What could I have done wrong with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS?

[kilaueabart]

I was delighted to get my dvd in this afternoon's mail, and tried it out immediately.

After quite a long time, the boot process seemed to reach an end. Three lines at the top of the screen, I think, one telling me I could type something to get a list of commands. The bottom line read "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system." The keyboard had no effect; I was unable to type whatever had been suggested for the command list.

I performed the closest thing I know to "the official shut down procedure," namely hold the power button down for four seconds, and then I waited somewhat over a minute to turn it back on and retype the CFE command. This time it didn't get as far as last time. Progress ceased after a line reading "returning from prom_init." I waited a few minutes and shut down for over sixty seconds and then tried again. Same result. I left it a few hours -- maybe it was just REALLY slow, but nothing.

Just in case it might provide some clues, I took a photo a of the screen at a point where it slows down, printing periods (Loading: . . . . .):

http://www.frauhm.org/ubuntuboot1.JPG

Then I took another photo of the screen when it stopped for good:

http://www.frauhm.org/ubuntuboot2.JPG

So, am I just out of look, or can this be remedied?

[trevordick]

How much Ram do you have installed?

Trevor

[daz]

I was delighted to get my dvd in this afternoon's mail, and tried it out immediately.

After quite a long time, the boot process seemed to reach an end. Three lines at the top of the screen, I think, one telling me I could type something to get a list of commands. The bottom line read "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system." The keyboard had no effect; I was unable to type whatever had been suggested for the command list.

Could you grab us a picture of that? I don't think I've seen it happen.

I performed the closest thing I know to "the official shut down procedure," namely hold the power button down for four seconds, and then I waited somewhat over a minute to turn it back on and retype the CFE command. This time it didn't get as far as last time. Progress ceased after a line reading "returning from prom_init." I waited a few minutes and shut down for over sixty seconds and then tried again. Same result. I left it a few hours -- maybe it was just REALLY slow, but nothing.

Just in case it might provide some clues, I took a photo a of the screen at a point where it slows down, printing periods (Loading: . . . . .):

http://www.frauhm.org/ubuntuboot1.JPG

Then I took another photo of the screen when it stopped for good:

http://www.frauhm.org/ubuntuboot2.JPG

On these two pictures I can see that CFE tried to load amigaboot.of, not sure why, Can you try again but stop the menu with 'f' to make sure that you have a clean system to boot. Also can you give us some information about your system eg what graphics card do you have?

I see you have only 1G of ram, I''ll dig out my 2 512Mb's sticks and check that it will work with that amount of ram.

So, am I just out of look, or can this be remedied?

Not sure whats going on, but the boot procedure is correct up to the loading of the kernel.

Keep us advised of your process...

Regards
Darren

[trevordick]

kilaueabart,

You have done nothing wrong. It seems there is an issue with only 1GB of RAM installed. This has now been confirmed elsewhere. Simple, short term solution is install 2 GB of RAM until we sort out the issue.


Daz,

Is there a switch in the kernel build that controls/sets minimum RAM requirement?

Trevor

[kilaueabart]

...
After quite a long time, the boot process seemed to reach an end. Three lines at the top of the screen, I think, one telling me I could type something to get a list of commands. The bottom line read "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system." The keyboard had no effect; I was unable to type whatever had been suggested for the command list.

Could you grab us a picture of that? I don't think I've seen it happen.

I only got that far on my first try, so I don't think I'm likely to get the photo.

I won't be trying again until I can add another 1G of matching memory, which seems to mean opening the box and peeking. Probably tomorrow. I bet what's in my SAM won't work, but I'll keep on hoping until I peek in both boxes.

Thanks to all who responded.

On these two pictures I can see that CFE tried to load amigaboot.of, not sure why, Can you try again but stop the menu with 'f' to make sure that you have a clean system to boot. Also can you give us some information about your system eg what graphics card do you have?

I see you have only 1G of ram, I''ll dig out my 2 512Mb's sticks and check that it will work with that amount of ram.

I'll do that F thing anyway, even though it has been confirmed a RAM problem, just because it seems weird that I've had this for months and never done it yet.

[trevordick]

Kilaueabart

I'll do that F thing anyway, even though it has been confirmed a RAM problem, just because it seems weird that I've had this for months and never done it yet.

Just a quick comment to avoid confusion. You need to that "F" thing to boot the DVD in the first place. I presume you did?

Trevor

PS your SAM RAM will not be compatible.

[kilaueabart]

Kilaueabart

I'll do that F thing anyway, ...

Just a quick comment to avoid confusion. You need to that "F" thing to boot the DVD in the first place. I presume you did?

Oops! No, I went with Boot from DVD. It's probably pointless to try it the "F" way until I manage to find more RAM, but I probably will anyway.

Trevor

PS your SAM RAM will not be compatible.

I noticed. I was a bit surprised to find 2Gb in it, after learning I only had 1 in this. What does "exactly" mean in the following?

If both memory controllers are used, the memory population on each should exactly match (the
modules fitted to DIMM1 and DIMM2 should exactly match the modules fitted to DIMM3 and
DIMM4). ...

It doesn't sound good. I have 1Gb of Kingston HyperX DDR2 installed, but I haven't been able to find an exact match. Mostly I find unusable DDR3, or 8Gb. I can get a Kingston DDR2 1Gb board, but it's not HyperX, it's "SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model KVR667D2N5/1G." Do I get two (or four?) of those, and toss the HyperX?

Bart

[daz]

kilaueabart,

You have done nothing wrong. It seems there is an issue with only 1GB of RAM installed. This has now been confirmed elsewhere. Simple, short term solution is install 2 GB of RAM until we sort out the issue.

Confirmed, having 1G Ram seems to cause 2 problems, the first is that it seems to confuse the installer, I've had it drop me at a login screen (with no valid login options I can find) or at a busybox prompt.

The second is a hang during boot, usually just after 'returning from prom init.' This is quite rare with 2G ram installed and almost unheard of with 4+, but happened to me quite often today. There is a nice easy fix for this however - add '-nousb' to your CFE boot args i,e.

boot -elf -noints -nousb -fatfs cf0:vmlinux

Daz,

Is there a switch in the kernel build that controls/sets minimum RAM requirement?

Trevor

Not that I'm aware of, I have found that 3.10 and later seem to be worse with 1G, I've currently booted my MintPPC install with the 3.9.8 kernel that was on an earlier disk and only 1G ram installed, As you can see it's working fine. I also got my ubuntu install to boot successfully, so there is probably a fix for machines with 1G and the live DVD, I'm just not sure what it is yet!

Maybe Pat has some ideas?

I will continue to investigate, but free time is in short supply until next week and my main debugging machine (A1G3SE running term) is sulking at the moment..

Regards
Darren

[daz]

kilaueabart,

You have done nothing wrong. It seems there is an issue with only 1GB of RAM installed. This has now been confirmed elsewhere. Simple, short term solution is install 2 GB of RAM until we sort out the issue.


Daz,

Is there a switch in the kernel build that controls/sets minimum RAM requirement?

Trevor

Furthur update, I'm posting this from an earlier version of the LiveDVD I had lying around (in live mode), and this one boots fine with 1G ram in - 1st attempt in fact. So either the ramdisk has changed or something has in the 3.9/3.10 kernel. I'm off to a conference tomorrow so won't get much chance for furthur study until late sunday. Trevor if you want to test, this disk uses Pat's 3.8.5_PW-1.3a kernel.

Stay tuned!

Regards
Darren

[ggw]

Groan.
I finally gave up on getting a functioning Linux on my X1000 after multiple tries since last July.
No one suggested I check/add memory. I have 1 Gig. [It is what Ranger reports.] One thousand megabytes is not enough to run Linux? I'm astonished. Too spoiled by AmigaOS, I guess.

I was waiting until the 3rd week of Feb to order my Live DVD. Guess it might be March 1 depending on how much another 1 Gig costs. All my goals remain.

Recon AmiKit has a record of the particulars of the memory they put in my machine when I bought it?

Whatever happened to the idea of selling X1000 TShirts... or at least a transfer, so I can do my own?

That'd start to be a decent haul: a TShirt (or transfer) + Linux DVD + (another) Gig of memory.