Unable to boot Ubuntu and Ubuntu flavors on older laptops

[fenixleon]

I have several older laptops (~12 years old) that I’d like to install Linux. The laptops don’t have support for EFI/UEFI. They only have support for BIOS or Legacy mode. The laptops have a 64 bit CPU.

I attempted to install Ubuntu Budgie 21.10 and after successfully completing POST, the laptops stall and display GRUB on the screen. It doesn’t progress any further.

I’ve ruled out the following:

-USB flash drive or USB port failures by booting with different USB flash drives and USB ports.
-ISO corruption as the hashes match.
-Problems with the laptops as they successfully boot Ubuntu 20.04.4.
-LiveUSB issues as it makes no difference if I use dd, cat, Startup Disk Creator, UnetBootin or balenaEtcher.

I’ve noticed that Ubuntu Budgie ships with GRUB 2.04 but Ubuntu uses an ISOLinux bootloader. As the laptops fail to get past GRUB, my only guess at this point in time is that GRUB 2.04 and later versions are incompatible with certain BIOS models.

In further testing of Ubuntu Budgie 20.04.4, the devices boot. Ubuntu version 22.04 like Ubuntu Budgie 21.10 results in the laptops not getting past GRUB. As the images could not boot, I'm unable to raise the bug report via the live USB session.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

Bug reporting is mostly about finding & fixing problems thus preventing future users from hitting the same bug.

I suspect a Support site would be more appropriate, eg. https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu. You can also find help with your problem in the support forum of your local Ubuntu community http://loco.ubuntu.com/ or asking at https://askubuntu.com or https://ubuntuforums.org, or for more support options please look at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/community-support/709

FYI: I'm replying here on a 2009 dell that is running Lubuntu jammy; and use machines from as old as 2006 in QA-testing Ubuntu and flavors of Ubuntu and have no issues booting. Your issue doesn't rule out invalid ISO (did you verify it as per documentation) or improper write to ISO (far more likely a problem in my experience, did you rule this out? as you've provided few clues as to having done this). I can see you've tried from your explanation though, so thank you.

You've provided no hardware specifics (those could be provided by a `apport-collect` using another bootable ISO, but you'd have to clearly state you used an different ISO to provide that detail, as it would report your ISO version/date as from the ISO used when report was made), nor what ISO you're actually using. Ubuntu jammy is currently in testing, so dailies are produced (sometimes more than one per day) with the ISO marked as to which it is. You've not provided this detail, or link the QA-test on the ISO tracker (iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/429/builds) which would allow that detail to be obtained via that recording of your test.

Please note many support sites do not support Ubuntu jammy (or flavors) as it's not yet a released product. IRC, Ubuntu Forums do however as examples.

[fenixleon (fenixleon)]

Thanks for replying Chris. I had posted the question in the Ubuntu Budgie forum as I had experienced the issue with it - https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/unable-to-boot-ubuntu-budgie-on-older-laptops/5810/6. The recommendation from Ubuntu Budgie team member was to raise a bug report.

Re: invalid ISO, I am assuming you mean a corrupted ISO as a result of an improper download. If yes, this was validated by matching the hashes.

Do you mean an improper write from the ISO? If yes, this was tested with several tools such as dd, cat, Startup Disk Creator, UnetBootin or balenaEtcher.

To clarify, are you asking me to `apport-collect`? Since I'm unable to get past the GRUB screen for example when using Ubuntu Budgie 21.10, I'm unsure how I can do this.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thanks for the additional detail.

I've replied on the budgie discourse; but can I request you re-try a boot and leave it attempting to boot for at least 20 minutes... (better if 30 mins)

(This is a request to see if your issue is this one - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/1922342)

[fenixleon (fenixleon)]

I allowed it to boot for >45 min. It did not progress further than the GRUB screen.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

As stated, run apport-collect from the working 20.04.4 image or collect the info about which laptops they are and what hardware they have yourself.

Run grub with set debug=all and capture the output in a video.

I suspect there isn't much we can do here, unfortunately, but without anything to debug it's clearly not happening.

[fenixleon (fenixleon)]

Julian, is inxi -F sufficient?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]