Long delay when booting Hardy RC Live CD ...

[Waka Jawaka]

Hardware:
---------------

Type : HP Notebook nx5000 (2004)
CPU : 1.6 Ghz Intel Centrino
Chip Set : Intel 855GM
RAM : 2 GB
HDD : 160 GB Seagate PATA
Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST DVD+RW GCA-4040N
Floppy Drive : None, neither built-in nor attached

In the BIOS the boot order is set to:

Notebook Multibay : first
Notebook Hard Drive: second

There is no dedicated menu item for a Floppy drive
in the BIOS.

Problem:
---------------

When I tried to boot the Hardy Beta Live CD a few days ago,
the procedure seemed to get stuck right in the beginning.
For several minutes all I got to see was the Ubuntu splash
with a busy bar. The LED of the CD drive was permanently
on. As there was no audible activity from the CD drive I
thought the downloaded ISO or the CD might be corrupt and
I gave up.

Yesterday I downloaded the latest Hardy RC. I checked the
ISO Hash and burned the CD with conservative 8x speed to
make sure. This time I gave the boot procedure a little
more time and I found out that it actually hasn't got
stuck indefinitely. It comes back to life and loads the
system correctly after a very long delay.

Booting from the Hardy RC Live CD this is what happens
after the initial language selection ...

- 0.00 Loading Linux Kernel (progress bar)

- 0.05 Ubuntu splash (busy bar)

- 2.30 Blank screen (blinking cursor)

- 3.45 [ID] Buffer I/O Error On Device FD0, Logical Block 0

- 5.00 [ID] Buffer I/O Error On Device FD0, Logical Block 0

- 6.15 CD activity resumes and boot continues normally

... it seems, the 6 minute delay is caused by the hardware
detection which is looking for a non-existent Floppy drive.
Neither Feisty nor Gutsy show this behaviour when I boot
their Live CDs on my notebook.

As I don't want to install Hardy to my HDD before the final
release comes out, I cannot say if the problem persists in
a proper installation. But even when booting from a Live CD,
which ought to be a showcase for Ubuntu, such an unnecessarily
long delay is unacceptable. I hope someone finds the time to
look into this before the final release comes out.

P.S.:

I've looked around in Launchpad and found that the problem may
be related to bug #95857 which is described here ...

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/95857

[Waka Jawaka (wovwov-deactivatedaccount)]

As a follow-up to my previous message here'e the dmesg output
of of Hardy RC after the 6 minute boot procedure. Maybe it
contains some useful clues ?!

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

Thanks for reporting this. Can you attach the following also?

      uname -a > uname-a.log

      cat /proc/version_signature > version.log

      sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

Regards,
Jarlath

[Waka Jawaka (wovwov-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks for looking into this, Jarlath.

I couldn't figure out how to attach all three log files in one go,
so the other two come with separate messages.

Someone in the Ubuntu forums recommended to boot with
"clocksource=hpet". Apparently this fixed the problem for
a number of people with similar hardware. I will try that
out now and let you know if this works.

[Waka Jawaka (wovwov-deactivatedaccount)]

uname-a.log

[Waka Jawaka (wovwov-deactivatedaccount)]

version.log

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

Thanks for your time. I'll put the status back to New for this report and remove myself as the assignee so the developers know it needs attention. I will still get your messages though.

Thanks again!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Waka,

Just curious if booting with "clocksource=hpet" helped or not. Thanks.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Triaged a while ago but has not had any updated comments for quite some time. Please let us know if this issue remains in the current Ubuntu release, http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . If the issue remains, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]