Installing Kubuntu 15.04 on Asus preinstalled with Windows 8.1

[joneall]

Need a boot expert -- where is boot log?

I have studied up some on UEFI and made some more trials. In particular, I edited the Grub command line to delete "quiet splash" and show me some more of what is going on. And it is trying to start up (K)ubuntu. It first tells me there is no fallback.efi file, which is correct and normal. Then it begins the startup of the system. I am attaching a screen shot of the last screen before it hangs completely. The order is different sometimes: I suspect that some of these processes are running asynchronously and so can terminate in slightly different orders.

I have tried to compare this with stuff in /var/log on a running system, but cannot find anything similar. I thought there was a log of it somewhere, something like bootlog.

In any case, I am convinced that the UEFI part is past and the system is loading, so the problem must be something on the ASUS which the startup does not like.

Where, oh where can the boot log be?

[Qqmike]

Small detail, on making a USB flash drive, don't use the disk creators, use dd, here:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...aller-using-dd

I rather doubt it is an ASUS problem, but it has been known to happen (with just about all the manufacturers at one time or another).

The only think I can think of--that I would do next--is to make a good USB flash drive for the live Kubuntu installer using the dd method I linked about. Please be careful with dd, as the links warns, and dd gives no progress notices as it works, so be patient until dd finishes and returns you to your Konsole prompt, showing you some output results. If, that is, you care to try another experiment. I know how trying these things can be when they do this.

I'm not expert at reading your output. I mean, I don't see any problem or even clue there, do you?

I agree, if the new dd'd USB doesn't work, we need someone to look at this, and we have some people here. And, again, you DID check the iso--the md5 or sha sums, I believe, right?

[Qqmike]

Anyone else have time to take a look?

Can someone else have a look at this? Thanks.

[joneall]

Small detail, on making a USB flash drive, don't use the disk creators, use dd, here:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...aller-using-dd

I rather doubt it is an ASUS problem, but it has been known to happen (with just about all the manufacturers at one time or another).

The only think I can think of--that I would do next--is to make a good USB flash drive for the live Kubuntu installer using the dd method I linked about. Please be careful with dd, as the links warns, and dd gives no progress notices as it works, so be patient until dd finishes and returns you to your Konsole prompt, showing you some output results. If, that is, you care to try another experiment. I know how trying these things can be when they do this.

I'm not expert at reading your output. I mean, I don't see any problem or even clue there, do you?

I certainly do not see anything. I have always been a bit at sea with the boot process, as I can never find the log I need for what is happening.

I will try the dd method. I have had just enough experience with dd to be very wary of it.

I agree, if the new dd'd USB doesn't work, we need someone to look at this, and we have some people here. And, again, you DID check the iso--the md5 or sha sums, I believe, right?

Absolutely, md5 and sha256. Yes, I hope someone can come up with an idea. Thanks for your suggestions. I will try the dd and report back.

[joneall]

Uh, little problem. I had made a key with the utility System > Startup disk creator. When I looked at it with ls or file manager, I saw nice files, including EFI/BOOT/....efi.

$ ls /media/jon/DD9D-7925/
autorun.inf casper dists install md5sum.txt pool README.diskdefines System Volume Information
boot casper-rw EFI ldlinux.sys pics preseed syslinux wubi.exe
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdd
Disk /dev/sdd: 15 GiB, 16030629888 bytes, 31309824 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xce784bcc

Was the dd supposed to go to /dev/sdd1 or /dev/sdd? I tried both, with similar results. Doing it to sdd required removing the key and putting it back to force a re-mount to make it look better:
$ df /media/jon/Kubuntu\ 14.04.2\ LTS\ amd64/
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdd1 1067616 1067616 0 100% /media/jon/Kubuntu 14.04.2 LTS amd64
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdd

Disk /dev/sdd: 15 GiB, 16030629888 bytes, 31309824 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x609e9a78

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdd1 * 0 2135231 2135232 1G 0 Empty
/dev/sdd2 2040756 2045427 4672 2,3M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


I guess the extra filesystem sdd1 does not matter, as long as the firmware can find an EFI filesystem it can read and use.

$ ls /media/jon/Kubuntu\ 14.04.2\ LTS\ amd64/EFI/BOOT/
BOOTx64.EFI grubx64.efi

At any rate, when I boot from it on the Asus, the results are depressingly similar.

What am I doing wrong?

[Qqmike]

dd should go to /dev/sdd, assuming sdd is your flash drive, yes.

What am I doing wrong?

Gosh, I don't know. You checked the md5/sha sums, you dd to /dev/sdd, and when you re-boot you enter ASUS UEFI/BIOS setup and select the UEFI flash drive to boot from (not any other flash drive). Your ASUS UEFI setup menus are set to boot from UEFI, right? not from BIOS, not any BIOS compatibility, not from CSM mode; but simply from UEFI.

[joneall]

dd should go to /dev/sdd, assuming sdd is your flash drive, yes.
Gosh, I don't know. You checked the md5/sha sums, you dd to /dev/sdd, and when you re-boot you enter ASUS UEFI/BIOS setup and select the UEFI flash drive to boot from (not any other flash drive). Your ASUS UEFI setup menus are set to boot from UEFI, right? not from BIOS, not any BIOS compatibility, not from CSM mode; but simply from UEFI.

That is all corrrect. Windows is set to NOT hibernate. I'm not sure where you tell the BIOS to use UEFI. But CSM is disabled and Fast Boot is also disabled. Attaching image of Firmware screen, which seems to be quite well done by Asus, meaning it corresponds to what I understand from the links you sent me concerning UEFI-compatible firmware. You can see that the memkey is indeed UEFI. I use that Override feature to boot, or else put the memkey first in the boot list, save it and let it go.

I wonder what "PO" or, maybe, "P0" means infront of Windows and ubuntu. The ubuntu is the LTS I managed to install once but can not get to work any more.

A detail: I wonder why the Grub entries are different for Kubuntu and Ubuntu. Kubuntu just has "Ubuntu", OEM install and Windows, whereas Ubuntu splits "Ubuntu" into "Install Ubuntu" and "Try Ubuntu", like we are used to.

[Qqmike]

--> Anyone else jump in here to see anything we missed?

I think you did settle on /dev/sdd, not /dev/sdd1.

I can't recall what I saw about the P0 thing, I will try to remember.

Kubuntu just has "Ubuntu", OEM install and Windows

That sounds like a GRUB menu from a permanently installed Kubuntu (on a HDD or flash drive).

whereas Ubuntu splits "Ubuntu" into "Install Ubuntu" and "Try Ubuntu"

And that sounds like the menu to get when booting a LIVE Ubuntu DVD installer or live flash drive installer (where Ubuntu is not yet installed to any permanent drive).

I'm not sure where you tell the BIOS to use UEFI. But CSM is disabled and Fast Boot is also disabled.

This guy is the boss, one of the few UEFI booting experts; this for UEFI booting:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/linux-uefi/
He's got many UEFI and GPT pages there.

The screenshot you posted is just a Save & Exit screen shot. ASUS also has many setup menus, as you know, like Advanced > Boot.

Again, this post summarizes what I do to boot the live flash drive installer on my ASUS: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post371792

There is some tiny detail missing here, something you have overlooked or something that is a twist in YOUR specific ASUS firmware setup. A 64-bit dd'd Kubuntu flash drive should easily boot on a modern UEFI firmware.

This is a real puzzle why your 64-bit flash drive Kubuntu installer will not boot. I'll think about it. I'm sure some others have looked at this thread as I have seen them logged in often. Hang on, we should be able to get this, somehow.

[joneall]

Need to know about startup sequence

As the accompanying screen shot shows, the startup of of Kubuntu has advanced quite a ways. It has, e.g., mounted the / file system and cups, as well as system logging (but logging to where/what?). Therefore, I suspect the hang has nothing to do with UEFI, tho it may have to do with a driver or something for the firmware. (I supppose i/o still goes thru the firmware, as for the old BIOS.)

The light on the USB key is still flashing. Maybe it is trying to write to that(?).

In the old days (CDC or IBM mainframes), I'd have taken a dump of this thing's memory and figured out at least what it was trying to do. But I know diddly about the LInux startup procedure and the doc is probably the source code, which I do not have (and do not really want to get into...).

Anybody have any ideas about what it is up to or about how to find out or where it is logging. Maybe it's not, and that is the problem. So many questions.

I don't even have enough info to open a bug report.

[joneall]

Can't boot gparted DVD

Why should that be so? The system diddled the DVD when I pushed the start button, but then the "BIOS" refuses to recognize the existence of the DVD. Is there a special one to use in case of a UEFI firmware?

Oops, a second try started it, but...it hung, with

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Is there a special version of gparted for UEFI? Yet, the firmware saw it as a 'UEFI Slimdisk DVD".

[Qqmike]

NOTE: GParted Live is available in three different architectures

amd64 64-bit version runs on x86-64 based computers, with ability to access more than 4 gigabytes of memory, and supports use of multiple processor cores.
For newer (>2010) computers with UEFI instead of legacy BIOS try this one.

http://gparted.org/download.php

Sure seems your computer is having problems booting this media.
Have you googled to see if there are any known issues? Try different google search phrases.
Emailed/chat with ASUS support?
Read the ASUS Manual (available on-line) (for any tips, fine points re UEFI boot settings).
Like, for UEFI, we don't want CSM enabled. Disable Fast Boot. Disable Secure Boot.
Just trying to help cover the usual troubleshooting checklist here.


Off-the-cuff, in ASUS UEFI setup menus, I was told this (which I did NOT do, but who knows? ):
EHCI Handoff ?: You have to use the arrow keys to back out of the Graphics settings before you can arrow down to the USB settings and verify they are all at default except the EHCI handoff should be set to enabled because it plays better with Linux. I'm told. I can't see any difference (may just be chicken superstition).

[Qqmike]

btw,

Is there a special version of gparted for UEFI? Yet, the firmware saw it as a 'UEFI Slimdisk DVD".

You picked the choice I quotes in Post #26 above, right?
Then "... the firmware saw it as a 'UEFI Slimdisk DVD..." looks OK to me (if that was the best-appearing choice you had); I think I remember the term "Slimdisk" when I used GParted Live CD for something.

[joneall]

Could the pb be due to the Realetk network controller?

I have managed to install Debian 8 with only one error message, saying that the hardware needs a firmware file rtl_nic/rt18402-1.fw, which is apparently for the Realtek ehternet controller on this beast. I just skipped the message and the system works fine with ethernet, tho I haven't tried the wi-fi yet.

Could that be the problem in Ubuntu, the realtek controller?