HP Mini 311 - Does not always boot

[Russ Phillips]

HP mini 311 came with Windows XP Home, now dual-booting that with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)

Windows always boots without issue
Linux always boots reliably into rescue mode, but when booting normally, it sometimes hangs very soon after grub (before the Ubuntu logo appears). When this happens, there is a black screen with a cursor in the top left. Power-cycling and booting into recovery mode, then resetting and booting normally, appears to resolve the issue.

If you need copies of logs, please let me know - I didn't know which logs would be relevant.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 2/2
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
   Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: russ 1612 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0x53100000 irq 21'
   Mixer name : 'Nvidia MCP7A HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:111d7605,103c3651,00100402 HDA:10de0007,10de0101,00100100'
   Controls : 30
   Simple ctrls : 17
Date: Mon Nov 9 22:17:42 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=59e4f76d-25fa-419f-a263-7b4ff87304ee
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.

 pan0 no wireless extensions.
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard Compaq Mini 311-1000
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic 2.6.31-14.48
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=d1d7bad9-e914-4c19-ada9-35ca400ffae7 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.24
RfKill:
 0: hci0: Bluetooth
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1627): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1627): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:1685): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1710): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
dmi.bios.date: 08/04/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: F.02
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 3651
dmi.board.vendor: Quanta
dmi.board.version: 49.14
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Quanta
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrF.02:bd08/04/2009:svnHewlett-Packard:pnCompaqMini311-1000:pvr0395100000001C00000300000:rvnQuanta:rn3651:rvr49.14:cvnQuanta:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Compaq Mini 311-1000
dmi.product.version: 0395100000001C00000300000
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[kic (rickho)]

HI
I think I have the same problem (same notebook and same symptom)
AFAIK, it is caused by ssb or b43 module (for wifi).
To confirm that, can you add this line in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf :
blacklist ssb

and see if it freeze again ?

[Russ Phillips (avantman42)]

After filing this bug, I installed the "Broadcom STA proprietary wireless driver" via the restricted drivers applet. Since then I have booted several times without incident, and lsmod does not list ssb or b43, so I suspect you are correct, and the ssb driver is the cause of the issue.

[kic (rickho)]

Ok so this is the problem I have too.
I don't like the wl driver (not so stable), so I try again with b43.
I notice that it doesn't crash if I load some modules manually (I blacklist ssb to prevent auto loading of b43 and ssb)
I restart the system several times with the boot script below, and for the moment, no problem :

#!/bin/bash
lsmod | grep b43 > /dev/null
CHARGER=$?
if [ $CHARGER -eq 1 ]
then
 sudo modprobe pcmcia_core
 sleep 1
 sudo modprobe led_class
 sleep 1
 sudo modprobe cfg80211
 sleep 1
 sudo modprobe mac80211
 sleep 1
 sudo modprobe pcmcia
 sleep 3
 sudo modprobe b43 verbose=3
 echo "Chargé"
else
 echo "Déjà chargé"
fi

I can give more information if it can help debugging.

[Russ Phillips (avantman42)]

A colleague has the same model laptop, but he hasn't installed the proprietary driver, so I asked him to blacklist the ssb driver (as suggested by user kic). It made no difference, it still sometimes freezes on boot.

[arsenix (arsenix)]

I just purchased one of these laptops and am experiencing this issue. After installing fresh Karmic I could no longer get the machine to boot.(in recovery or normal) Even karmic install CD would no longer boot (I tried many times with only a few successful boots, maybe my first boot to install it was just lucky). Physically removing the wireless card from the machine fixes the issue but of course leads to lack of wireless. Blacklisting the ssb driver did not help.

Booting with text console shows the machine freezes about 2.5 seconds into the boot process (I believe before modules are loaded). The severity of the issue on my system seems worse than others are experiencing. My system is basically useless with the wifi card in.

James

[arsenix (arsenix)]

Blacklisting b43-pci-bridge allowed the machine to boot. The STA driver so far seems to work.

[Max (maxxxw)]

I have this exact same problem but it seems a bit intermittent. When booting from a USB stick to install Ubuntu it would only fully boot about 1 out of 8 tries. It would just freeze at different points of the boot process. Now with the installation process successfully completed it does not boot at all (recovery or default). In recovery mode it freezes at or just after loading b43-pci-bridge. Most frustrating as I can see lots of reports of other people running ubuntu fine on these laptops!

BTW I have the British version of the HP 311 (Compaq 311C).

[Jared Warren (jawarren)]

Adding "blacklist b43-pci-bridge" didn't help. I couldn't get recovery mode or a USB live cd to boot, but adding the boot option "noload=b43,ssd,b43-pci-bridge" allowed me to boot. I removed B43 using the hardware admin screen and installed STA. Everything appears to be working.

[Ken Drachnik (ken-drachnik)]

Same problem with the black screen and cursor. Sound works, mouse works but no wifi and no suspend... when the system boots. It just stopped booting on me into Karmic so I'll need to do some work. I had the same problem with booting from a USB stick - very frustrating. I finally got to install Karmic via the msft boot download .

[Ken Drachnik (ken-drachnik)]

After multiple failed reboots was able to boot and blacklisting ssb seems to have solved the booting problem. I downloaded the backports and the STA driver, but wireless is still not recognized. On reboot hardware driver states that the STA is "activated but not currently in use". Seems this may be a bug in that the Broadcomm crypto was not updated and doesn't work with Karmic. See bugs 395630 and 484643 as well. (problems with 2.6.31.14 kernel as well) Have submitted the issue.
In the meantime it boots fast and very reliably and I am using a Belkin usb wifi stick that just worked automatically.

[Arrouan (rouzaud-jonathan)]

I have also a HP 311c (French edition).
Same problem here.
Freeze at b43-pci-bridge.
I test to blacklist b43,b43-pci-bridge and ssb but it does not change anything (maybe less reboot before a succesful one).

But when b43,b43-pci-bridge and ssb are blacklisted, jockey does not detect my graphic card or wireless card.

With a USB Key the boot is also random but with a CD (plug through USB) it works almost all the times.

I test UNR and have the same issue.

[Laurent Marchal (biguphpc)]

I managed to make my HP mini 311 work with info from this bug report, so here is how you can bypass the problem and install the 9.10 release.

- Boot your USB stick with Ubuntu UNR or Desktop version 9.10. Hit F6 and use expert mode.
- Add these kernel parameters "noload=b43,ssb,b43-pci-bridge" and boot.
- Install Ubuntu normally if it's not already install
- Now we will blacklist these modules for the further boots, because the "noload" param only works for live CD/USB keys
- mount the disk where you have installed ubuntu.
- then as root do "chroot /media/yourdisk"
- edit the file "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf" and blacklist b43,ssb,b43-pci-bridge
- mount /proc and /sys
- then run "update-initramfs -u" (if you have errors, you may need to rename /dev/null to /dev/null.old for the operation, then rename it back /dev/null)

Here you go, you should be able to boot your Ubuntu 9.10 !
Everything is working well for me, with latest nvidia drivers (190.43), and the proprietary STA wifi drivers. sleep and resume works well too.

This bug should not be in the next Ubuntu release since the kernel 2.6.32 added a nice support for the b43 low powered wifi card : http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_32#head-2affc8330b04c39cec7879419f20cad25bf93d33 (look for b43)

[Arrouan (rouzaud-jonathan)]

I installed the 2.6.32 kernel from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.32/.
Then i unblacklist ssb, b43, b43-pci-bridge.
Relaunch update-initramfs.
Relaunch update-grub2.
I also use the nvidia driver 190 (http://ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu) supporting vdpau.
Everything works fine now without the proprietary STA driver.

[llamafier (the-llamafier)]

I also took Arrouan's advice and installed the 2.6.23 kernel.

Now I get this error after selecting the 2.6.23 kernel from grub:

[ 0.423145] pci 0000:02:00.0: BAR 6: no parent found for of device [0xfffe000 0-0xffffffffff]

On the occasional boot it will get past this error but then I can't seem to get the wireless working anyways.

[Ken Drachnik (ken-drachnik)]

Reinstalled Karmic and Kernel 2.6.31-17 updated the proprietary nvidia drivers and it works. Wifi works as does sleeping and Hibernate. The only thing is that it has yet to achieve the 6 hours of promised battery life ;(

[Jan Vlnas (jnv)]

I have the exact same problem with booting stuck on black screen w/ blinking cursor. The hardware in my case is Acer Aspire One P531h; Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 (UNR). Booting without splash and quiet options revealed the message like:
b43-pci-bridge [...] PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) [...]

This netbook has the Broadcom 4315 wi-fi adapter. Removing all Broadcom-related packages (such as b43-fwcutter) and backport modules didn't help, booting always stopped on the mentioned message. I was -sometimes- able to boot into recovery mode of 31-14 kernel.

Installing the latest 32-series mainline kernel (2.6.32.9 as of today - see http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ ) as Arrouan recommends in comment #14 seems to ultimately work for me. The system boots and Wi-fi connection works out of the box, no need for fwcutter or proprietary drivers.

So, it seems that the bug is fixed in the 2.6.32 kernel (at least in my and Arrouan's case), we can only hope there will be no regression in Lucid Lynx.

Bug #459765 is also related, I will mark it as a duplicate.

[Björn Harrtell (bjorn-wololo)]

Unfortunately I still need to do the workaround described in #13 to make my Compaq/HP Mini 311 to boot Lucid 10.04. This indicates that the drivers in 2.6.32 isn't fixed after all? :(

[marten (alexey-kv)]

Same on HP Mini 5101 and 10.04. I have this problem on Arch with 2.6.32 too. Using wl instead of b43 solves problem

[steubens (steubens)]

this also happens on the Compaq Mini 110c-1100dx

01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g [14e4:4315] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:1507]
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
 Region 0: Memory at feafc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Kernel modules: ssb

[steubens (steubens)]

this is _much worse_ in lucid (beta 2); it almost never gets past the "b43-pci-bridge" message, it will if you boot into another OS and restart without powering down

with karmic it was an occasional power off from a stalled boot, then it would come up

also the wifi will stop working after a while, an rmmod/modprobe combo will bring it back up for a while; but the time window for it working progressively gets smaller thereafter, perhaps heat related? (another bug, i know, i'm hoping linux-wireless maintainers see this)

[Nick Payne (npayne12)]

steubens,

I think a lot of folks (me included) resolved the issue by installing the STA proprietary drivers in Karmic. Do you know if this option is available in Lucid and is it effective?

[Russ Phillips (avantman42)]

Nick Payne: Yes, installing the STA driver in Lucid (beta 2) works. I'm currently running Lucid Beta 2 with the STA driver installed. I've had no issues with the STA driver.

[steubens (steubens)]

yea, its an option; haven't used it enough to see if it also causes problems with _something_; but i'd much rather help to improve b43, there's some stuff about probing and early boot in the driver that probably needs more attention than it got with some of the kernel changes since .23 (or .24, don't remember which got b43 merged)

[Olof Kindgren (flamingolof)]

I got problems here too on a HP mini 311. xubuntu 10.04 rc installs, but I can't boot up afterwards. Just hangs after loading b43-pci-bridge
Applying noload=b43,ssb,b43-pci-bridge doesn't change anything

[Dan Andreșan (danyer)]

Olof,

seems like the noload is applied only when booting from a livecd.

try multiple times to boot, you will succeed in the end.

then blacklist b43 and ssb

this is not all

on my hp 311 it seems like it wanted to load the b43-pci-bridge from initrd.

so, after booting, without b43 and ssb modules in memory, I typed

sudo update-initramfs -u

and this fixed it for me

then I activated Broadcom STA driver. no problems since then.

by the way, the b43-pci-bridge message is comming from ssb module.

good luck.

[Linus (linusnorton)]

I have the English version of this laptop (Compaq 311c) and experience the same problem with Ubuntu 10.04

I have managed to get it to boot by removing "quiet splash" from the grub boot command and quickly pressing ctrl+alt+f1 but then I cannot use either the wireless or wired connections.

I tried blacklisting b43,ssb,b43-pci-bridge without any luck.

[Magnus Auvinen (magnus-auvinen)]

I've had this problem with both 9.10 and now with 10.04. My solution is to basically go nuts on the keyboard during bootup, just type a lot of random text. This avoids the error for some reason. Most probably because the problem is a deadlock and is timing sensitive.

[ron cohen (rcohen55)]

had the same problem with compaq mini 110 and the following solved the problem:
1. boot from memory stick
2. mount root disk and blacklist b43 & ssb
3. reboot in recovery mode from disk and proceed with normal boot
4. make sure that ssb & b43 are not in memory, and update-initramfs -u
5. reboot as normal and install the broadcom STA

[steubens (steubens)]

#28: there's some irony there, i've been doing the same thing and it seems better than chance that it'll succeed; but its likely the same chances, people (including me, mashing enter) are superstitious

there's something in ssb about setting up clocks that causes a race of some type trying to read the SPROM off the same bus, i've been looking into getting it fixed https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15825

#29: that's not going to fix b43 :P but it's also been said before, many times

[Mark (mtigges)]

I've had the same problem ... of course.

I tried adding blacklisting, but at this point, I can't quite remember which combination of ssb, b43 b43-bridge I did, if not all three.

The one time I managed to make it boot after that the mouse didn't work. I'm using NMR from WUBI, so I have no choice but to try to boot the thing. Is there a way to get a terminal up in NMR using only the keyboard?

I started trying again, I tried about 20 times, mashing the enter key each time - seemed to provide some success other times. Nothing.

I'm so at a loss. Really sucks. I guess we can't expect an update to ubuntu that solves this problem any time soon, can we?

M

[Nick Payne (npayne12)]

yeah, it is a real pain. Did you try installing the broadcom STA driver? That seemed to resolve my problems.

> Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 05:24:23 +0000
> From: <email address hidden>
> To: <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 479597] Re: HP Mini 311 - Does not always boot
>
> I've had the same problem ... of course.
>
> I tried adding blacklisting, but at this point, I can't quite remember
> which combination of ssb, b43 b43-bridge I did, if not all three.
>
> The one time I managed to make it boot after that the mouse didn't work.
> I'm using NMR from WUBI, so I have no choice but to try to boot the
> thing. Is there a way to get a terminal up in NMR using only the
> keyboar
>
> I started trying again, I tried about 20 times, mashing the enter key
> each time - seemed to provide some success other times. Nothing.
>
> I'm so at a loss. Really sucks. I guess we can't expect an update to
> ubuntu that solves this problem any time soon, can we?
>
> M
>
> --
> HP Mini 311 - Does not always boot
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/479597
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in The Linux Kernel: Unknown
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> HP mini 311 came with Windows XP Home, now dual-booting that with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
>
> Windows always boots without issue
> Linux always boots reliably into rescue mode, but when booting normally, it sometimes hangs very soon after grub (before the Ubuntu logo appears). When this happens, there is a black screen with a cursor in the top left. Power-cycling and booting into recovery mode, then resetting and booting normally, appears to resolve the issue.
>
> If you need copies of logs, please let me know - I didn't know which logs would be relevant.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> ArecordDevices:
> **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
> card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
> Subdevices: 2/2
> Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
> AudioDevicesInUse:
> USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
> /dev/snd/controlC0: russ 1612 F.... pulseaudio
> CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
> Card0.Amixer.info:
> Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0x53100000 irq 21'
> Mixer name : 'Nvidia MCP7A HDMI'
> Components : 'HDA:111d7605,103c3651,00100402 HDA:10de0007,10de0101,00100100'
> Controls : 30
> Simple ctrls : 17
> Date: Mon Nov 9 22:17:42 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=59e4f76d-25fa-419f-a263-7b4ff87304ee
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
> IwConfig:
> lo no wireless extensions.
>
> eth0 no wireless extensions.
>
> pan0 no wireless extensions.
> MachineType: Hewlett-Packard Compaq Mini 311-1000
> Package: linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic 2.6.31-14.48
> ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=d1d7bad9-e914-4c19-ada9-35ca400ffae7 ro quiet splash
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
> RelatedPackageVersions:
> linux-b...

[Mark (mtigges)]

That's my plan now. Is there an apt package I can just install., or do I have to build it myself?

Unfortunately, I'm not able to boot it up anymore. I've tried probably fifty times, still hanging. My small change to the blacklist seems to have doubled its resolve :(

[Mark (mtigges)]

So, I installed wubi again. I managed to make it boot on about the tenth try. I plugged in the ethernet to start working ... download the sta drivers etc ... unfortunately, the mousepad didn't work. Aaaargh

Since the one time I got it booted after modifying the bllacklist file the mouse didn't work, I'm now worried that something is physically wrong. But the mouse still works in windows.

If I boot from a usb key, I could mount /dev/sda1 (I think) as ntfs, Can anyone tell me how to mount the ext4 filesystem that wubi creates? If I could do that then I could try to modify the /etc/modules/blacklist.conf file from there avoiding the need to repeatedly hard rebooting the machine.

[Mark (mtigges)]

Sorry to add so many messages to this thread, just wanted to give an update, and hopefully, and more knowledgable soul can help

I added these three lines to blacklist.conf

  blacklist ssb
  blacklist b43
  blacklist b43-pci-bridge

It still hangs on boot. I eventually was able to get it to boot with enough tries.

  lsmod | grep b43

Shows nothing ... but ssb is still running. During the boot it still hangs at the same normal place (when it does most times).

The most recent reboot the mouse is working ... not sure why this time, and not others.

And the latest is .........

I installed the STA drivers from broadcom and the machine came up with no problems. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the wireless working. I have a valid wpa_supplicant.conf file,

When I run wpa_supplicant -dd it just keeps timing out and attempting the scan again.

I noticed with the new drivers that my interface is now eth1 for the wireless card, and not wlan0. The big difference I've found is that I don't seem to be able set the essid, whenever I run iwconfig it also shows the essid as empty, no matter how many times I run "sudo iwconfig eth1 essid <name>"

Has anyone else seen that or know what the problem might be?

FOR UBUNTU NEWBS like me ... in order to install the sta drivers 'sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-common' or, at least in netbook remix I found a dialog accessable from the main status bar through an icon at the top right. It's not there now though after a reboot. It brought up a Proprietary Drivers dialog though that enabled me to select the broadcom sta driver, and some others, I chose the NVIDIA ION driver too. I'll get around to testing that later. I believe you can get the same dialog through System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers

Oh, and the mouse is still working! lol.

[Nick Payne (npayne12)]

woa, that is a lot of update information! :) It sounds like your are enjoying some success (reliable boot up behavior, mouse works, located proprietary drivers). So the issue remaining is configuring the wireless connectivity properly?? Is there a GUI to help you configure the WLAN rather than using the command terminal? I was able to use the GUI to configure my connections. I am a new convert to linux so I am not up to speed on their version of ipconfig or I would be able to help you with more detail.

> Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 05:15:53 +0000
> From: <email address hidden>
> To: <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 479597] Re: HP Mini 311 - Does not always boot
>
> Sorry to add so many messages to this thread, just wanted to give an
> update, and hopefully, and more knowledgable soul can help
>
> I added these three lines to blacklist.conf
>
> blacklist ssb
> blacklist b43
> blacklist b43-pci-bridge
>
> It still hangs on boot. I eventually was able to get it to boot with
> enough tries.
>
> lsmod | grep b43
>
> Shows nothing ... but ssb is still running. During the boot it still
> hangs at the same normal place (when it does most times).
>
> The most recent reboot the mouse is working ... not sure why this time,
> and not others.
>
> And the latest is .........
>
> I installed the STA drivers from broadcom and the machine came up with
> no problems. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the wireless
> working. I have a valid wpa_supplicant.conf file,
>
> When I run wpa_supplicant -dd it just keeps timing out and attempting
> the scan again.
>
> I noticed with the new drivers that my interface is now eth1 for the
> wireless card, and not wlan0. The big difference I've found is that I
> don't seem to be able set the essid, whenever I run iwconfig it also
> shows the essid as empty, no matter how many times I run "sudo iwconfig
> eth1 essid <name>"
>
> Has anyone else seen that or know what the problem might be?
>
> FOR UBUNTU NEWBS like me ... in order to install the sta drivers 'sudo
> apt-get install broadcom-sta-common' or, at least in netbook remix I
> found a dialog accessable from the main status bar through an icon at
> the top right. It's not there now though after a reboot. It brought up
> a Proprietary Drivers dialog though that enabled me to select the
> broadcom sta driver, and some others, I chose the NVIDIA ION driver too.
> I'll get around to testing that later. I believe you can get the same
> dialog through System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers
>
> Oh, and the mouse is still working! lol.
>
> --
> HP Mini 311 - Does not always boot
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/479597
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in The Linux Kernel: Unknown
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> HP mini 311 came with Windows XP Home, now dual-booting that with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
>
> Windows always boots without issue
> Linux always boots reliably into rescue mode, but when booting normally, it sometimes hangs very soon after grub (before the Ubuntu logo appears). When this happens, there is a black screen ...

[Jan Vlnas (jnv)]

Mark: Blacklisting modules is not enough, you have to update initramfs. See comment #13 and following.

Although I don't have HP Mini, I had the same issues with deadlocks during boot (comment #17).
Karmic Koala now boots quite reliably for me on Acer AO P531h with Broadcom 4315. I did the mentioned blacklisting and updated initramfs using live USB (which booted flawlessly, unlike the fresh installation on hard disk); once I got into the system, I have installed Broadcom STA driver using Restricted Drivers Manager (in System > Administration > Hardware Drivers). Now the wifi works smoothly, NetworkManager handles it very well. So give NetworkManager a try.

[Mark (mtigges)]

I did that too syntax ...

Anyway ... the machine was working beautifully today. I even got some real work done while watching the hockey game.

As per Nick's suggestion, I used the GUI network tools to connect to wireless, and it was flawless.

Unfortunately, I booted in to Windows (NT) for my wife briefly ... the plan is for her to take this little machine on a trip to Korea and use the windows installation (hence the wubi install), I downloaded a simple piece of photo software, and we tried to insert her memory card to try it out. All was well. I rebooted it again to go in to linux, and wouldn't you know it ... somehow windows fried grub.

After the initial menu, windows or ubuntu, it goes straight to a grub prompt instead of the secondary menu.

So ... #1, how the f*ck does that happen?
#2 anybody want to spell out the commands for me to boot it again with linux ... and initrd commands?
and
#3 tell me how to reset grub in the bootsector, or however the hell this works with loop0? I know lilo, but I've never used grub.

#4 How the hell did the canucks lose after all that pressure in the first?

All in all, at this point, I don't really care. My wife is leaving with the machine on Sunday ... my plan when she gets back is to rid the machine of the redmond infection and install ubuntu from a usb key. So, it doesn't matter if I can recover this install or not. It would be kind of nice to have a windows bootable machine around, just in case, but definitely not worth the pain if it's going to hose the boot sector like that.

I'm pretty flippin' impressed with ubuntu all things considered. I've used slack since like 95 or so with a stack of 3.5" floppies. I'm not used to things being this slick ... when they work ;)

[Nick Payne (npayne12)]

Mark,

Yeah, a reinstall is usually the best medicine. Hopefully that works well for you.

> Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 05:12:23 +0000
> From: <email address hidden>
> To: <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 479597] Re: HP Mini 311 - Does not always boot
>
> I did that too syntax ...
>
> Anyway ... the machine was working beautifully today. I even got some
> real work done while watching the hockey game.
>
> As per Nick's suggestion, I used the GUI network tools to connect to
> wireless, and it was flawless.
>
> Unfortunately, I booted in to Windows (NT) for my wife briefly ... the
> plan is for her to take this little machine on a trip to Korea and use
> the windows installation (hence the wubi install), I downloaded a
> simple piece of photo software, and we tried to insert her memory card
> to try it out. All was well. I rebooted it again to go in to linux,
> and wouldn't you know it ... somehow windows fried grub.
>
> After the initial menu, windows or ubuntu, it goes straight to a grub
> prompt instead of the secondary menu.
>
> So ... #1, how the f*ck does that happen?
> #2 anybody want to spell out the commands for me to boot it again with linux ... and initrd commands?
> and
> #3 tell me how to reset grub in the bootsector, or however the hell this works with loop0? I know lilo, but I've never used grub.
>
> #4 How the hell did the canucks lose after all that pressure in the
> first?
>
> All in all, at this point, I don't really care. My wife is leaving with
> the machine on Sunday ... my plan when she gets back is to rid the
> machine of the redmond infection and install ubuntu from a usb key.
> So, it doesn't matter if I can recover this install or not. It would be
> kind of nice to have a windows bootable machine around, just in case,
> but definitely not worth the pain if it's going to hose the boot sector
> like that.
>
> I'm pretty flippin' impressed with ubuntu all things considered. I've
> used slack since like 95 or so with a stack of 3.5" floppies. I'm not
> used to things being this slick ... when they work ;)
>
> --
> HP Mini 311 - Does not always boot
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/479597
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in The Linux Kernel: Unknown
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> HP mini 311 came with Windows XP Home, now dual-booting that with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
>
> Windows always boots without issue
> Linux always boots reliably into rescue mode, but when booting normally, it sometimes hangs very soon after grub (before the Ubuntu logo appears). When this happens, there is a black screen with a cursor in the top left. Power-cycling and booting into recovery mode, then resetting and booting normally, appears to resolve the issue.
>
> If you need copies of logs, please let me know - I didn't know which logs would be relevant.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> ArecordDevices:
> **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
> card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
> Subdevices: 2/2
> Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
>...

[[e-mail] (couhajjou)]

I have a Compaq Mini 110c - 1190EK, and I had the same problem with kernel 2.6.32.21 but not with 2.6.32.22

this is what I did and it working well for me :

- do as #28 which is typing as crazy (don't break your keyboard :) just after the grub screen
- install the Broadcam STA driver (but not the other one)
- update all the packages with the "update manager" this will update the kernel to 2.6.32.22 (May 11, 2010)
- restart

after doing this I am having the problem with 2.6.32.21 but not with 2.6.32.22 !!!

[Sudoeste (sudoeste)]

#40 the problem never happens while using STA driver.

[Dan Andreșan (danyer)]

#40,

when you updated to 2.6.3.22 the initrd was regenerated for you (please have a look in /boot)

so, when you boot with 2.6.3.22, you don't have the problem
when you boot it with 2.6.3.21 you have it

but nothing was fixed in between

just the typical workaround:

1. manage to boot
2. blacklist the offending drivers
3. regenerate initrd
4. solved - worked around actually

[meuced (meuced-gmail)]

for lucid, take the steps at #13, and same problem at boot : black screen and blink cursor.
Reboot in recovery mod. Log into console, type "startx" and install drivers "Broadcom STA" and NVIDIA.
Reboot, it's working !

kernel used is 2.6.32-21-generic (default)

so problem not solved in Lucid without these tips.

[Peter McKenna (peter-mckenna)]

I had this problem with the wubi installer, but could not get the HP mini 311 to boot in normal or recovery mode. I reinstalled the UNR version from a USB stick. It booted OK but wifi did not work. Did an update via the network, ran Admin->Hardware Drivers and activated the Broadcom and Nvidia recommended driver. Everything has worked great for the last couple of weeks.

[Scott Wills (scott-wills)]

Here's another data point. I bought a HP Mini 311-1000 (US) in December 2009 and set it up to dual-boot Microsoft XP and Ubuntu 9.04 (9.10 had the blinking cursor boot bug). Also added 2 GB RAM. I recently decided to move to Ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit generic, not netbook version) and go MS windows-free (not dual boot). I first flashed the BIOS to version F.15. The system booted fine from a USB stick (no mods) and the install went smoothly (entire disk is Ubuntu). When restarted, the blinking cursor boot returned; the netbook was bricked. I started with the process outline in #13 but was unable to figure out how to update-initramfs on the hard drive (not the thumb). Efforts to get the new Ubuntu booted failed (keyboard playing during boot, multiple reboots). I held the shift during boot (for GRUB2) and tried the Ubuntu recovery, but its boot process froze as well. I was ready to try the 10.04 netbook version and had a CD ready. When the ASUS SDRW-08D1S-U was hooked up and the boot menu set to the netbook Ubuntu CD, the hard disk version booted instead. I blacklisted b43, ssb, and b43-pci-bridge, update-initramfs -u, and then installed proprietary drivers Broadcom STA wireless and NVIDIA accelerated graphics (version current). I rebooted and then ran updates (including 2.6.32-24-generic). Now all appears to be working well (including wireless).

Thanks to everyone for helpful comments and things to try!

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.