random reboot failure Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon 32 bit (2.6.22-14-generic)

[vankampen92]

My system is:

I have installed Gutsy from scratch successfully. a random reboot failure appears. After rebooting several times in recovery mode, the systems drops you into the BusyBox.

One of them I have got:
............................................................................................................
[ sss.xxxxxx] ata3: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80)
[ sss.xxxxxx] ata3: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
[ sss.xxxxxx] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 Control 300)
[ sss.xxxxxx] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cddatray
[ sss.xxxxxx] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[ sss.xxxxxx] sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 5

           Check root= bootarg cat /proc/cmdline
           or missing modules, devices: cat /proc/modules ls /dev
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/c3022b5c-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx does not exit. Dropping to shell!

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5ubuntu7) Built in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built in commands

(initramsfs)
............................................................................................................

This is only one example of an unsuccessful boot. Other examples seem to drop you into BusyBox when the system is trying to load the hard disk rather than the CD-ROM disk.

Oliver and others in the forum intallation and updates have pointed to me that the problem may be at the SATA bus level.
Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA

My laptop is a lenovo T61

There is a lot of discussion about this problem in Ubuntu forums (installation and updates) with different computers and different versions of the new Ubuntu 7.10 release.

[vankampen92 (dalonso-umich)]

As Oliver has pointed me out (https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/17654), if you change at the BIOS the options of the SATA from "AHCI" to "COMPATIBILITY", the problem is solved and you have a reliable reboot after shutdown or hibernate.

[vankampen92 (dalonso-umich)]

My attachment right after reboot and typing:

> ~$ uname -a > uname-a.log
> ~$ cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
> ~$ dmesg > dmesg.log
> ~$ sudo lspci -nn > lspi-wnn.log

[vankampen92 (dalonso-umich)]

I posted this bug...
Well, it is actually not a but.

I have a lenovo T61. After upgrading my BIOS (from v. 1.07 to 1.26, the current version), the problem I have mentioned vanishes: you are able to use SATA in AHCI mode and there is no problem at the booting stage. All your HD and CD are recognized and you are not ever dropped into the BusyBox (plus you solve also other little problems such as the volum buttons)

References:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-67989
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_7.10_(Gutsy_Gibbon)_on_a_ThinkPad_T61

[Phillip Lougher (phillip-lougher)]

Seems like a BIOS bug. Closing.