Fedora Installation :: Boot Error "the Blinking Underscore"?
Feb 14, 2010
So, to start of this is about a fedora 12 x86_64 installation from DVD media downloaded via torrent and verified by checksums and dvd verification tool
First of this is my first linux installation and even though I have read the installation instructions and documentation thoroughly, I can't exlude the possibility tha I messed up (BIIIIG). So, what happened in my
case:
installed fedora 12 from dvd on a raid ready sata disk.I should point out that trying to install with the default selection (selection 1 on dvd boot menu) resulted in a system crash/freeze, with the monitor displaying white/pink and green/black stripes, so I did the installation with the basic display driver instead (option 2 in the dvd's boot menu)during installation I left most things on default. Especialy grub I didn't even touch. It said that it would setup grub on the disk's MBR which sounded ok to me.Things I did change were:Partition Layout, 300MB boot on 1st primary partition, 32GB root on 2nd, 16GB swap on 3rd, /home and /tmp on Logical Volume (partition 4) wich is the rest of the disks space about 200GB Installed packages (added web development packages as well as java , eclipse etc.)
installation completed without showing any errors so the system rebooted.once booted from the disk (hdd) the installation was done in, the system would just freeze on a black screen with a blinking underscore. this freeze happened before grub showed any signs of existence
So after I checked and rechecked the consistency of the error and rummaged around the internet for info I thought that it would be wise to try and boot the installed system using some other procedure. (I should point out that at this point that I redid the Fedora installation a couple of times trying different setups but apparently nothing helped)So I tried the "Boot from local drive" option, which resulted in starting up the system with no errors.Leaving the, I assume, grub settup problems for later (I have no internet on that computer yet) I started looking around and familiarizing myself with the new environment and realized that the monitor driver was working only up to 1280x800 and since my monitor is a full HD TFT panel I went to find instructions on how to instal the ati display driver.finding these: gofedora.com/how-to-install-ati-catalyst-fglrx-98-drivers-fedora-11/I downloaded the .run file copied it from laptop to desktop via flash drive and started the above listed procedure I only got to step 5 (blacklisting) since when I tried to save the file the system said something about having to be root user So I logged out to try to login as root but something went wrong during logout because all colors went funny and high contrast and kind of blurry (text was quite difficult to read) and after I hit (panicked out of my mind) a few buttons I got a fullscreen console with the messages:Bridge firewalling registered virbr0: starting userspace STP failed, starting kernel STP I cand remember if I could type or issue any commands at that point but apparently I rebooted the system (again via the insallation media)Grub starts the boot sequence, fedora loading bar appears, only to issue the message:"lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions" At this point I can write to the machine but nothing happens and i can move around the mouse with a huge white rectangle for a cursor(for selecting stuff i guess)
I have downloaded the latest iso from the Fedora site (15 32-bit). I am using a netbook and so I have used the tool suggested on the site to copy the iso to my usb drive. Before this I formatted it to fat32 in Windows and then used the tool. When I rebooted with my USB drive, all that shows is a blinking _. I tried repeating the process again but the same happened.
I completed my dvd-burn for Fedora 10. I booted up from the dvd, and the automatic 10 second installation text shows up. The setup loads the images, and proceeds to a loading bar. After the loading bar I saw an underscore. That all I see.. I wait a couple of minutes and I still only see an underscore. This is my first time trying to install a Unix type O.S. Are there any commands I need to run for the installation to move forward? Or is there some type of corruption in the installation?
My parents just upgraded from their 8+ year old desktop to a newer dell. The old one has XP on it and would barely run, lots of bloatware, viruses, etc.. I tried putting an ubuntu 10.10 disc to boot from it but the old desktop suddenly stopped recognizing mouse and keyboard input so I couldn't change the boot preferences. I took the hard drive out and plugged it into my desktop, copied all the useful files to my hard drive, then wiped it. I then installed ubuntu on the old -and now empty- hard drive by having it plugged into my computer.
I put the hard drive back in the old desktop and found that the keyboard now works. I can press F2 or F12 and change things around and whatnot. However, when I let it pass the screen that prompts me to press F2 or F12, it goes to a screen with a blinking underscore in the top left of the screen and gets stuck there.
I have been using Unix / Linux for quite some time now. But there is still one thing that annoys me. When I disable the GUI interface I get a blinking under-tow (see-below) _ And I have no idea what button is used to get the computers attention / login.
Alright I installed Ubuntu fine, everything was working great. And I was able to shut down and startup the system once or twice. But now all of a sudden, when I power up, the screen stays at the DOS terminal with the blinking underscore at the top line. It never changes, won't load, etc. What in the world happened?
I ran into a problem the moment i installed 11.1. The GUI wouldn't show up (ctrl+alt+f2 yeilded a black screen with a blinking underscore). Failsafe worked fine, though.
So, i tried entering, one by one, every parameter that was entered in the failsafe boot options. Entering 'x11failsafe' gave me a flawless GUI. So, i opened the '/boot/grub/menu.lst' file and added this parameter in the 'showopts' of the normal mode, to make it permanent. Fine. Now, what exactly have i done?
Note- I use an NVidia 8000 series Graphic card. I'll post more details if you need them.
I installed 10.10 of the live boot CD. It said everything went fine, now when I go to boot into Linux it just flashes the underscore on a black screen. What do I do from here?
After installing Fedora 15 from LiveUSB and rebooting it just hangs on a black screen with a blinking cursor (underscore) in the top left of the screen. If it's reached grub, it isn't responding to any commands, and mashing several key combinations (such as ctrl-alt-f1) will produce a beep usually emitted only by the BIOS (hinting that it may never be making its way to grub).
The only particularly interesting thing about the install is that by default it wanted to boot itself from the MBR on my primary-master (Windows) disk. Instead I selected the option to boot from "the first partition in sdb1", which is my primary-slave (Linux) disk, (the first partition being /boot). This way I can change which OS boots by changing the boot order in my BIOS, and so avoiding bootloader wars.
I am attempting to install Ubuntu 64Bit Server 10.04 on a new server.
Server Specs: Xeon E5620 12GB RAM 2X 160GB 7200 RPM in RAID1 (Onboard Software RAID) Super Micro X8DTI-8
I am doing a typical install with no special functions on a RAID1 onboard Intel array. I know the array works because I tested it by installing Windows Server 2003 which works fine. The RAID also shows as healthy in the BIOS.
This problem is very difficult to remedy because everything seems to install fine with Ubuntu but when you reboot after the install you get a blinking cursor _ and nothing else. It appears that something happened when loading the OS but it's impossible to get past the blinking cursor because you can't type anything or escape out of it. The only thing that it will register is Ctrl+Alt+Del which will restart the server.
The funny thing is it does not display the typical Sigkill and show processes shutting down. The screen goes black and it restarts only to return to the blinking cursor. I am on my 6th attempt at an install with ubuntu and I am seriously considering switching over to windows unless.
I am almost certain this is a RAID issue because I can load the Ubuntu on 1 drive without any issues but I always get the blinking cursor in the RAID.
I've tried to install Ubuntu 11.04 for the whole afternoon and I'm stuck.Reason why I use the alternate cd is that I want to use an encrypted logical volume (full system, not just home folder). I did not create the partitions myself, I simply used the installer option for "guided LVM with encryption".But now I have the problem that I finished the installation without error, but when I boot my laptop nothing happens. I do only get a blinking cursor, but no GRUB, which I installed too (because there is a nother hdd with win 7).
I can't boot Ubuntu 9.10 on this computer (on my other computer it works fine). When I try to run it from the CD or USB I see a screen full of colored lines, and when I try to use safe graphics I get to the shell but the whole screen is blinking and I can't type any command. Anyone knows how to solve it? My graphics card is GeForce 7300 LE and on my other computer (the one that can run Ubuntu find) has an on-board graphics card.
I just attempted to install to a USB drive, and somehow in the process, GRUB overwrote my Windows 7 bootloader on the internal disk. My work laptop is now booting into a grub recovery whenever my USB key isn't present (with error: no such device and the uuid) - and hangs on a blinking cursor whenever the key is plugged in.I'm not familiar with what my options are for grub rescue, but ls shows (hd0) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1) (fd0)
My laptop is encrypted, so I don't have much chance of recovery unless I can get back to the windows bootloader.
I downloaded the OS I wished to use, loaded it onto a clean 4.0GB drive, everything went as planned. But then I rebooted, and it never booted the file off of the USB. So, I changed the boot options, and tried it again. Now, every time I boot with the drive in, it goes normally and then opens a blank page with only one line of text detailing the date of copyright, something about Linux, etc... And a blinking cursor. Is this normal and I just have to wait for it to load, or is something not being processed? Any information you guys need I can obtain, I'm not new to computers but I am new to changing OS's.
Six months ago I installed Ubuntu 10.04 to my otherwise Win XP work laptop. I decided to continue to use Windows' boot loader as primary: I told the Ubuntu installer to put grub2 onto a separate partition, then used dd to copy the first 512 bytes into a file in my Windows C partition, then edited boot.ini to link to it - its a common technique that is described in many support forums and blogs. This worked fine, and continued to work until a few weeks ago. One day I chose the Ubuntu option at the Windows boot loader and got a blinking cursor at top left of screen and no grub2 menu. I was able to use SuperGrub2Disk to discover and boot from my grub2 install - so that didn't appear to be broken. I finally fixed it by dd'ing a fresh copy of the first 512 bytes of my /boot partition over to the Windows C partition. So somehow the Windows boot loader decided it no longer liked my original dd'ed file.
The only things I can think of that might have changed and caused this to happen are (on Ubuntu) an update to security packages using the graphical update manager that pops up (I rarely do a command line apt-get upgrade/dist-upgrade and certainly not in this time frame) and (on Windows) a Windows Update - as it is a work laptop I tend to take whatever essential updates it suggests. As you can see I managed to fix the problem. However does anybody have any similar experience or any explanation why this may have happened? Could an over-zealous Windows Update have caused it?
I tried to upgrade to Maverick (server version) usingsudo do-release-upgradeAll went well, but on the first reboot after the installation the PC hangs with grub prompt:error: the symbol grub_xputs not foundI guess it has something to do with my RAID1 setup:sda1/sdb1..RAID1, bootable (system partition, 20 GB)sdc1 ....swap partition sda2/sdb2/sdc2 ... RAID5 (data partition, 3 TB)I made a bootable (using UNetbootin) USB pen drive with 10.10 desktop on it and booted into this desktop version. Aftermdadm --assemble --scanI could successfully access (and mount) my RAID1 and RAID5 drives. However, the system itself does not boot.
after only having mounted /dev/md0 and browsed in the contents, the boot behavior has changed: now the PC does not end up in the grub prompt "the symbol grub_xputs not found", but instead a blank black screen with a blinking cursor left top is shown. Keyboard: no reaction (I tried Enter, Esc, any keys ... no reaction, just a blinking cursor).Then, I tried:
boot into USB pen drive 10.10 desktop mdadm --assemble --scan ... result: /dev/md0 is available (the RAID1 of sda1 and sdb1) mount /dev/md0 /mnt/md0
Similar problems to mine have popped up elsewhere, but none of the fixes seem to work (or I'm just too stupid). I tried to see what the people at Canonical and elsewhere came up with for Ubuntu 10.4 and, after the live USB checked out fine, I rather foolishly installed the OS on my Acer Aspire One D250 (1GB RAM), to run alongside Windows XP.
It booted up once, I think, and then no more. I believe the problem MIGHT be the Broadcom WiFi stuff, but I'm not sure. Anyway, booting Ubuntu leads to a blank screen with a blinking cursor... which doesn't appear to go away. Recovery mode worked once or twice (had to use ACPI=OFF at least once), then no more. It leads to the same thing: that perpetually blinking cursor.
What I would like is either a fix to get Ubuntu 10.4 launched, or some way to remove the OS and restore my netbook back to what it was. Unfortunately, the MBR fixes that are posted all over cyberspace are useless, as my hidden partition doesn't contain the rtmbr.bin file it needs to work (don't ask me why--I've already posted that question at the AAO user forum). So it seems a fix to launch Ubuntu is the only solution, so that I can at least set grub to launch Windows XP rather than Ubuntu.
I downloaded the Fedora live dvd iso file, burned it to a dvd. I was wondering if I forgot to do something or did I do something wrong. When I try to install from the dvd I get this error message, isoLinux: Disk error 80 , AX = 42A7 , drive 9F Boot Failed: press key to retry When I press a key to retry I get the same error. I also tried to install virtual pc and get not boot disk found.
I have an old laptop, and am a basic linux user, but this install is crazy. I know that I have to have acpi=off to work, and got Linux Mint 7 installed from the live cd but want Xubuntu. The Xubuntu 9.1 live CD works fine as long as I put the acpi=off parameters in the boot string, and I check the additional options just to be sure. But after install I cannot even get into the grub, it says grub loading for a split second then blinking cursor
I deleted both the partition with archlinux and the swap in order expand the windows xp partition. I am now unable to boot, just as gparted warned me. When I turn my computer on, it just goes to a black screen with a flashing underscore.
I cannot type anything, but cntrl-alt-dlt does restart. I have been attempting to restore grub and/or windows's boot method for the last 24hrs. The main things I've tried were the instructions here and using super grub disk. However, I have not been successful. I am running an Ubuntu live disk. At the moment, I just want to be able to run windows, but do not have an xp disk because this laptop was issued from my old college.
I installed F11 without issue but after rebooting all i got is a blinking cursor with no error messages or indeed any other form of feedback.
To check i was even getting as far as grub i went into rescue mode from the dvd and edited the grub.conf to remove the hiddenmenu option and set the timeout to something a little larger. This confirmed that grub does in fact seem to be loading fine. Selecting the Fedora entry still however leave me with just a blinking cursor.
Next i tried removing quiet from the boot commandline. same result.
Just in case i had the wrong disks configured in grub i tried swapping root(hd0,0) with every combination available with as expected various errors about either partition not being suitable or files not found.
Using grub to boot manually to a usb disk worked fine so grub does seem to work.
With no feedback at all i tried all the common options people suggest just in case the kernel is booting but not getting far enough to output to the screen. So far i tried noapic acpi=off nomodeset.
I tried installing 3 times so far with slightly different configurations just in case but still no luck.
Basic partition layout in case it helps: /dev/sda <-- boot loader installed here. /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 2GB /dev/sda2 swap 4GB /dev/sda3 / ext4 634GB
Various other disks are present but not part of the configuration. I double checked they are not mentioned anywhere in the common places like fstab.
I used the F12 DVD to upgrade my system, before all the NVIDIA warnings were posted. I have a Geforce 7100 (7 series) card and used the rpmfusion drivers on Fedora 11. After the upgrade, I get a blinking cursor at boot time. What I should do to repair the mess.
For some reason (hardware - I am guessing) the LiveCD does not boot on some laptops. The LiveCD worked well on my Dell Inspiron 1525 without any problems but my Fujitsu-Siemens refused to boot up. If you are trying to install or use F12 with the LiveCD ISO image burnt onto a CD on a laptop and fails with the following error:[drm:drm_mode_rmfb] *ERROR* tried to remove a fb that we didn't own Boot has failed, sleeping foreverthis workaround may work for you. Sometimes it will come up with another error about 'Root Device Not Found'
The workaround only works on a bootable USB key for some other reason, created with 'live-usb creator' and not a CD nor a LiveCD image on a USB created on a windows machine. I have tried them all.
I am having trouble booting the install CD for Fedora 15? As soon as I select a boot option I get a grey screen with a blinking cursor even if I pick the option to use basic video. I have tried using the intel_iommu=off parameter which makes no difference.
I also seem to have a similar issue when trying to install Ubuntu 11.04 on this machine too. I am using a Athlon x2 5200+, 5GB Ram, ATI 3850 if that's.
I have just installed Fedora 15. I have tried both the desktop edition and the LXDE Spin on an AMD X2 64 5800+. It's hard-drive so I select "Use All Space", meaning all the partitions will be removed and recreated. The installation completes normally, when I reboot without the CD, I get the screen with blinking cursor same as [URL]... Adding intel_iommu=off to the grub.conf did not help. I presume the default installer works correctly however the installed boot configuration puzzles me. The boot partition is /dev/sda1 and the mount point is /boot. If boot from the cd after the installation, I mount:
[code]...
Is this how it should be? This is me being new to Linux probably, but I should /boot contain the boot information if that's where the boot partition is mounted? Is there any way to "turn on debugging" so I can get a better insight on what's not happening?
I've got two laptops running Ubuntu. Both have had Lucid installed from the live cd. I have upgraded one of them to Maverick. Both distributions are running great after they boot up, but I haven't experienced any faster boot times with either distibution. Both boot to Bios and then the screen goes black with a blinking cursor in upper left corner of the screen. The black screen remains for 30 to 45 seconds and then I get the Ubuntu splash screen for maybe 5 seconds, and then desktop. Why am I not seeing faster boot times? I realize 45 to 60 seconds is good compared to other os's, but I anticipated much faster boot times. Shut down on the other hand is quite fast at maybe 5 to 10 seconds. Does anyone else get this black screen on boot? Seems like wasted time cause I can't tell what's going on during the time there is a black screen. This is not a real big deal breaker, as I don't reboot very often, but I just wonder why bootup isn't faster.
so I installed fedora 12 last night, everything was fine. Installed some things, moved music over, etc. (Dual booting with windows vista btw) So I install my graphics card driver, (ATI Radeon HD 3200) and I reboot. When I open the bootloader (I think thats what it is), It starts to boot, then just has a black screen with the flashing underscore. I can type and stuff but nothing happens.
I've just installed ubuntu 9.10 from a live cd on to a 2nd HDD, with vista on the 1st. When I turn my PC on GRUB comes up and I can select ubuntu or vista, vista works but when I try to boot ubuntu the screen goes black with a small flashing underscore in the top left and then just goes completely black, nothing else happens after this. I've tried reinstalling from the live cd but when I go install nothing happens and the screen goes black again. When I was installing I changed the boot to something like scsi?
My PC's specs are: Dell inspiron 531 HDD1: Ubuntu(300GB) HDD2: Vista(1TB) OS Windows vista Graphics card. ATI radeon HD 4700 series
Trying to give Fedora a proper trial by installing it on my main machine's hard drive. I tested the Live CD from a USB drive for a while and really liked it. Fedora is the first distro that I've tried that does Gnome Shell justice.
I haven't been able to get it to work on my system so far, however.
Some context: I have a triple-boot laptop (Windows 7, Debian, and now Fedora 15) with 4 physical partitions (True Crypt-encrypted W7, LUKS-encrypted Debian, LUKS-encrypted F15, and a boot partition). The True Crypt boot loader is on the MBR, and when I press Esc I get the Grub boot loader from the boot partition. This has worked well for me in the past, but something is awry now.
When I installed F15, I did not opt to install a boot loader (because I didn't want to have trouble getting into my other systems, which has happened to me before). Instead I booted up into Debian and ran update-grub, which found the Fedora partition and added an entry to Grub. I'm not sure whether that entry is correct, however, but editing it has not solved my problem.
When I choose the Fedora entry from Grub, it starts to boot and asks for the password to mount the partition. Shortly afterwards, however, it throws the following error: modprobe: FATAL: Error inserting padlock_sha (/lib/modules/kernel-name-here/kernel/drivers/crypto/padlock-sha.ko): No such device
Then it drops down to a shell and I can't do much from there.
I've tried blacklisting padlock-sha, but that doesn't make the error go away or get it to boot up.
