12.04.1 with WIn7 Dual Boot, Computer skips Kubuntu, goes straight to WIndows

[ScottyK]

I just put together a new system, and for the first time, when I set it up to dual boot, the Kubuntu side will not come up.

I installed Win7 on a 500GB drive, and after all the reboots for updating, it was stable.

So I install 12.04.1 on the 600GB drive. Once that's done installing, I let it reboot.

Ever since then, once the computer boots, it goes straight to the windows side, and will not give me the usual GRUB menu that I've seen in the past.

When I boot from the Live CD, I can see everything is installed properly on the 600GB drive.

motherboard is ASUS F1A55-M/CSM. I'm wondering if I've run afoul of the whole UEFI process?

Looked around in the BIOS, and my options to boot in "EZ Bios Mode" is the Windows manager with a "UEFI" logo, the DVD-ROM, and the 500GB Drive.

If I select "all boot options" and click on the 600 GB drive, There is the Grub menu I know and love, and can dual boot from there,

What can I do so I don't have to go into the Setup every time?

This is a clean install of both Win7 and Kubuntu. If there is a way to install both OS that will fix it, I have no problem fragging it and starting over.

EDIT - Manually selecting the 600 drive lets me boot into Kubuntu. But once I log in, it incredibly SLOW. Twice I've restarted, and twice the system just crawls. Something is wrong!

[ScottyK]

OK, found a ubuntu distro called "Boot-repair" and that fixed the problem. Grub appears, and can now switch between Windows and Kubuntu.

New problem - Kubuntu is SLOW! Hardly responses to mouse clicks, and takes a while for typed text to appear on the screen. Dropped to recovery mode and downloaded the 227 updates waiting. Reboot, but still slow and lagging.

[pauly]

OK, found a ubuntu distro called "Boot-repair" and that fixed the problem. Grub appears, and can now switch between Windows and Kubuntu.

New problem - Kubuntu is SLOW! Hardly responses to mouse clicks, and takes a while for typed text to appear on the screen. Dropped to recovery mode and downloaded the 227 updates waiting. Reboot, but still slow and lagging.

There have been issues with the nvidia graphics drivers. I have intel so I can't give you a perfect answer but you can try the novuea non proprietary driver. They are actually pretty good or you could look for nvidia ppa and try to upgrade to a more recent driver. I am assuming that is what you are using from the specs in your sig. I set up a computer for my brother that had major lag issues with the nvidia driver so that is my suggestion.

[ScottyK]

I'm wondering if I should go with the onboard video card for a while. I usually skip the onboard stuff and use my own, but this motherboard has a "Integrated AMD Radeon HD 6000 series"

[Frank616]

ScottyK:

I'm wondering if I should go with the onboard video card for a while. I usually skip the onboard stuff and use my own, but this motherboard has a "Integrated AMD Radeon HD 6000 series"

I've always found nVidia better supported in Linux than AMD, but it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

I'm guessing that the new machine you are talking about is a desktop machine and NOT the one in your signature line, right? The Vostro 1500 is an older machine, and my daughter's Vostro 1700 (pretty much the same device) has always worked flawlessly with Kubuntu.

Any chance that your second disk is substantially slower than the first one for some reason? If you built this yourself, can there be a disk controller configuration issue of some sort? I'm grasping at straws here, as I am definitely NOT a Linux guru.

Any of the dual-boots I've done have been on the same disk. I suspect that is why you ended up with a problem of not being able to get to Kubuntu. GRUB probably installed on the second disk, and when booting from the first one, it was never part of the boot process. I shot myself in the foot that way once when using an external eSATA drive on this laptop. The installation put GRUB on the eSATA disk, and when that disk was unplugged, the machine would not boot at all.

My current dual boot dual disk machine is a Lenovo Intellistation M Pro Tower Intel Core2Duo with an nVidia Quadro FX1500 video card. It works just find with the nVidia drivers, and only at low resolution with the nouveau drivers. I have both OS's on the first disk, which is in a caddy so that I can take it out and put something else in. This allows me to experiment with different distros and have no chance of messing up my main boot disk. All my data resides on the second hard disk in that machine.

Anyway, some ideas. Hopefully somone more knowledgeable than I will come to your aid so that I can learn as well.

Frank.

[ScottyK]

Frank - Correct, the system in my signature is my notebook, which works flawlessly. Ironically, I'm using it now because I can't get the Kubuntu side to work!

Just for giggles, I fragged the Kubuntu and loaded OpenSUSE, just to see what would happen. Now every time I get to the opensuse login, the screen is all garbled and I can't make anything out.

So at least my problems are not just limited to Kubuntu, that machine doesn't like linux for some reason!

This weekend I'm going to yank the video card out, and go with the onboard and see what happens. If anything at least rule out video.

[Frank616]

ScottyK:

loaded OpenSUSE, just to see what would happen. Now every time I get to the opensuse login, the screen is all garbled and I can't make anything out.

Well, at least now we know that it is not a Canonical thing.

If anything at least rule out video.

And the next step may be trying to install a Linux on the primary hard drive as dual boot.

Sure sounds like a hardware issue of some sort.

Correct, the system in my signature is my notebook, which works flawlessly. Ironically, I'm using it now because I can't get the Kubuntu side to work!

Both my daugher's Dell Vostro 1700, and my wife's 1710 work well with Linux. Both of them were previously my personal machines. I now have a Dell M6600 -- which also works well with Linux. I was careful to specify known Linux-friendly hardware when I ordered it, which included nVidia graphics in all the machines.

On a side note, if you really want to perk up your Vostro 1500, install an SSD. Makes a huge difference in the performance. The machines we have all have dual drive bays, though only my M6600 has an SSD AND a 750 GB hard drive. I think the Vostro 1500 has only a single drive bay. Likely, however, the drive is less than the 245 GB Vertex SSD that I use as a system drive in the M6600. Not a lot one can do to upgrade a laptop, but an SSD makes a huge difference.

Frank.

[ScottyK]

I just had a thought, with SATA drives, does it matter which drive is located at which port? Back in the IDE days you had to make sure the first drive was a master.

I have four hard drives in that computer, and I just plugged them into the six SATA ports, not paying attention to what was on SATA1.

Maybe the drive I'm trying to boot from is sitting on SATA2-6, instead of 1?

Or does it matter?

[Frank616]

ScottyK:

I just had a thought, with SATA drives, does it matter which drive is located at which port?

We'll have to get an answer from someone more knowledgeable than myself for that.... Sorry.

Frank.

[ScottyK]

Well I can call this Problem Solved.

It was the video card.

Once I yanked it out of the computer, both sides had no problem booting!

For some reason, this MB didn't like my Nvidia video card. Too old perhaps?

So now I'm up and running, and I'll save up my $$ for a new video card down the road..

[Frank616]

ScottyK:

Glad you found the issue.

So now I'm up and running, and I'll save up my $$ for a new video card down the road..

I really like nVidia's products. I know that Linus is not happy with them, but I've found that nVidia supports Linux VERY well. Though their drivers are closed, they work, and they work well. Intel is good too, but the last time I tried ATI (long time ago now), I had issues with drivers. I think they are sold under the AMD name now.

I don't buy anything other than nVidia now.

Frank.