior with the i386 CD on the VMware virtual machine. I have not done so on the other machines, but if that turns out to be the specific use case that sometime triggers this bug, then I'll go ahead and do so.)

"Another user has advised me that he is also experiencing the same problem."

Can that user create a Launchpad account if he does not have one, subscri...

[peterzay (peterzay)]

The attached Xorg.0.log and xsession-errors files were copied to USB key when the desktop was obtained after a successful disc check and press any key to reboot.

I have only attempted to "Try Lubuntu without installing" and not "Install Lubuntu". I do not want to lose the underlying Ubuntu 11.10 installation on the HP desktop.

> Did you get a keyboard and person icon at the bottom of the screen as I had described?
No, I ignored that.

>Do you mean that you never get the graphical Try/Install screen?
Yes, I am a first time LUbuntu tester, I was expecting Ubuntu style behaviour.

>Is it possible that you had booted while your computer was unattended, and the menu timed out?
No.

I will try your suggestions:
- sudo apt-get install openssh-server
- Set a password with "passwd" (*not* "sudo passwd")
- Discover its ipv4 address with "ifconfig"
- "ssh -c blowfish -X ubuntu@IP" where IP is replaced by the ipv4 address of the machine running the live CD
- run "chromium-browser" and attach the files /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /home/ubuntu/.xsession-errors to this bug report

I find it very strange that 3 random machines all fail in exactly the same way. My two above and that of a friend.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

I just booted from powered off state with liveCD, got no console, got the 2 [OK] lines, and then got the desktop.

This is a first. I will retry 3x to see if this is reproducible.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

"I will try your suggestions..."

Thanks. In addition to attaching your /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /home/ubuntu/.xsession-errors files, please also attach /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old and /home/ubuntu/.xsession-errors.old, if they exist (they may very well not, and that is OK).

Please also provide the output of "ps ax | grep -v grep | grep lxdm-binary" as described above.

'I have only attempted to "Try Lubuntu without installing" and not "Install Lubuntu". I do not want to lose the underlying Ubuntu 11.10 installation on the HP desktop.'

That is not a concern, unless you actually go through with the installation after booting into the installer. (Even then, you would have to tell the installer to use the whole disk, or select manual partitioning and manually clobber your Ubuntu system.) Please select "Install Lubuntu". If the installer does come up, you can cancel it rather than proceeding with it. If it does not come up, please provide the output of "ps ax | grep -v grep | grep ubiquity-dm" as described above.

"I find it very strange that 3 random machines all fail in exactly the same way."

Yes, that is very strange. It is also strange that Lubuntu continues booting after you do "Check disc for defects" -- can you describe what happens in greater detail (since I do not believe this is intended behavior--it does not happen on my machines)?

Can you provide information about the make and model of all three machines (as well as which of the two are yours and which is your friend's)? If that is inapplicable, then please provide information about the make and model of the machines' motherboards and video cards instead. (And if it is applicable, providing the video card information would still be beneficial.)

Were all three machines booted from the same USB flash drive, or from the same physical CD/DVD, or from a CD/DVD in the same attached external USB CD/DVD drive?

You said that it is *not* possible that you had allowed the menu to time out and the default option to be selected. Can you try that, and see if the problem still occurs?

Finally, when you boot from the Lubuntu live CD, before the menu with options like "Try Lubuntu without installing", "Install Lubuntu", and "Check disc for defects" appear, there is first a menu where you select your language. What language have you been selecting at this menu? What language has your friend been selecting? If you select a different language, does the problem still occur?

[peterzay (peterzay)]

I powered down from the previous (and so far only) successful boot.

On the very next boot, I got the console, performed your ssh suggestions, and failed on chromium as follows:

(chromium-browser:3893): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

I have left the machine in this console state until I hear from you.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

Can you select all the text in the Terminal on the client machine (Edit > Select All), copy it to the clipboard (Edit > Copy), and paste it here?

[peterzay (peterzay)]

I am in the console, there are no menu items.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

You have two machines. Call the machine running the Lubuntu live system machine A, and the other one machine B. Installing openssh-server on A makes it possible to control A remotely from B. You run a program from B, and it runs on A, but its graphical windows display on B.

If you have been trying to run chromium-browser in a virtual console (no GUI) on A, that completely explains the "cannot open display" error. The purpose of installing openssh-server is to make it possible to run programs on A from B. You must run "ssh -c blowfish -X ubuntu@IP" on B (press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a Terminal window in which to do this), where IP is the ipv4 address of A as determined with the ifconfig command on A. Running ssh on B gives you a console where commands you run are run on A.

On B, this will look something like the following (with some details different, most notably that IP will be the actual ipv4 address of A, and peterzay will be your actual username on B, whatever that is):

peterzay@B:~$ ssh -c blowfish -X ubuntu@IP
The authenticity of host IP (IP) can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is bf:b7:27:49:ef:08:47:ae:91:b1:1d:96:9d:f9:62:02.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
ubuntu@IP's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 11.10 (GNU/Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686)

 * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/

143 packages can be updated.
7 updates are security updates.

Last login: Mon Oct 17 19:12:46 2011
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

I hope that makes better sense. Please feel free to ask for additional clarification if it does not.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

Running ssh from machine B gives:

ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.13 port 22: No route to host

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

Are A and B connected to the same wired Ethernet network (either connected by one or more hubs/switches/routers or plugged directly into each other)? Does running ifconfig on B reveal an IP address for it? Does its IP address also start with 192.168.1. ?

[peterzay (peterzay)]

A and B are on 2 physically distinct networks. Both have 1 router each. Both IP addresses start as you indicate.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

I borrowed a laptop (machine C) on the same network as machine A and booted it with a XUbuntu 11.10 liveCD.

In a terminal on C, I ran the ssh command and then the "chromium-browser" command.

I got a very large number of the following error messages with black and white gibberish in the browser window:

[4102:4102:19605978305:ERROR:x11_util.cc(815)] X Error detected: serial 32681, error_code 148 (BadShmSeg (invalid shared segment parameter)), request_code 140, minor_code 3 (X_ShmPutImage)

Why all this 2 machine ssh complexity? Is it not possible to just ftp out of machine A to one of your public support sites?

[peterzay (peterzay)]

On machine A, at the console, I tried Phill's sudo service lxdm start and got:

lxdm start/running, process 4170

and then nothing happened. I got no desktop. I remained at the console.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

My 2 machine details are in comment #2.

The Lenovo laptop is machine B. The HP desktop is machine A.

Machine C is a HP EliteBook 8730w.

[peterzay (peterzay)]

I did some more testing, this time on machine C, a HP mobile workstation EliteBook 8730w with ATI FireGL.

Boot1 (unattended)
- got desktop successfully
- clicked on lower right icon to shutdown
- system exited desktop to console
- console claimed to be shutting down
- system does nothing
- CD not ejected
- hold power button 5-10 secs to power off

Boot2 (supervised)
- hit enter at Lang
- hit enter at Try
- got desktop successfully
- clicked on lower right icon to shutdown
- CD ejected
- hit enter
- machine powers off

[peterzay (peterzay)]

Here is a summary of the machines tested so far ( all have had problems) with LUbuntu 11.10 liveCD:

A. HP desktop: HP Pavilion 061 D7222P-ABA M400Y, 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 HT, 1 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9200
B. Lenovo SL500 laptop, 1.6 GHz Celeron, 1 GB RAM, on-board Intel graphics GMA-4500M
C. HP mobile workstation EliteBook 8730w, 4GB RAM, with ATI FireGL
D. no-name Pentium 4 built on an Intel D915PGN motherboard, 1GB of RAM, ATI Radeon X300SE