ubuntu not booting :(

[waba]

hello, i have 9.10 ubunut installed, just installed the update yesterday (which needed a reboot)...but its not booting up today :( gets past the ubunutu logo, then freezes on a flashing cursor. i dual boot, but wouldnt think that would cause problems. any suggestions on how i could sort it out?

[codemonkey]

What kind of update? Driver? Kernel? Software?

If the Ubunto logo doesn't go away pressing escape will usually bring up a text screen showing how far through the boot process it got.

Basically we need more information

[waba]

the logo does go away, it then just takes me to a blank screen with a flashing cursor..which eventually freezes. the update was one of their automatic updates, i have a livecd, if you could please talk me through the steps to getting the info needed il be able to put them up here (im rubbish at linux...)

[codemonkey]

Once it's on the flashing cursor if you press CTRL - ALT - F1 does it take you to a text console?

[waba]

it doesnt...the keyboard doesnt seem to respond (e.g pressin cap locks doesnt turn the light on)

[waba]

i could try booting up in recovery mode maybe?
goota go to uni now, so will try to get it sorted later this evening...thanks for the help, if you have any more suggestions i would be happy :)

[codemonkey]

Might be worth a try... however if you have any data you dont want to lose it may be worth booting off the Live CD first and copying any data you can to an external drive or DVD

[waba]

hmm i dont really understand recovery mode, as it boots into the command line, not the desktop...which i cant work....

[Bracken]

When your boot-loader shows, go in and choose the previous kernel version's multi-user mode kernel entry. Does it now boot?

Also, just a note, the splash screen shows on top of a "quiet" text boot, if the boot doesn't happen in time the splash screen will time-out and show you what's behind, it's possible that it was sitting at the blinking cursor all the time you were watching the ubuntu logo.

[waba]

hey, slecting a previous kernel seems to do the same thing - just freezes at the same point. i have 3 kernesl listed in total, all freeze.

[waba]

i have three previous versions in the grub menu and all freeze at exactly the same point - no sometimes i get an I/O error coming up. I had a similar problem a while back, when updating my graphics card drivers - it corrupted something or the other, but that time my windows partition messed up and started showing I/0 errors. (i think there was a problem with recognising both screens).

when i go to recovery mode, then click on resume normal boot, it says
rc-sysinit start/running, process 1377

then seems to pause for a while........

and then comes up with end_request: I/0 error,def sdf, ...


http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18837
this was when i had a similar problem - turns out it was a problem with my drivers for my gfx card - although i dont know how to get into ubuntu now to sort it if this is the case now

[Bracken]

I/O errors would normally be associated with the hard disk, run a memtest and make sure you can boot a live disk and access the hard disk.

[waba]

ur right, iv isolated the harddrive by pulling it out, now the livecd boots fine. what i was quite surprised about is that the live cd woulnt boot whilst the hard drive was plugged in, even though it is booting of the cd!!
seeing as this happeeneed once before in the windows partition, i reckon there is something wrong witht he harddrive - are yuyou talking about running the memtest in the grub booter to scan the harddrive? so that isnt a Ram checker? also, im on my pc now running of the live cd, with the hard drive out - its a sata drive, was wondering if i could just plug it in now, while the pc is on, to mount in the live cd so i can start taking files off it. would that be a bad idea?

[Mike]

Memtest86 is a RAM checker, but as you've now narrowed the issue down to the hard drive there is no real need to run it.
You can hot plug the SATA drive in as long as the SATA Controller is in AHCI mode (this setting is found in the BIOS Setup menu). If it's in IDE mode the drive will not be recognised as IDE mode doesn't "sense" when drives are added in after POST. Plug the power in first and wait for the drive to spin up before plugging the data cable in to avoid a temporary system lock up.

[waba]

thanks il try this now and then get back here. do you know any good programs i could run to check the hard drive? is there any way i can get all my bookmarks, saved passwords in chrome/firefox off there without booting into the harddrive? should i just copy ALL contents in my home folder accross, as well as the hidden .'program' folders? sorry for the list of questions!!

[waba]

ahh brilliant thanks mike, iv managed to mount up the hard drive, will scan it with something and start gettin the files off...

[waba]

iv started scanning with e2fsck, options -c and -n to see whether any corruptions are thrown up....

[Mike]

You'll be able to lift out most data files - I can't say I'v ever tried to lift out and reuse saved passwords in linux before so I can't say how possible this is (quite hard to impossible I'd have thought)

[waba]

im running a western digital check on my harddrive through windows, im assuming if it comes up with bad sectors i can send it back for warrenty. i guess i will have to make do without the passwords, but do you know where all the emails from evolution are stored? definatley need them!!

[waba]

hmmm, very odd.. .i scanned it using the WD program and it passed both the quick scan AND the full scan (as in the pic) it seemed to scan both the windows and linux partitions (total sector scan was 488398168, i.e 100%) so i really dont understand where these i/o errors are coming from. whats worse is that im guessing i csant return it under warrenty?

[Mike]

A cable connection problem might have caused the issue - which would've been resolved when you unplugged and then plugged back in the hard drive. Now you've got the files backed up it might be worth trying to boot from the livecd with the drive still plugged in as a test to see if the system locks up again.
It might also be worth trying a different SATA port and cable just in case.

Regarding the warranty side of things: we're happy to test the drive for you if it continues to play up and if it's under warranty.

[Bracken]

What does Ubuntu's disk information tool have to say about the drive? It now supports reading of S.M.A.R.T. data, you'd usually get a pop-up if any errors are over threshold.

I'm tempted to say this might be power related, if it still won't boot with the drive plugged in from the start; might be worth looking into.

[waba]

well, it now boots on the live, which is amazing!! so maybe it was something to do with the cable/port mike. although ubuntu doesnt boot up on its own still, it just freezes after the logo. maybe because, if the cable WAS loose, it might have corrupted something? anway, windows was booting fine, so it really is only ubuntu that has messed up.

how do i use the disk info tool bracken? i have a feelin i checked it already and it has passed...does that guarentee there is nothin rong witht the hard drive?

i guess now il have to start reinstalling ubuuntu. is there any way i could just replace the boot files from the cd, rather than a whole installation? an easier option would be better!!

thanks for the help!

[Mike]

It really depends on what has happened. If the Kernel has become corrupt (you were doing an update when it happened?) then unless anyone else knows differently I think you're going to have to reinstall.
However, I thought that Ubuntu left a copy of the old Kernel in the Grub loader as an option in case the new one doesn't work... has this disappeared?

[Bracken]

You could chroot into the system from the live disk and start re-installing some things.

A kernel would be really easy to replace, but that the old kernels don't work suggests that this isn't the issue. If you install ubuntu without formatting the partition, you'll get something a bit like Windows' "in-place installation".

[waba]

none of the kernels work, all three freeze at the same poin t - which is what i am so surprised about. my other idea was this - i have about 80gb free left on the drive, i could set up a new partition, install ubuntu onto that, then star copying the program folders across from the broken one to the new one. then, when that is done, i can remove the old partiton and expand the new one to takke up the whole space.

i dont really understand by what you mean by in place installation Bracken, or how to use chroot. do i boot into the livecd desktop, then run chroot in a terminal. or do i run it from somehwer eelse?

[Bracken]

none of the kernels work, all three freeze at the same poin t - which is what i am so surprised about. my other idea was this - i have about 80gb free left on the drive, i could set up a new partition, install ubuntu onto that, then star copying the program folders across from the broken one to the new one.

NO! Bad waba!

If you do this you'll just get into the biggest fight with the package manager ever.

Just copy your personal files across, you can copy all of /home if you like.

If you chroot into the system, from the live disk bring up a terminal:


sudo -s
mkdir /target
mount /dev/[your_linux_partition] /target
mount -t sysfs sysfs /target/sys
mount -t proc proc /target/proc
chroot /target

Everything in this terminal is now actually your ubuntu installation which won't boot.

You can generate a list of packages installed


dpkg --list >> /home/[you]/dpkg_output.


Then when you have the new system, you simply copy /home in, then I'll write some bash or maybe perl to take that dpkg_output file and install all your packages again.

You'd get 99% the same system you had.

[waba]

oh dear bracken, only got ur msg today! but its ok, all iv been doing is copying accross the files from home, which im assuming has all the config files for programs in it - already evolution and firefox have been completely restored!! (including passwords!!) then what i was doing is installing all the programs i had through synaptic, just by reading off what program folders were in my home folder - definatly a longer way then how u suggested :S however, once iv done that, i will finish copying of the home files (config stuff) for the newly installed programs.

Then do you think i should scan the old partition with chroot, by booting up in livecd? or should i just wipe it and extend my new partition to cover it? all the smart indicators say my hard drive passes....

[Bracken]

You can also chroot into it from the new install, what you have done so far is fine, just don't copy programs across, use the package manger.

[waba]

tht chroot command didnt work for me, says /target already exists as a file, would there be anyway else i could run it? iv seen some I/O errors pop up while installing minor things in terminal, but hasnt seemed to lead to unstabiluity...will write up some more info if i see it again...but thats worrying!

[Bracken]

"target" is pretty arbitrary, you can use any word as the mount point.


The I/O errors still present tells me that at some point it's going to be come corrupt again.

[waba]

thats what i was worried about. tried the code again, it came up with this:

nathan@nathan-desktop:~$ sudo -s
[sudo] password for nathan:
root@nathan-desktop:~# mkdir /sausage
root@nathan-desktop:~# mount /dev/sda6 /sausage
root@nathan-desktop:~# mount -t sysfs sysfs /sausage/sys
root@nathan-desktop:~# mount -t proc proc /sausage/proc
root@nathan-desktop:~# chroot /sausage
chroot: cannot run command `/bin/bash': Exec format error
root@nathan-desktop:~#


how can i maker it scan the drive?

[Bracken]

Hmm, that's chroot complaining that it can't launch bash in the new shell.

Does /bin/bash exist? what are the permissions on it?

[waba]

bin bash (hahaha!) does exist, i took some photos if that helps:


unless you want me to go into terminal and find out about it?

[waba]

whoops too small

[Bracken]

In a terminal


sudo -s
env
which bash

[waba]

nathan@nathan-desktop:~$ sudo -s
[sudo] password for nathan:
root@nathan-desktop:~# env
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm
USER=root
LS_COLORS=rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:hl=44;37:pi=40;33 :so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;3 1;01:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42: st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01 ;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.zip=01; 31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.bz2 =01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01 ;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.ace=01;3 1:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:* .jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*. pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xb m=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png =01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx= 01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=0 1;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01; 35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35 :*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:* .flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.g l=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=0 1;35:*.axv=01;35:*.anx=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01; 35:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.mid=00;36 :*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36: *.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.axa=00;36:*.o ga=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:
SUDO_USER=nathan
SUDO_UID=1000
USERNAME=root
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
PWD=/home/nathan
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SHLVL=1
SUDO_COMMAND=/bin/bash
HOME=/home/nathan
LOGNAME=root
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
SUDO_GID=1000
DISPLAY=:0.0
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
XAUTHORITY=/var/run/gdm/auth-for-nathan-tuzeh4/database
COLORTERM=gnome-terminal
_=/usr/bin/env
root@nathan-desktop:~# which bash
/bin/bash
root@nathan-desktop:~#



terrifying amount of code........

[Bracken]

It's not terrifying, it's a dump of sudo root's environmental variables, including $PATH which does contain "/bin". And it's a test of path which shows /bin/bash is the version of bash used.

However, I've been an idiot, bash on your new install is fine, it's bash on the old partition that chroot is complaining about. Forget chrooting in and getting a package list, there's something badly wrong with that old install.

[waba]

hmmm....so you dont think there is a problem with the hard drive? i read something about the hard drive chunks, or sectors, or whatever linux calls it, and i seem to remeber when i did a scan a while back when everythin started messing up, it sad it found a few new bad blocks and labeled them...although im not entirely sure. is there a way i can check if there are bad blocks? is bad blocks a sign of a failing hard drive? i did a scan with the western digital program in windows and it said everything passed...but i dont know if it scans the ext4 partitions properly - maybe its only meant to run for a windows written disk?

[copter]

try

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Smartmontools

[waba]

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Caviar Second Generation Serial ATA family
Device Model: WDC WD2500AAKS-22VSA0
Serial Number:
Firmware Version: 01.01B01
User Capacity: 250,059,350,016 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Sat Mar 27 15:21:20 2010 GMT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x85) Offline data collection activity
was aborted by an interrupting command from host.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (4980) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 61) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x303f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 178 177 021 Pre-fail Always - 2100
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 11
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 095 095 000 Old_age Always - 4121
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0012 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 654
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 131
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 654
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 114 085 000 Old_age Always - 29
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 4121 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 4096 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 4065 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

right i ran that smartmon thing, and it came up with this! can anyone please tell me what it means? are there errors at all on the disk (as it is under warrenty, i will just get it returned if there are!)


not too sure if this means that iv run a scan or not though!

[waba]

i installed the user interface for it too now, seems easier to work with, and there doesnt seem to be any reported errors...where could those I/O errors have come from?! waaa!

[waba]

oh dear, i think i saw an I/O error when i booted up just now, but it went to quickly for me to see! is there a boot log i could check?

[neilpearce]

/var/log/boot.log
/var/log/messages

[waba]

hey thanks, if i were to post it up here, would someone be willing to look through it for errors? i dont understand it.... :(