Install freeze, run freeze

[bradjackson5]

I recently upgraded my system to:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+
1 GB 800Mhz PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM
NVidia GeForce 7300 GT
Western Digital 400 GB SATA drive
Asus M2V-MX K8M890 mainboard

I must dual boot because my job requires WinXP. XP installed without a hitch, I gave it a little 60 GB partition of its own since I plan to be using Kubuntu as my main OS. WinXP works perfectly, and is what I'm posting from now.

I downloaded the Desktop CD of Feisty, 32 bit version, checked the CD integrity, and it froze at seemingly random points during install: first during partitioning, then at the 25% complete mark, then at the 66% complete mark.

Downloaded the Alternate CD, 32 bit version, checked CD integrity, installed perfectly. After install the first thing I attempted to do was update the packages. It hardfroze during the *download*, not install, phase; couldn't use ctrl-alt-backspace to restart the X server.

Hard booted, found that that the package tree was screwed up, loaded Konqueror to come here and ask for help, and it hardfroze again.

Re-installed from alternate CD, requesting a reformat of the drive to wipe out the last install. First boot produced a mangled screen full of video buffer junk with two blank patches where the user and password fields should be. On a whim I entered my user and pass, no echo, and it actually loaded to what might have been a desktop. Blank screen, in the place where the taskbar should be there was more video buffer junk. Right clicking opened a menu, but all the text was missing.

I've searched for similar problems, but have found nothing that appears to be related.

Is this because I'm running 32 bit Ubuntu on a 64 bit system (32 bit WinXP works though...)?

[dibl]

Re: Install freeze, run freeze

Geeez, we just got another fellow with a 7300GT card through a tough time with his Nvidia drivers. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something challenging with that particular Nvida chip. :P

Issues -- 32-bit vs. 64-bit should NOT be factor of any kind. If you'd rather run 32-bit, that is irrelevant to the ease or difficulty of installation.

Alternate Install vs. Desktop -- yeah, I'm with you there. I always use the Alternate Install CD -- I have multiple hard drives and OS's and need the ability to see & control where things go.

Halts and freezes -- all but the last "freeze to black" are probably related to the combination of CD burn speed, CD blank quality, and the drive characteristics. You want to set the burn speed down to 4X, and numerous folks have reported that one brand of media works far better than another on their burner -- but there's not a clear pattern where I can say "Sony works better than Memorex" or anything like that.

Finally, the classic fault upon completion of installation and reboot on a system where the xserver auto-configuration failed to recognize and set up the video card is a black screen with a blinking white "_" in the upper left corner. Alt-F1 will take you to the first true console where you can log in in text mode. Here's the link on how to handle that situation:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3085112.0

And then once you've got a VESA display, you'll want to download and run the Envy script installer for your Nvidia card -- here's the link to that:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3086232.0

Good luck with it -- let us know how you fare.

[bradjackson5]

Re: Install freeze, run freeze

Unfortunately it didn't work.

My freeze on boot is not the classic freeze to black, but rather a screen filled with what looks like video buffer junk, two blank text entry areas, and a perfectly formed mouse pointer which properly changes from an arrow to the i beam shape when it moves over the text areas.

Alt+F1 doesn't open a terminal window.

I did, however, boot to recovery mode and try the "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" command as root.

Went through the process, selected VESA, etc, restarted X and had exactly the same problem. Screen full of video buffer junk, a couple of unlabeled text areas, and a fully functional mouse pointer.

[bradjackson5]

Re: Install freeze, run freeze

Just realized, since it would boot into recovery mode, that means that the basic install is functioning.

When I attempted to start x the result was a brief flicker of the classic X checkerboard background and "X" shaped mouse pointer, a longer flicker of a blue background with an arrow pointer, then the video buffer junk background with arrow pointer.

Does that mean its KDE that isn't working properly since X appears to be properly loading?