Not new to Linux, just new to Kubuntu

[Roadhouse]

Hello everyone. New here, so be gentle.

A short bit of background:
Left Gentoo for OpenSuSE. Left OpenSuSE for Ubuntu, but REALLY hated Unity. Left Ubuntu for Kubuntu. So far, love it.

Installed Kubuntu over a week ago, coming from Gentoo (used Gentoo for a long time). Made the switch because, frankly, emerge is a terrible system with too many hard-masked packages that do a lot of breaking things when you DO get them to unmask and install properly.

Anyway, Kubuntu has been good to me so far. Even had a smooth upgrade from its default kernel 3.0 to kernel 3.2.7-precise, as well as an upgrade from the default KDE 4.7.6(?) to KDE 4.8.0. Smooth sailing so far.

The ONE problem I have now, which has happened over 3 separate installs and default + custom configurations (read: different DE, different kernel, etc.), is that when I start the machine from a total shutdown, Kubuntu fails to load at all and I am forced to hard-reset the machine. It does load after a second boot, but I really shouldn't need to do that. This happens with default installs and upgraded installs and everything else in between. It goes from the boot menu to the Kubuntu dots loading screen, then it just sits there. I've left it for up to 2 hours in case it was updating stuff, but that never helps. It just sits there.

I try to check the logs for those boots that fail, but they aren't present. It's like nothing gets written at all. Very funky.

So I guess I am here to ask if anyone else has noticed this or had it happen to them in the past and maybe fixed it?

Again, it happens with default installs as well as updated/upgraded ones.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[GreyGeek]

If the Kubuntu loading screen is just spinning dots it looks like you are having video config problems. The second option on the Grub boot menu is to boot the recovery mode. It is a console screen with several options. The last is booting into the system with the network (if possible) and coming up with a root prompt. From there you can issue startkde to see if the video runs as root. Or, you can su to your home account and issue startkde from there.

You've reinstalled three times already. Rather than install a previous release and update KDE to 4.8, allow me to suggest that you DL the latest copy of the Kubuntu Precise 12.04 daily iso,

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/

check its md5sum, burn it and check the burn as well, then install it. KDE 4.8 will be default and all apps will be at current dev levels. I've been using Precise for over almost two months and it is currently very stable. KMail occasionally crashes but is fine upon restart.

As far as not being able to boot from power up, I can only guess. Is your partition starting on an even boundary, or does Kubuntu have the whole drive?

[Roadhouse]

If the Kubuntu loading screen is just spinning dots it looks like you are having video config problems. The second option on the Grub boot menu is to boot the recovery mode. It is a console screen with several options. The last is booting into the system with the network (if possible) and coming up with a root prompt. From there you can issue startkde to see if the video runs as root. Or, you can su to your home account and issue startkde from there.

I don't even get to the spinning dots. It's the screen where it looks like this (pardon my ascii art):
kubuntu
. . . . .

Those dots fill in and then just stop moving altogether after they make a full pass.

You've reinstalled three times already. Rather than install a previous release and update KDE to 4.8, allow me to suggest that you DL the latest copy of the Kubuntu Precise 12.04 daily iso,

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/

check its md5sum, burn it and check the burn as well, then install it. KDE 4.8 will be default and all apps will be at current dev levels. I've been using Precise for over almost two months and it is currently very stable. KMail occasionally crashes but is fine upon restart.

As far as not being able to boot from power up, I can only guess. Is your partition starting on an even boundary, or does Kubuntu have the whole drive?

I honestly thought about trying the 12.04, but my inner self keeps reminding me of how bad that has gone for me in the past. I will ponder it and maybe jump in with both feet.

As for the drive... Kubuntu has the entire drive. This also happens on my other machine, which I forgot to mention in my attempt to deliver as many details as I could. The main machine (the one I am on now) is an intel core i7 920 with 12GB of RAM, the other is an AMD Phenom II X4 955 with 4GB of RAM. The main machine is dual boot, the AMD machine is strictly Linux.

As I said... it basically runs fine. In fact, it's nearly as responsive as my previous Gentoo build, which, to me, is saying something as Gentoo REALLY does perform once configured properly.

By the way, thanks for the quick reply. I truly appreciate it.

[SteveRiley]

I don't even get to the spinning dots. It's the screen where it looks like this (pardon my ascii art):
kubuntu
. . . . .
Those dots fill in and then just stop moving altogether after they make a full pass.

Let's get rid of the graphical bootsplash, thus revealing more text, and see what happens.

1. Edit /etc/default/grub
2. In the line that begins with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT remove the quiet splash that's inside the quotes
3. Remove the comment sign in front of the GRUB_TERMINAL line
4. Add a comment sign to the two lines that begin with GRUB_GFX
5. Save the file and exit the editor

Run

sudo update-grub

Now let's get rid of Plymouth.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dtl131/mediahacks
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mountall cryptsetup
sudo apt-get purge plymouth*

Power off, power on, and pay close attention to the text that scrolls during boot, and let us know what you see when the process freezes.

[Roadhouse]

Let's get rid of the graphical bootsplash, thus revealing more text, and see what happens.

1. Edit /etc/default/grub
2. In the line that begins with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT remove the quiet splash that's inside the quotes
3. Remove the comment sign in front of the GRUB_TERMINAL line
4. Add a comment sign to the two lines that begin with GRUB_GFX
5. Save the file and exit the editor

Run

sudo update-grub

Now let's get rid of Plymouth.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dtl131/mediahacks
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mountall cryptsetup
sudo apt-get purge plymouth*

Power off, power on, and pay close attention to the text that scrolls during boot, and let us know what you see when the process freezes.

I appreciate the attempt to help, but this completely borked the system. Totally unbootable, stopped detecting the network card (had to bring it up manually), X stopped working, no error message during bootup, however, outside of the ones I got when attempting to start KDE/X.

Posting this from within windows right now since I need a break from fighting with this at the moment.

I did try reverting everything back to the way it was prior to these steps, but it's simply not working. I may just go ahead and install 12.04 anyway now, since I think it would be easier than continuing to fight with this version in its current state.

[SteveRiley]

Wow. And that's on Oneiric? I've done these exact steps on hundreds of installs with no ill effects at all. I'm truly sorry that it didn't work for you. I'm at a loss to understand why.

[Roadhouse]

Yeah.

Stuff happens. That is what backups are for.

[GreyGeek]

Been there, done that. I hate it when that happens.