7.04 Installation hangs on HP Compaq nw8240

[AlexGenaud]

Insert Ubuntu 7.04 CD into
start computer
Starting Ubuntu
Select Install or Upgrade (or graphics safe mode)
Ubuntu Knight Rider splash screen
Starts up loading drivers, kernel, filesystems, etc [OK] list
HP Printing
Display goes black
Startup (Ubuntu Gnome maybe) music plays
Harddrive activity
Nothing happens (ctrl-alt 1,2,3,4 then ctrl-alt-delete) or
Your X Graphics are setup incorrectly, would you like to display settings (only once of 20 tries):

x window system version 7.2.0 22 jan 2007
x protocol version 11, r 0, release 7.2
linux ubuntu 2.6.20-15-generic
...
/var/log/Xorg.0.log
using config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
VESA(0): No matching modes
Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

<OK>

[AlexGenaud (alexgenaud)]

modified /etc/X11/xorg.conf added 1920x1200 to 16 bit depth, changed default to 16 (from 24)
tried to run 'gdm' 'gdm restart' gdm-restart' 'gmd start' -- absolutely nothing happens, back to the command prompt.
startx flashes the display black and then prints something like the message above (X Windows System Version 7.2.0....) Fatal server error: no screens found XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

[AlexGenaud (alexgenaud)]

Many times the HP/Compaq nw8240 laptop would shutdown on its own at various stages before failing to start X. However, the most recent time, I was able to edit xorg.conf and startx. This got me to the GNOME desktop. Selected System > Admin > Install (or something like that). Selected language, keyboard, timezone, and partitioning. let's see how it goes from here.

$ sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
$ startx

I'm not sure which are the required modifications, but here's what I've done in xorg.conf: Added Device/Driver = "ati" (also changed the Device/Identifier matching the Screen/Device, both "ATI Tech..."), added HorizSync, VertRefresh, and DisplaySize to Monitor, and added "1920x1200" to every one of the Screen/SubSection "Display"/Modes. Something like this:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE)"
 Driver "ati"
 BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Generic Monitor"
 Option "DPMS"
 HorizSync 28-96
 VertRefresh 43-60
 DisplaySize 330 210
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Device "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE)"
 Monitor "Generic Monitor"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 1
  Modes "1920x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"

... etc ...

[AlexGenaud (alexgenaud)]

The following URLs were helpful in comming up with the above xorg.conf

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-driver-ati/+bug/20283
http://<email address hidden>/msg202892.html
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/110543
http://librarian.launchpad.net/6673342/xorg.conf

My installation got pretty far, seemed to hang on 88% but finally failed in the 9x% range when configuring GRUB -- I have Ubuntu 6.06 installed on another partition. I assumed the setup succeeded (/install looked pretty good), so I modified the GRUB list on the root partition and restarted. Unfortunately, that did not work at all, but I am able to boot into the old partition, so I guess that's all for this bug. Hope it's helpful to someone.

[Luka Renko (lure)]

This regression was caused by recent upgrade to xorg 7.2 - see bug 90571