ubiquity hangs immediately after boot on precise

[Victor Zamanian]

When I try to install Ubuntu 12.04 from a USB stick, ubiquity hangs immediately before I can even click on anything, right after the boot process.

Sometimes I'm presented with the two options "Try Ubuntu" and "Install Ubuntu", and sometimes the installer isn't even rendered properly (buttons, text and images are simply missing, like the program isn't yet fully loaded or something). In either case, I am unable to do anything because mouse input as well as keyboard input are not registering at all. The majority of cases, I am however able to move the mouse pointer around. Ctrl+Alt+F1 (the virtual terminals) are not working either because, as stated, keyboard input does not seem to register.

I have downloaded the ISOs from 3 different mirrors, as well as via BitTorrent, resulting in 4 different ISOs, but they all have the same MD5 checksum, so I don't think that is the problem. I have tried the "Startup Disk Creator" in Ubuntu to create the bootable USB drive, as well as the command:

dd if=ubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=4M conv=fsync

but all of the ISOs downloaded and the different ways of creating the bootable USB drive all give the same non-satisfactory results.

My processor and GPU are: Intel Core 2 Duo, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, respectively.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: ubiquity (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-17.30-generic 3.0.22
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-17-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Apr 27 13:47:29 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
ProcEnviron:
 LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8
 LC_COLLATE=sv_SE.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Victor Zamanian (victorz)]

I'm starting to think it might have something to do with the nouveau graphics driver.

I eventually downloaded the alternate installation ISO and was able to finally, after two attempts, install Ubuntu. (I've never had this much trouble with a release, since 2007.)

Anyways, at the lightdm login screen, after booting into my new installation, everything was running extremely slowly. Even the mouse pointer was staggering a bit as I was trying to login. I didn't login though, I decided it would be a pain, performance-wise, so I went to a virtual terminal and did some package upgrading/installing. Among other things, I installed nvidia-current and nvidia-current-updates (of which I am using the latter), and now things run smoothly. Could it have to do with nouveau?

[Asbjørn Thegler (ath88)]

I have had the same problem and solved it for Ubuntu 12.04. There is an askubuntu question on this specific graphics card. The Nouveau in 12.04 doesn't seem to work with the GTX 580. In 13.04, Nouveau _can_ boot and lets you open a graphical terminal from where you can install nvidia-current.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/203333/12-10-unable-to-install-or-even-run-from-live-cd-with-nvidia-gtx-580

[Victor Zamanian (victorz)]

Yeah, I had the same problem with 13.04 and had to open a VT to install nvidia drivers before any graphical systems kicked in. Otherwise the system would freeze. So there *is* a workaround, but it's hardly a user-friendly experience as it stands right now. Unless this is fixed in nouveau already?

[dino99 (9d9)]

That version have expired