Unable to install Ubuntu 12 Server

[Hawk]

Refer to Bug #995144 which caused the initial problem.

Installed ubuntu-12.04-server-i386.iso to USB drive using Universal USB Installer 1.8.9.7
Booted up into Ubuntu.
Selected English.
Selected Install Ubuntu Server.

Computer locks up.

Using a Fit 2 PC: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/fit-pc/

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

You mean the installation locks up, or it locks up when you reboot?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

The installation locks up immediately. No matter what is selected.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

So you get a grub menu, choose the option to install ubuntu, and nothing after that? Can you post your /boot/grub/grub.cfg file?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

Would be happy too! ...how can I access the drive to do so?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Plug the drive in and click the icon to open it?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

Server edition. No icons. Text only.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Then mount the drive and cat the file.

[YannUbuntu (yannubuntu)]

If the installation blocks before it ends, the bug affects Ubiquity (not grub)...

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

http://paste.ubuntu.com/986151

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Yannu, Ubiquity is not used for the server and alternate installer.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

It looks like your flash stick is using syslinux, not grub. I'm not sure what "universal usb installer" is. Can you try using the startup disk creator in Ubuntu instead?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

It's similar to UnetBootIn if you are familiar with that:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

The startup disk creator (wubi.exe) is for Desktop only, not Server edition. So no, I do not know how to do that.

How is all of this even relevant to it not installing? Are you telling me, because I am using syslinux. Ubuntu will start up. Allow me to select "Install Server"... and then lock up? That doesn't make any sense to me.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Wubi is something else entirely. That is for installing Ubuntu inside a file in windows. Startup disk creator is the Ubuntu official tool for creating usb startup disks. You can find the startup disk creator on the menu of any ubuntu desktop install. You might also try unetbootin.

What I am telling you is that it sounds like the syslinux that universal usb installer setup may be incorrect so it is worth trying to use a tool that is known to work.

You also might want to press F6 and try some of the additional boot options, including nomodeset and acpi=off to see if that helps.

At this point though, it is clear that this has nothing to do with grub.

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

Once again, as previously stated, Wubi is for DESKTOP ONLY. NOT SERVER EDITION. Wubi will FORCE the install of 12.04 DESKTOP edition. If there is a Wubi for SERVER edition, please post the URL as I am unable to find it.

I've used both UnetBootIn and Universal. Neither of them work on this computer. Both of them have worked on other computers.

For drill, I loaded 12.04 on the USB drive again using UnetBootIn which you trust. System boots up on the USB drive just fine. I then select "Install Ubuntu SERVER" (not desktop) and press enter. The screen goes black.... and that's it! I let it sit there for an hour. Nothing! NOTHING WORKS!! IT'S DEAD! I rebooted and tried other options. NOTHING! DEAD! "it's dead Jim!" "It's dead!" Refer to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH7KYmGnj40

I don't understand how you are able to so quickly arrive to that conclusion!?! The upgrade from Lucid to Precise is what jacked up my boot partition to begin with! It TRASHED a perfectly good working server!! Refer to Bug #995144 which caused the initial problem. Now I can't even reinstall the OS!! This is absolutely maddening!!

We seem to be focusing on the boot disk. I don't think that is the problem. It's booting up just fine. The problem seems to be with how Ubuntu handles the install. Is there any diagnostics program that we can run which will determine why Ubuntu is hanging?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Once again, I am not talking about Wubi.

Please try the additional options on the F6 menu as I asked before. Certain hardware requires these options to work properly.

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

Then it appears I am unable to guess what you want.

Please provide some specific instructions of what you want done, because I have no idea at this point.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Press F6 at the boot menu, and try the advanced boot options, especially nomodeset.

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

nomodeset - hangs.
noapic - hangs.
acpi=off - WORKS!

I start the install, go though the menus, then get:

There was a problem reading data from the CD-ROM. Please make sure it is in the drive.....
Failed to copy file from CD-ROM, Retry?

Uh.. WHAT CD-ROM? This is a USB drive! Why is it trying to read from a CD-ROM? Fit 2 PC doesn't even have a CD-ROM!

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Whether you put it on a cdrom or a usb flash drive, the language does not change. Can you try running the disc check?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

No, it gives the same error.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Can you run the disk check with this usb drive in another machine and not get any errors?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

No, it gives the same error.

I also tried using Lucid Server on the original machine. It boots properly without selecting "acpi=off". Something in how Precise boots up doesn't work properly like Lucid does.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

If you are getting read errors with this flash drive in multiple machines, then the flash drive is bad or the data has been corrupted. Try formatting the drive and rebuilding it with unetbootin or using a different drive.

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

No read errors. It is unable to find something.

I did a chkdsk on the USB drive and it came back fine. No errors. I re-downloaded the iso and loaded it again. Same thing. I then got another known good USB drive, burned the second downloaded iso to it. I get the same error. I tried again using Universal USB. Same thing.

Give me your address and I will email the damn thing to you! It's NOT the USB drive! It's not my computer! Seriously, I'm beginning to wonder if the 32 bit iso they are distributing is bad.

I want you to do this. Download the iso:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server

Select 32 bit.

Use UnetBootIn:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Select the WINDOWS version.

Install the ISO to the USB drive and tell me what YOU get!!

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Please calm down.

The iso works fine for me and millions of other users, so I see three possibilities:

1) The usb stick is damaged
2) The usb stick is corrupt, either due to the way it was written or a bad download
3) This particular computer has a something different about it that causes the problem

If you can successfully perform the check in another computer, that would point to #3, if not, it points to #1 or #2. You mentioned that you ran a chkdsk with windows, did you enable the scan for bad sectors option, or just a standard chkdsk? Can you verify the md5um of the iso?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

I'm getting upset because you are focusing all of your energy on blaming my equipment and ignoring the real problem! You're not even troubleshooting anything, you're just guessing!

So answer me this. Why does it boot fine using 10.10 and fails on 12.04?
Don't you think that MAYBE that might be a clue!? Possibly?? Maybe?? *waves red flag in air*

The downloaded iso is fine.
ubuntu-12.04-server-i386.iso is: 32184a83c8b5e6031e1264e5c499bc03
My downloaded copy is: 32184a83c8b5e6031e1264e5c499bc03
Perfect match.

Check disk was performed with option /R which scans the entire drive: "chkdsk h: /r"

USB Drive One:

The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume PENDRIVE created 5/15/2012 10:29 PM
Volume Serial Number is 1DF9-1D44
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows is verifying free space...
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
    7,792,870 KB total disk space.
           36 KB in 1 hidden files.
        1,740 KB in 857 folders.
      686,152 KB in 1,612 files.
    7,104,940 KB are available.

        2,048 bytes in each allocation unit.
    3,896,435 total allocation units on disk.
    3,552,470 allocation units available on disk.

USB Drive Two:

The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume PENDRIVE created 5/16/2012 5:36 PM
Volume Serial Number is 1900-2837
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows is verifying free space...
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
   15,632,520 KB total disk space.
           36 KB in 1 hidden files.
        3,448 KB in 857 folders.
      687,844 KB in 1,612 files.
   14,941,188 KB are available.

        4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.
    3,908,130 total allocation units on disk.
    3,735,297 allocation units available on disk.

1. The USB drives are not damaged.
2. The iso is not damaged.

2 Different drives, 2 different installers, 2 different computers, 100% failure!

My instinct tells me the installer is trying to load a driver that is not present in the iso. That's the error we are seeing. Is there any kind of logging that can be turned on to see why it is failing?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

It is starting to sound like it is not the drive. Just to make sure, you tested the drive in another computer that is not also a fit-pc and got the same error? The error you described sounds like what happens when there is an IO error, which is why I wanted to rule that out. Is that text exactly as the error appears? Could you post a picture, and I'll try to find the code that prints the message and what could cause it.

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

Alright! Now we are getting some where!

Would also check and see why 10.10 boots properly without having to set the acpi switch.

[Bob Wya (robert-mt-walker)]

@Phillip

I can confirm there is a problem with booting Ubuntu Server 12.04 off a USB stick. I am using a very expensive (!!) Patriot quad channel USB stick and getting the same error as Phillip when using UNetbootin. I was unable to get multisystem (http://liveusb.info/dotclear/) to boot the OS without a kernel panic (I do prefer multiboot USB sticks).

Anyway has anyone at Canonical actually checked that the CD contents can be transferred from ISO9660 to vfat?? Perhaps not...
release-upgrader-libapt-pkg-dev_0.8.16~exp12ubuntu6~upgrader1_i386.deb (wtf!!)
Hmmm QA - not so much??

Thanks
Bob

[Bob Wya (robert-mt-walker)]

FYI forgot to mention Ubuntu Server 12.04 installs OK when using the "expert mode install" option and the standard Ubuntu network repositories...

Bob

[Tom (tom6)]

Hi :)
Bob, did you manage to boot the usb-stick after installing using the advanced installer? Did it get right through and let you login?

Hawk & Bob
Have you tried the 10.04 Server Edition on usb-stick?

Hawk
if you have a desktop Ubuntu on some machine somewhere or can boot-up a Live session then
System - Administration - "Start-up Disk Creator"
Creates a bootable usb-stick of almost any distro. I used it to make a bootable usb-stick of sliTaz . In the top pane you would select "Server Edition iso" where i had the slitaz iso. In the lower pane you would select the usb-stick. I am pretty sure that is roughly what Phillip was suggesting. It's a bit fiddly though. I think it would be better to follow Bob's route and go the advanced install route.

Errr, obviously it's quite easy to make a Live Usb of SliTaz but i thought i would take an awkward route just to test a couple of issues.
Regards from
Tom :)

[Bob Wya (robert-mt-walker)]

@Tom

I'm glad you asked me that highly pertinent question!

Yes. It's sitting on my HP Server and appears to have installed fine (using the stock Ubuntu Server USB image that UNetbootin created). If you try and install the packages included on the original CD image then you come unstuck because some of the file names are too long for vfat. But what is the point of a large iso image if you have to install everything off the internet... :-)

The disk would probably boot correctly (i.e. allow use of the normal installer and local packages) by mounting the iso image in Grub (multisystem chainloads Grub 2 from Grub4DOS) but I haven't got this to work correctly yet...

Bob

[Bob Wya (robert-mt-walker)]

I can confirm this bug and state it relates to use of excessively long filenames in the Ubuntu Server 12.04 standard release CD iso image. The transfer from ISO9660 to vfat filenames therefore results in one or two filename truncations taking place.

This careless (on the part of the Canonical Server teams' packagers) makes it an unnecessarily obscured process to install the Ubuntu Server release using a USB flash drive.

Bob

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Bob, the name fits on fat32 just fine, which supports up to 256 character names. I can see the specific file you mentioned on my usb stick.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Hawk, when you get that error, can you switch to another tty and check dmesg for errors?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

Will this problem ever be fixed?

[Hawk (rthawkcom)]

Problem found and solved!

The problem is in how the drive is booted. There is the windows style and the standard unix style. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can explain the differences.

The solution was to go into the BIOS on the Fit PC and change it from "other" back to "windows".

Tested and confirmed working on Server 12.04

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

There is no windows vs unix style; there is just PC style booting.

Barring an explanation from the manufacturer of what this option does, I can only chalk this up as a bios bug. My guess is that "other" assumes a non ACPI aware OS such as DOS, and changes the way the ACPI behaves to try and deal with that, and something about that change is broken or triggers a bug.