[SOLVED] Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

[luggw1]

So, I've got this 64-bit installation that is running 10.10 and kernels up through 2.6.35-27. Some time ago, actually as soon as 2.6.35-27 installed, it started hanging at the blue Kubuntu screen during the boot process. It would count through the dots a couple of times, the dots would go gray and it would just sit there.

I tried booting into 2.6.35-25 and everything worked so I didn't worry about it too much. However, time has passed and now it's doing the same thing in that version of the kernel. I've moved to 2.6.35-24 and it still works, but for how long?

So my questions are these:
1. Any thoughts on what might be causing this? FWIW, I have another 64-bit machine running 10.10 on kernel 2.6.35-27 with no problems - different H/W of course.

2. How can I escape from the blue Kubuntu screen to see what's actually happening during the boot process and possibly discern what might be causing the problem?

3. Is there a way to force the update to the latest kernel to see if that might bypass some other transient problem? I tried sudo apt-get dist-upgrade while booted under the 2.6.35-25 kernel, but it didn't install the new kernel. In fact, that was about two weeks ago, since then, KPackageKit has been advertising several updates, which I also installed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Bill Lugg

[luggw1]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

OK, now that I got an answer to #2, I discovered that the two newer kernels go through the boot process to the point of the terminal login prompt, wait for several moments, the screen flashes several times a few more messages are displayed - the last one being something about jetty not starting (I didn't write down the details) and it finally displays the login prompt again.

I have logged in and done a quick review of processes that are running and noted that kdm and networkmanager are running, but the GUI never starts. Of course all of what I describe above is hidden behind the Plymouth screen under normal circumstances.

Given this information, is there any chance that anyone might be able to render a bit of help? I've never seen anything like this before. If you need more info off boot screen, I can get it (or is it saved off in a log file somewhere?)

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[ubuntuku]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

Please post the output of the following commands:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
lspci | grep -i vga
sudo service kdm status

[luggw1]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

Here you go:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf output
Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Screen0"
	Device		"Device0"
	Monitor		"Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth	24
	Option		"DPI" "100x100"
	SubSection	"Display"
		Depth		24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

#Section "Screen"
#	Identifier	"Default Screen"
#	DefaultDepth	24
#EndSection


Section "Module"
	Load	"glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Device0"
	Driver		"nvidia"
	VendorName	"NVIDIA Corporation"
	BoardName	"9800 GTX+"
	Option		"TripleBuffer" "True"
#        + Enables triple buffering. "Decreases the time an application stalls while waiting for vblank events, but increases latency slightly" (NVIDIA Readme) 
	Option		"UseCompositeWrapper" "True"
#        + Enables the X server's composite wrapper instead of the builtin one. 
	Option		"BackingStore" "True"
#        + Cache overlayed areas in case they get redisplayed later 
	Option		"OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"
#        + only fire VBlank interrupts in modes where they are needed 
EndSection

#Section "Device"
#	Identifier	"Default Device"
#	Driver	"nvidia"
#	Option	"NoLogo"	"True"
#EndSection

Section "Extensions"
	Option		"Composite" "Enable"
	Option		"RENDER" "Enable"

lspci | grep -i vga output
EndSection01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 9800 GTX] (rev a2)

sudo service kdm status output
kdm start/running, process 1270

Hopefully, there is something revealing in there.

Thanks
Bill Lugg

[claydoh]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

How did you install the nvidia drivers?

If you manually built your nvidia drivers from the packages from Nvidia, you would have to rebuild them each time you get a new kernel

While I see nothing obviously wrong in your xorg.conf, I wonder if reverting to the original version of that file may help.

Running sudo nvidia-xconfig may generate a better file

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bi...erHowto/Nvidia
has some info, perhaps you have gotten bit by the broken driver, though i believe the fixed driver is already part of mavericks updates (and I don't think that driver is for your card anyway)

[luggw1]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

I use the Additional Drivers tool to install the proprietary driver. I did have some trouble with it at the outset, but after a little fiddling and a lot of help from the good folks in this forum, it worked. That would have been around the 2.6.35-24 time frame I believe. Now, I assumed that installing newer kernel updates using the Software Updates tool that is part of the System Settings in KDE would keep the video driver in sync. Is that a bad assumption?

If so, that's probably what has happened. I noticed that there is a new update for the video driver waiting to be installed now. If I do that from the command line using

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

after booting into the latest kernel, do you suppose that this would correct the problem of the video driver being out of sync with the kernel?

Thanks for the help.
Bill Lugg

[claydoh]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

no, if installed that way, you are all good to go, no mismatches or anything
let it update and see, it definitely won't hurt.

[ubuntuku]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

Yes you should upgrade the driver. Boot into 2.6.35-27 and run these commands:

sudo service kdm stop
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo shutdown -r now

Let us know the result.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

The nvidia driver needs headers too so make sure you have linux-headers-2.6.something matching your kernel version. Check by running dkms status . You should see:

nvidia-current, 270.29, 2.6.32-27-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-current, 270.29, 2.6.32-30-generic, x86_64: installed

for any kernel you want to boot to.

[luggw1]

Re: Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

OK - Success!

It appears that the problem was the absence of the kernel headers that was causing the problem. I looked at the dkms status output and sure enough, they were both pointing to version 24. I installed 2.6.35-28 (which Installed when I did the dist-upgrade) and the dkms post processing kicked off and rebuilt the nvidia modules that it needed to, sweet as you please.

So, thanks to all of you for helping me with this problem.
Bill Lugg

[oshunluvr]

Re: [SOLVED] Boot hangs at Kubuntu Blue Screen

Sweet!