Boots only in Recovery Mode

[richb]

Just installed 13.04 on a new laptop. I have been using it on an older laptop since release. It will only boot in recovery mode. Repairing grub does nothing, simply resuming boot from recovery boots the machine.

It has an nVidia Optimus GEforce 720M discrete graphics board. But when booted it appears the integrated board is in control. There is no bios option to switch graphics boards. I am not sure this is the reason for only a recovery mode boot, but may be related.

[SteveRiley]

What kind of laptop?

Do you have to press a key to force recovery mode, or does the boot automatically land there?

In recovery mode, what's the output of the lsmod command?

[richb]

What kind of laptop?

Do you have to press a key to force recovery mode, or does the boot automatically land there?

In recovery mode, what's the output of the lsmod command?

It is an Acer V5-572G-6679.
I have to choose recovery mode from the Grub menu

 richard@richard-Aspire-V5-572G:~$ lsmodModule                  Size  Used by
pci_stub               12622  1 
vboxpci                23194  0 
vboxnetadp             25670  0 
vboxnetflt             27613  0 
vboxdrv               320461  3 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt,vboxpci
parport_pc             28152  0 
ppdev                  17073  0 
rfcomm                 42641  16 
bnep                   18036  2 
lp                     17759  0 
parport                46345  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     36913  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    78399  1 
snd_hda_intel          39619  3 
snd_hda_codec         136453  3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              13602  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                97451  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc         18710  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_midi           13324  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     14899  1 snd_seq_midi
uvcvideo               80847  0 
videobuf2_vmalloc      13056  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       13202  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
snd_rawmidi            30180  1 snd_seq_midi
videobuf2_core         40513  1 uvcvideo
snd_seq                61554  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
coretemp               13355  0 
videodev              129260  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
arc4                   12615  2 
ath9k                 149924  0 
snd_seq_device         14497  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
kvm_intel             132891  0 
ath9k_common           14055  1 ath9k
snd_timer              29425  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
kvm                   443165  1 kvm_intel
ath9k_hw              413629  2 ath9k_common,ath9k
snd                    68876  16 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
soundcore              12680  1 snd
ath                    23827  3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
ghash_clmulni_intel    13259  0 
mac80211              606457  1 ath9k
aesni_intel            55399  2 
acer_wmi               32467  0 
cfg80211              510937  3 ath,ath9k,mac80211
joydev                 17377  0 
aes_x86_64             17255  1 aesni_intel
xts                    12885  1 aesni_intel
lrw                    13257  1 aesni_intel
gf128mul               14951  2 lrw,xts
ablk_helper            13597  1 aesni_intel
cryptd                 20373  3 ghash_clmulni_intel,aesni_intel,ablk_helper
sparse_keymap          13890  1 acer_wmi
microcode              22881  0 
mac_hid                13205  0 
ath3k                  12918  0 
btusb                  22474  0 
mei                    41158  0 
lpc_ich                17061  0 
psmouse                95870  0 
bluetooth             228667  23 bnep,ath3k,btusb,rfcomm
serio_raw              13215  0 
hid_generic            12540  0 
usbhid                 47074  0 
hid                   101002  2 hid_generic,usbhid
i915                  600396  0 
r8169                  67466  0 
nouveau               943184  0 
mxm_wmi                13021  1 nouveau
wmi                    19070  3 acer_wmi,mxm_wmi,nouveau
ttm                    83187  1 nouveau
video                  19390  3 i915,acer_wmi,nouveau
i2c_algo_bit           13413  2 i915,nouveau
ahci                   25731  2 
drm_kms_helper         49394  2 i915,nouveau
libahci                31364  1 ahci
drm                   286028  4 ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper,nouveau

The other strange thing is when I installed I had the installer use the whole drive. It created the root partition with /home in it with mount point root, a swap partition and another large partition with all the same files as root but no home and designated boot

[SteveRiley]

Both the i915 and the nouveau modules are loading, which means the kernel is detecting both graphics systems. In such cases, the Intel graphics will be the one that drives your display. Since you can't change this in the computer's firmware, you are going to either have to:

(a) live with it, which includes a short battery life since the nVidia chip will always be powered up even though it's doing nothing
(b) teach yourself how to use Bumblebee so that you can get switchable graphics operating correctly (this will help your battery life, too)
(c) return the laptop for another one that gives you more control

I'm not sure why your computer won't boot normally. Maybe you could blacklist the nouveau module and see what happens? I'd recommend regenerating your initramfs after you do this.

The other strange thing is when I installed I had the installer use the whole drive. It created the root partition with /home in it with mount point root, a swap partition and another large partition with all the same files as root but no home and designated boot

What you have looks a little weird, yeah. Was this a completely blank drive when you started? I don't understand why the installer would have made this kind of partitioning decision. You have a 234 GB primary partition and a 232 GB extended partition. Inside this extended partition are two logical partitions. One contains your root file system and the other is swap. And did I read you correctly -- /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6 contain the same files? Because in your output, they show different amounts of space used.

[richb]

They appear to have the same root file system, but home is not in /dev/sda1. I did not check every directory but it is populated with root files. As far as the Intel driver I have no problem with it and generally use the laptop connected to the power source. I have tried Bumblebee in the past, and now how to use it. Each application has to be started with the optirun prefix. I will try blacklisting the Nouveau driver. The main issues for me are the recovery boot, a minor annoyance, and the wasted drive space.
I may blow the system away and pre-partition with root, home and swap and install manually.

[SteveRiley]

I may blow the system away and pre-partition with root, home and swap and install manually.

May I recommend that you just go ahead and do that? I'm increasingly of the opinion that the Ubiquity installer is just no good. It really isn't a Kubuntu thing anyway; it's all code inherited from Ubuntu. The Kubuntu version just implements it in Qt rather than Gtk.

[richb]

I will do that and keep you posted.

I did attempt to blaclist the nouveau driver but it does not seem to take. I added "blacklist nouveau" in the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file.

[richb]

I added nomodeset to the grub boot line. The system now boots without going to an explicit recovery mode. However all I have done is to duplicate the recovery mode options in the default boot stanza.

[verndog]

You might have to recompile the initrd image without nouveau. Also try modeset=0 instead of nomodeset.

What now does

lsmod | grep nouveau

result in.

[richb]

Thanks. modeset=0 returns to a situation in that I must use the recovery mode to boot. nomodeset allows a boot.
Rebuilding the initrd image did remove the nouveau driver. No difference in that I can detect in performance. But it was superfluous in any case.

[SteveRiley]

Most nVidia-equipped laptops don't need nomodeset anymore. It appears yours does.

My T520 with nVidia 4200M requires an even more obscure parameter: nox2apic. This is apparently unique to certain nVidia-equipped ThinkPads. Thank $DEITY for Google, huh?

[richb]

Thanks Steve. Everything is working quite well except for the odd partitioning. The only other issue is with the Intel graphics OpenGL cannot be used. Not a big deal for me. It is odd because on my older Optimus laptop the i915 driver, I guess it is a mesa driver, did support OpenGL. For a while that is. Updates killed that along the way at some time as will.

[SteveRiley]

Hm. What tests are you running to determine this?

[richb]

In system settings enabling OpenGL reverts to xrender. But Glxinfo shows this, (partial output as it is quite long). So I concluded OpenGL is enabled on the sytem but KDE is not using it.

  richard@richard-Aspire-V5-572G:~$ glxinfoname of display: :0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, 
    GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_OML_swap_method, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, 
    GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile, 
    GLX_ARB_create_context_robustness, GLX_ARB_framebuffer_sRGB, 
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB, 
    GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, 
    GLX_MESA_multithread_makecurrent, GLX_MESA_swap_control, 
    GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, 
    GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, 
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, 
    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_INTEL_swap_event
GLX version: 1.4
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, 
    GLX_MESA_multithread_makecurrent, GLX_OML_swap_method, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, 
    GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.2, 256 bits)
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 9.1.3
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20

[SteveRiley]

Before I write anything else... please post the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log.