Debian :: Freezing On First Boot At Loading Initial Ramdisk?
Apr 22, 2011
I just performed my very first linux install. I used the Debian 6.0.1a iso. I made it all the way through the installation with no problems whatsoever. I was able to select the version from the grub screen, still everything seemed to be going fine...then it froze. I attached an image of the screen where the system froze:
Its basically the loading screen, times 4! At the top left in case its too hard to read, it says: Loading Linux 2.6.32-5-686, then...Loading initial ramdisk... This sounds all fine and dandy to me but it freezes here. I've tried searching the forums and google for an answer and have come up empty...I'm sure someone has had this problem but it seems to be a tough thing to search for. Would appreciate all the help I can get! Oh and btw, here are the system specs:
circa 2001ish Dell Dimension 4300
P4 1.4ghz
256 ram
onboard video etc...
I've just installed Debian 6.0.1a on a HP Proliant ML115, the install seemed to go ok. As it began to start up it 'Grub Bootloader' loaded then on the screen after the bootup froze at 'Loading initial ramdisk'
So I managed to install Debian Jessie on a MSI G70 2PE Apache Pro that came with Windows 8.
First I partitioned some space on the laptop. Then I put on the net install cd for Debian and installed it on UEFI mode. It installed correctly.
Now I'm on Grub and when Debian tries to boot it gets stuck on "Loading initial ramdisk". The cursor under it doesn't even blink. The only way to get out of there is by Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Secure Boot is turned off. Fast boot is also off. If I try to boot on recovery mode gets stuck all the same.
The options on my grub are
Debian GNU/Linux Advanced options for Debian GNU/Linux Windows Boot Manager (UEFI on /dev/sda2) System Setup.
If I choose the Windows option, Windows boots, no problem.
If I choose the edit option for the Debian entry this is what it shows
Code: Select allload_video insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt6' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
[Code] ....
What is happening and what should I try to make this work? Could it be a graphics card issue since this computer has a Nvidia Gpu?
I have a long running 9.10 installation. All of a sudden, on boot, I get this error: "loading initial ramdisk error: file not found" If I hit 'E' at the menu entry, I can scroll all the way to the end of the boot command, and it appears that the last 'c' on 'generic' is missing from the kernel name. If I add the c and hit ctrl-x it boots fine. The grub.cfg appears to be correct, it has the full generic spelled out.
I have built a kernel with a ramdisk(ramdisk.image.gz) included. Also in the kernel command line I specified root=/dev/ram0. I am trying to use this ramdisk to load a loopback file as the root filesystem off a fat partition. This is /sbin/init from the ramdisk.
#!/bin/sh mount -n -t msdos /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt losetup /dev/loop0 /mnt/linux/linuxdsk.img mount -t ext2 /dev/loop0 /mnt2
[Code]....
The problem is both umount and blockdev report "device is busy". I want to free up this RAM any suggestions?
I have just installed Debian Wheezy on an E6XX Intel platform and after loading ramdisk, the screen goes black and I cannot use the system.
*) In the beginning, I tried to pass "nomodeset" in Grub, but after loading ramdisk, it tries to change screen's resolution and it goes blank. *) gma500 output in dmesg can be seen in [1] at the bottom of this page. *) I tried passing "GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=640x480" + update-grub, but it keeps failing. *) I examined EDI's monitor output through "sudo get-edid |sudo parse-edid" (see [2] below), it seems that it is not possible to get the EDID information from the screen correctly. However, I am using this screen with xrandr with Debian Squeeze and I have no problems.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> [1] dmesg about "gma500" [ 10.164297] gma500 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 10.164325] gma500 0000:00:02.0: Enabling MSI failed! [ 10.164923] [drm] internal display is MIPI display [ 10.167632] gma500 0000:00:02.0: VBT signature missing [ 10.167828] Stolen memory information [ 10.167840] base in RAM: 0x3f800000
[Code] ....
The EDID data should not be trusted as the VBE call failed Error: output block unchanged parse-edid: IO error reading EDID
I updated my netbook to the last incarnation of slackware-current yesterday.
My problem is now, that it is no more able to start the ash shell of the initial ramdisk i am using. The ramdisk was created with the latest version of the mkinitrd script.
The error message is:
Code:
And the error happens when the ash from the initial ramdisk is intended to be started. Simply copying the /lib/libc.so.6 stuff (symlink to the real so and the real so) enables to ash to be started but later cryptsetup fails to load.
The initial ramdisk from mid-January i used before did not have such a problem. What i also see is, that the failing ramdisk has a size of only 16k blocks. The one from mid-January was bigger.
I'm running 64 bit ubuntu 11.04, installed off dvd onto dell inspiron 530 if thats helpful. This is my first attempt at linux ever so i know absolutely NOTHING about it.
On Debian Etch I used to understand how to change boot kernel parameters with Grub. You could just edit menu.lst.
With the newer Grub in Squeeze I am without a clue! I want to set up a ramdisk, say 128 Megs in size, and add that to my boot parameters so that it is created every time the machine starts. Do I set something in /etc/default/grub ?
Uptill today, my computer was dual-boot Debian Lenny with an upgraded kernel and Windows 7 Home Premium. My laptop has two hard drives, HDA and HDB. Windows was on HDA (original install from computer purchase), while my Debian partitions were on HDB. I used Grub for the dual-boot, and both OSes worked just fine. Then today I decided I wanted to kick Win7 for good. So I made a backup image (just in case), booted Slackware 13.1, used CFdisk to wipe HDA (which Windows did NOT make easy to do), then installed Slackware on HDA (there's a reason why I wanted both, but thats irrelevant to the question). After the install, I put Slackware's LILO bootloader on HDA (where GRUB was before I wiped the drive for Slackware), manually configured it to load the bootable partitions for Slackware and Debian, and restarted.
First, I went into Slackware. and Slackware works just fine. Then after I was done in there, I rebooted and went into Debian. This is where the trouble started. When I had Windows on HDA, Debian booted just fine, didn't even start in CLI, went straight into KDE. Normal install in every way. Now, after adding Slackware, it loads up its initial boot and goes into a CLI. I can do the regular CLI stuff, like navigating directories and logging into user and root. But typing startx just gives a bunch of errors saying that X can't start. How the Slackware install could have affected Debian in this way.
I have the new Ubuntu 10.04, installed through Wubi. It was fine for ages, graphics working fine and sound. Then it asked me to seemingly install my graphics card drivers. I did so, rebooted and not the loading screen is stretched at the wrong ratio and doesn't get past displaying 5 red dots. How can I get it working?
Trying to install Opensuse 11.2 (64bit) on a new machine isn't working well. After loading the linux kernel, the green screen with the progress bar appears, and the mouse and keyboard turn off (at least, the leds go out and there's no response) The progress bar never moves. Esc key doesn't work either. I've tried safe mode install and other options, but the same result follows.
It's going onto a Tyan S2912 with AMD 2347HE. The hard drive is a Western Digital SATA drive I bought today. There's 4GB of RAM, and the DVD drive is a Toshiba USB unit. I don't know what else to say about it. If it helps, I've been running Pelican HPC (live) without a hard-drive andgot tired of setting the network configuration and installing a ouple of programs with every boot. (Which is why I bought the hard drive today). I want to install Opensuse 11.2, but I've tried Debian (no luck on detecting the hard-drive) and Windows 7 (installed fine, but there are no drivers for the embedded video).
I did a fresh install of Debian Jessie and I have problem booting up with video. I have to boot with "nomodeset" argument or else the boot sequence bugs, and I see a straight line of funky little color squares on the screen. And it boots with nomodeset.
lsmod do lists "nouveau".
So I don't get what's wrong. I have a Nvidia Geforce GT 750M 2gb (Lenovo y400 notebook). My graphic card is listed in the supported hardware of "nouveau"
I remember having a very similar problem on Ubuntu and installing the proprietary driver solved it. So maybe my hardware isnt supported by nouveau? But I would prefer to use an open-source driver than the prorietary.
Here is the kernel log: (I pasted only the lines which contains "nouveau")
I have to load the ip_conntrack modules every time I reboot. How do I get the iptables modules to load automatically at boot. It seems they are supposed to auto load when they are needed but they are not doing that. I have to do modprobe on them. also does anyone know where I can download all the modules available for iptables? I looked on the netfiler site and did not learn much.
I have a laptop with important data (no backup) that will not boot. It's a vanilla Debian 6 amd64 with dm-crypt LUKs encryption to a internal sata drive partitioned sda1 sda2 sda5 with lvm2 formatted ext3 for sda5. The symptom is that upon powering up, it progresses (albeit slowly now) past grub, to the point where the the "Enter passphrase" prompt occurs. After entering the phrase, it pauses with "Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while". It seems to work, but then gives me errors like:
ata3.00: status: {DRDY ERR } ata3.00: error: { UNC } ata3.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0 ata3.00: BMDMA stat 0x25 ata3.00: failed command READ DMA EXT ...some more stuff... end_request: I/O error:, dev sda, sector 308725410 JBD: Failed to read block at offset 24711 EXT3-fs: error loading journal and it drops me to Busybox ash shell. My impression is that the sda1 partition with the kernel is intact, but the sda2 or sda5 is bad.
What else I have done: 1. Removed problem disk and installed it into another known good laptop. Issue occurs with new laptop. So, I would assume hd is bad, laptop is good. 2. Booted from hd using grub rescue mode. Similar errors occurred. 3. Using suspect laptop and hd, booted into a live cd environment, which attempted to mount the encrypted drive. It prompted for the passphrase, but said it could not mount the drive.
Once I've booted my Etch install disc, are there some parameters in configuration files I can edit in the ramdisk filesystem that will allow me to install Squeeze instead? Or, even, paramters I can edit to point at the archive.debian.org repository to install Etch?
Why:
I've got a Sun Ultra10 with IDE drives (hard disk and cd drive) on which I previously had Etch installed. I recently tried to upgrade it to Squeeze, botched the upgrade, and formatted the drive. I'm now trying to install Squeeze from scratch.
When I use the Squeeze disc (debian-6.0.0-sparc-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso), it cannot detect my IDE drives. I also have the disc I originally used to install Etch, way back when. It will boot and detect the drives, but cannot install because Etch is no longer in the repositories.
I have installed Debian on my intel iMac, I installed grub first in my root partition and then in the Debian partition. When I boot my Mac, rEFIt brings me to the boot page and shows the Linux drive, but when I choose it, it tries to start up and then gives me the line "Not a bootable drive" and just hangs. How to get this to boot?
The main pages for logsave say that it is useful for saving the output of boot scripts before /var/log is mounted because the output is saved in memory until it can be written out. but there is now example of this.
How and where do you add the logsave command to save all the text that flashes by at boot time can be saved where you can read it cut and paste error message to forms etc.
I'm trying to work with Xen for the first time,if I mess up some of the lingo here or if I don't quite make sense. I've been running openSUSE 11.2 since it first was released, and after an initial problem with my video driver, its been working great. I tried to install Xen today, and after the install appeared to complete successfully, it asked me to reboot and boot into the Xen kernel. When I did this, although the system booted up to the command line, it didn't launch KDE. When I try to start KDE manually it tells me that it "Can't connect to X server".
This seems to be roughly the same problem I had when I first installed openSUSE but I can't for the life of me remember how in god's name I fixed it.
I am trying to install Fedora 11 on my HP Desktop (Intel P4 2.8 GHz) machine with 1.25 GB memory. It has 265 MB nVidia graphics card (6800 series).
When I try to install from boot from the DVD, it prompts to boot (in 10 secs). However after it boots all I get is a blank screen. I suspect this has something to do with the X display initialization with respect to the graphics card I have.
I had faced similar issue with other distros before (Ubuntu) but could manage to boot with some specific boot parameters for specifying x display driver settings at boot (vesa).
I recall Fedora has similar settings like xdisplay=vesa. But unfortunately this doesn't work.
I ran Ubuntu desktop for a while then installed Ubuntu Server 10.4. I restarted the machine after install and now I am freezing at the BIOS loading screen right after the "Intel (R) Matrix Storage Manager option ROM v6.0.0.1022 ICH8R" part.Have tried: taking all USB devices, cd's, etc, out.Edit: ATA AHCI BIOS, Version iSrc 1.02.23 11212006Am installing on a Dell Dimension E520
I had karmic koala installed a few months back, but wasn't using it cause i didn't have time to properly configure it. Last night, i was thinking of probing around with it a little and found an update for it and went ahead and installed it. After rebooting, GRUB refused to load any of the OSes, but i was still able to access ubuntu with a reduced graphics option (safe mode?). Tried reinstalling etc etc but nothing worked. In my frustration, i whipped out my windows CD and deleted the partition for ubuntu.
Now, after the loading of bios, i get "error: no such partition. grub rescue>".Is there anyway i can get delete grub and get my vista to boot normally? or would i need to reformat everything again? maybe someone can point me in the right direction if a similar thread had been posted before.
What happens is on first boot, my Synaptics touchpad is not being recognised by the Kernel, so I have to boot a second time when it will start working.I have followed and tried loads of advice from different threads, including the copying and editing of the 11-x11-synaptics.fdi file under etc/hal/policy. Also the psmouse proto=any trick. The rmmod and further modprobe of psmouse. Restarting both HALD and UDEV both later and earlier in the boot procedure . The results of all of which is the same. The touchpad only works on second and subsequent warm boots.Below is the output of cat /proc/bus/input/devices for cold and warm bootCold boot
I am attempting a Network installation of openSuse 11.3 on an old desktop which has IBM Boot Manager so that I can boot to one of three OSs, openSuse being the third. Sadly the installation of openSuse fails before the CD initial boot has finished. Looking at the text log of the starting process the problem appears to be a driver and the last line of text where it stalls refers to eata driver.
There are 4 hard drives in the machine, configured as two RAID 1 arrays driven by a DPT 2144W hardware raid card. (Very old but very good). If I Google eata I get a good deal on SCSI raid and DPT cards but I am out of my depth when they say a kernel module is needed.
Another concern is that the RAID arrays are configured using a bootable DOS configuration disk and once this is done they are recognized by other OSs such as eCS and OS/2. The arrays are just treated as single drives so these OS installations do not interfere with the card configuration. I am concerned because I cannot afford to lose the data on the drives but it appears the linux driver might want to rebuild the arrays.
I have just upgraded my FC12 installation to FC13. The initial boot failed (just blank screen). Second time I received 'selinux targeted policy relabel is required'. I let that run, but still the boot did not suceed.
I then went in to verbose boot and saw that the boot would hang at libvirtd. So I disabled libvirtd for anything above run level 1. Next boot failed at atd, disabled atd. Next boot failed at 'monthly Smolt checkin'.
At that point and booted in to single user mode and dissabled SELinux, thinking that was the cause of all the problems. That did not help.
The update process has also removed my previous kernels, so I can't test a different kernel
I am fresh to Ubuntu and am having trouble getting it to boot on my system. I normally run XP, but recently added a second internal hard drive and installed Ubuntu on it. The installation went fine and upon initial reboot I received -
GRUB loading. error: no such disk grub rescue>
I am wondering if there is an issue between two different operating systems upon boot. I am not familiar with GRUB commands.
