# Can’t get linux to boot to save my life...



## plutoniumman (Jun 30, 2011)

Hey all, 

I’ve been trying to get linux to boot on my PC for a while, but here’s the problem: I can’t get ANY distros to start; even ones that have run perfectly fine before!

I’m mostly interested in backtrack (which has booted MANY times before, and ran pretty well), but for now just getting any live CD distro working would be good.  Neither backtrack 4 or 5 will boot.  No other distro will boot passed its boot loader.  Not even a non-live CD version of linux will start.  Any disc I try in any other computer works just fine.  Back to my computer, it’ll get to the bootloader screen (like for memtest, safemode etc), and when I select an option, it sometimes shows some white words and then just goes to an all black screen and hangs.  

I disconnected all HDDs and peripherals, except for the graphics card (the same GPU that used to work, even with OpenCL).  Still the same results.  I even switched to an old VGA non-HDCP monitor, incase HDCP was interfering somehow, but still the same problem.  

My hardware:
MoBo: MSI 890FXA-GD70
GPU: Diamond HD 6850
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955

Distros I’ve tried:
Ubuntu 9.10
Knoppix 5.1.1
OpenSUSE 11.3 32-bit, live  (This one is known to have previously worked)
OpenSUSE 11.4 32-bit, live
OpenSUSE 11.4 64-bit, live
OpenSUSE 11.4 64-bit, installer
Backtrack 4 (This one is known to work)
Backtrack 5, 32-bit

I want to say I tried damn small linux, but I can’t remember for sure.

Ubuntu displayed some messages.  Luckily I was recording with my video camera.  However I’m running some extensive tests (incase there’s some defect in my hardware that windows is somehow able to run perfectly fine despite the defect while linux can’t), which will be finished in about 1 day.  When it’s finished I’ll put the frame up.  

The only thing I can think of, is somehow updating to the latest BIOS messed it up.


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## wolfeking (Jun 30, 2011)

Try booting under a flashdrive and see if it will boot. This will aide in checking if your DVD drive has a read error. 

Also, try IDE mode. I dont know if it will help, but I always keep it enabled and have never had booting issues that wasnt directly connected to a bad DVDRW disk. 

Try Ubuntu 10.04.2. It is the current LTS version. It may run better than 9.10.


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## Dngrsone (Jun 30, 2011)

You say you have all peripherals disconnected.  Does that include things plugged into USB ports?

Can't tell you how many times I've banged my head against an install only to find that a USB interface was choking things up.

Also, I've had problems recently getting a good install disc burned from my laptop-- I had to go to an entirely different computer running Win 7 to burn my Ubuntu disc (somewhat embarrassing thing there-- my Ubuntu laptop wouldn't burn a clean Ubuntu disc, no?), so make sure that your download MD5 sums match and maybe try burning the disc from a separate computer.


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## plutoniumman (Jun 30, 2011)

Thanks for your replies 

I unplugged everything accept mouse (USB) and keyboard (PS/2).  I even disconnected the audio connection for the audio ports on the front of the case.  I'm almost tempted to disconnect the additional USB ports to see what happens.

I doubt it's my optical drive; it better not be!  This beast cost me $300 and I didn't use it that much (blu ray burner back in ’07/'08).  Testing mechanics and lasers of the drives is one of the tests I'll be performing on it.  But I really don't think the drive is the problem, I've tried two distros on USB and they do the same thing.

I don't think the image is corrupt, because I'm using a few of the same exact physical discs that I've used in the past.  These same discs work just fine in all other computers I put it in, and used to work in just fine in the culprit computer.  Just incase I'll get the MD5 of the images.

When my computer is finished with the tests, I'll try disabling everything in the BIOS not needed to boot.  Could flashing the GPU’s BIOS hurt anything?  I flashed it back to the original BIOS (extracted from my GPU).  If it means anything, the AMD drivers for windows work just fine with the card.


I’ll get Ubuntu 10.04.2 and try that.  I’ll try enabling IDE mode too.  Ty again for replies


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## xzimppledink (Jul 1, 2011)

I know it sounds too simple but did you set BIOS for HD boot? I've made that mistake myself.


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## NyxCharon (Jul 1, 2011)

Instead of watching the boot screen hang up, try hitting escape twice when it first starts to boot. This will let you see every process start up.. including seeing any error messages or checks that failed.


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## plutoniumman (Jul 3, 2011)

K so my computer passed all of the hardware tests.  All of the MD5 hashes match.  And I even tried disabling random disk controllers (except the one used to control the drive w/ the bootable media).  Tried a different graphics card, and tried disabling 3 of the 4 CPU cores (hey worth a try!).  I even flashed back to the same BIOS version that I knew worked just fine.

Still nothing!

I would try the newest version of Ubuntu but my internet is waaay too slow to download it atm.  I have yet to try booting Ubuntu in IDE mode.  I tried pressing escape as it’s booting up, but nothing happens, on any distro.  When I press escape while booting with another computer, it shows a bunch of technical data.

I install different operating systems to their own physical hard disks (not separate partitions on the same disk).  When Linux used to work, I made a clone of the disk.  I tried restoring that disk image, and it’s doing the same exact thing as the live CDs.



xzimppledink said:


> I know it sounds too simple but did you set BIOS for HD boot? I've made that mistake myself.


Actually, I’m mostly trying to boot LiveCDs, so it should be set to optical first, instead of HDD.  But when I restored a disk image of a previously working Linux installation, I set it to boot from HDD first.  But still nothing :\



NyxCharon said:


> Instead of watching the boot screen hang up, try hitting escape twice when it first starts to boot. This will let you see every process start up.. including seeing any error messages or checks that failed.


Backtrack shows some stuff when booting in safe mode.  I got this photo:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/201107020030116.jpg/

I have a few more pictures, but this one seems like it’s the one showing what’s going on.  What I don’t understand, is when it says “swapper tainted”, is it refering to a swap disk?  If yes, I don’t see how it could possibly be tainted, since there were no disks installed when booting.




Ty again all


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## NyxCharon (Jul 3, 2011)

Well, normally that would refer to the swap partition on your HDD, but since this is a live disk, everything is loaded into RAM. So, troubleshooting that issues becomes very tricky. Can you do the escape trick with any other distro to verify it's the same issue. You don't need to take a picture if it is, I just want to make sure it's the same problem. 

Can you ever get to the point of being in a terminal, in any of them? Or does it always stop at a error and you just get the trace?


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## plutoniumman (Jul 4, 2011)

I tried knoppix, which shows a similar screen.  Doesn't seem to say anything about a swap disk though

http://imageshack.us/content_round....1/789/201107031956372.jpg&via=mupload&newlp=1


I'll try a few more distros in a few minutes, and then edit this post.  I posted now cause my internet is working half way OK for now.




EDIT:
All the other distros show just a black screen.  The few that do display something show something similar.


My camera caught a glimpse of some of the other text before it went off the screen:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/823/201107032023131.jpg/

I don't remember if this is backtrack 4 RT2 or ophcrack...  I had to brighten it up a little for legibility.  (if it's important I can find out which distro each screen shot is from)
Ubuntu shows pretty much the exact same thing as backtrack, but I guess that's to be expected...  Backtrack is based on Ubuntu if I remember right.

I'm pretty sure this one is ophcrack:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/52/201107032023133.jpg/


It almost looks like there some sort of PCI timing problem.  If it means anything, I also tried booting knoppix with minimal hardware detection (and also regular).  But still same prob.  I’m getting sick of saying that...  “But still the same problem!”  Man I can’t wait until this thing gets fixed


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## NyxCharon (Jul 4, 2011)

I think backtrack5 has a option, named stealth or something, that doesn't load into your RAM. Try that. I also know backtrack5 has a safe mode you can boot into from the live disc, so give that a try if you haven't already. 

Backtrack is indeed ubuntu based.

I don't know how to fix this off the top off my head, but I'm curious. I'll dig around and see what i can find. No guarantees though


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## plutoniumman (Jul 4, 2011)

NyxCharon said:


> I think backtrack5 has a option, named stealth or something, that doesn't load into your RAM. Try that. I also know backtrack5 has a safe mode you can boot into from the live disc, so give that a try if you haven't already.
> 
> Backtrack is indeed ubuntu based.
> 
> I don't know how to fix this off the top off my head, but I'm curious. I'll dig around and see what i can find. No guarantees though



Yup tried both.  Stealth actually just doesn’t load network drivers if I remember right.  Forensics doesn’t mount any disks or use swap.  And tried safe mode, this one showed the white text that I got pics of.  Tried all three...  Same thing.  All of them except safemode hang at a black screen.  Safe mode showed the text, and then hangs.



EDIT:
Other non-linux bootable discs seem to work fine.  BART PE (bootable Windows XP disc) seems to be working fine.  Other bootable software works fine; ie ultimate boot CD.  Eurosoft’s PC check works fine too.  ...Just Linux.

Is M$ pulling a fast one?  I do recall something they did several years ago, that prevented one from booting from a Windows XP disc if Windows Vista was installed.  Think it’s possible M$ somehow disabled my computer from running Linux?  None of the other PCs in the house have ever had 7 installed on them, and they boot linux perfectly.  Just my desktop...  ...After Win 7 was installed...


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## wolfeking (Jul 4, 2011)

I installed Ubuntu 10.04.2 fine with windows 7 installed. Thats not the issue.


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## NyxCharon (Jul 5, 2011)

Ah, yea it's forensics i was thinking of.
I tripleboot 7/Backtrack5/CrunchbangLinux on my laptop, so running linux with Windows7 isn't the issue. Granted, i had some serious issues with GRUB2, but that's due to the way Acer setup the partition table on my laptop.


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## plutoniumman (Jul 5, 2011)

wolfeking said:


> I installed Ubuntu 10.04.2 fine with windows 7 installed. Thats not the issue.



Yea I figured...  I just installed Win 7 on my iMac, and linux distros still boot fine.  I didn’t think that’s why it wouldn’t boot, but I’m running out of things to try >.<

I would just run linux in virtual machines or on my other computers, but virtual machines aren’t fast enough and my other computers are too slow for the software I want to run in Linux.


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## grover2142 (Jul 7, 2011)

FYI - I am having the same issue with the same mobo- MSI 890FXA-GD70.  Unable to boot linux from live cds or usb keys, kernel panic.


I've tried all the kernel options (acpi=off, irqpoll, etc), tried disabling everything from the bios, tried different kernels, different ram, different cpu.  I have not tried older kernels, nor a 64 bit kernel, nor a different video card model (this one is working with the same linux usb boot keys on other mobos).  

I think the next step I will try is down grading the BIOS.


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## NyxCharon (Jul 7, 2011)

grover2142 said:


> FYI - I am having the same issue with the same mobo- MSI 890FXA-GD70.  Unable to boot linux from live cds or usb keys, kernel panic.
> 
> 
> I've tried all the kernel options (acpi=off, irqpoll, etc), tried disabling everything from the bios, tried different kernels, different ram, different cpu.  I have not tried older kernels, nor a 64 bit kernel, nor a different video card model (this one is working with the same linux usb boot keys on other mobos).
> ...



Have you tried this kernel?
http://liquorix.net/

It's what i use, and i have to say it does bring a noticeable speed boost with it, not to mention I've never had a single problem with it.


BTW, have either one of you run a memtest?


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## grover2142 (Jul 8, 2011)

RESOLVED

I downloaded the 1.6 version of the Bios from MSI website.  My board shipped with Bios v 1.9.  After flashing, Linux kernel 2.6 boots perfectly.

Just for future people finding this thread, in my case after searching for the problem on this motherboard I found two other solutions which did NOT work:

- kernel option acpi=off
- disable IOMMU in the bios

On other sites users had reported resolving the issue this way, for the same motherboard.  

Also fyi I did run a memtest and no errors. I also was fortunate enough to have plenty of ram, CPUs, vid cards, hdds, cds, usb stucks, and power supplies just to eliminate any sources of the issue.


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## NyxCharon (Jul 8, 2011)

What i want to know, is what is in the update that stops you form being able to boot into linux. Hmph.


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## BigSteve702 (Jul 9, 2011)

same thing happened to my computer (gtx 570) and my bosses (2x hd5770). BOTH our issues were resolved by just pulling out the graphics card and doing install. went right to desktop, shutdown, put in card, restarted, and updated drivers. real quick and easy that way lol

btw, i ran multiple ubuntu distros and none of them worked without pulling card first.


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## plutoniumman (Jul 12, 2011)

I tested my RAM, and all other hardware.  It all passed.  I put the RAM through continuous tests for over 8 hours.



grover2142 said:


> RESOLVED
> 
> I downloaded the 1.6 version of the Bios from MSI website.  My board shipped with Bios v 1.9.  After flashing, Linux kernel 2.6 boots perfectly.
> 
> ...



1.6 is what my mobo came with.  That’s when linux worked flawlessly.  When I upgraded to 1.9 is when it seems to have all gone to crap.  I tried downgrading my BIOS to 1.6 but no luck. 




NyxCharon said:


> What i want to know, is what is in the update that stops you form being able to boot into linux. Hmph.



MSI added a utility to support (booting from?) disks above 2.2 TB in capacity.  It’s kinda weird how they did it.  It’s like it’s a virtual disk or something.  When booting, if I recall properly, it shows up in POST.  It shows up in the boot menu, even if there’s no >2.2 TB disk installed.  I tried disabling this utility but still no linux.  I have no clue if this is what’s stopping linux from booting.  I’m wondering/guessing if linux is checking it for swap or something else, but is causing a kernel panic because the disk doesn’t actually exist.  BIOS version 1.6 didn’t have this utility, but when I downgraded my BIOS from 1.9 to 1.6 linux still hangs. 



BigSteve702 said:


> same thing happened to my computer (gtx 570) and my bosses (2x hd5770). BOTH our issues were resolved by just pulling out the graphics card and doing install. went right to desktop, shutdown, put in card, restarted, and updated drivers. real quick and easy that way lol
> 
> btw, i ran multiple ubuntu distros and none of them worked without pulling card first.



Linux distros used to boot with this graphics card, and even supported its OpenCL capabilities after installing the AMD proprietary drivers.  But just incase I still tried swapping with a couple different GPUs, but still no go.


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## plutoniumman (Jul 12, 2011)

It works!!!  I tried downgrading my BIOS back to 1.6 again and it worked this time for some reason 

I hope MSI comes out with a solution soon.  I want to run one of AMD’s new CPUs, but this board requires BIOS 1.9 to do this (v1.9 adds AM3+ support).  Meh whatever I got Linux again 

Ty all very much for helping!!!


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## NyxCharon (Jul 12, 2011)

plutoniumman said:


> MSI added a utility to support (booting from?) disks above 2.2 TB in capacity.  It’s kinda weird how they did it.  It’s like it’s a virtual disk or something.  When booting, if I recall properly, it shows up in POST.  It shows up in the boot menu, even if there’s no >2.2 TB disk installed.  I tried disabling this utility but still no linux.  I have no clue if this is what’s stopping linux from booting.  I’m wondering/guessing if linux is checking it for swap or something else, but is causing a kernel panic because the disk doesn’t actually exist.  BIOS version 1.6 didn’t have this utility, but when I downgraded my BIOS from 1.9 to 1.6 linux still hangs.



Is that the only change they made? And good to hear you got it working again. :good:


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## plutoniumman (Jul 12, 2011)

@ NyxCharon
No there’s several changes made since 1.6.


v1.7 added:
- Update CPU AGESA code.
- Update AMD SB version.
- Disabled APS function during over-clock.
- Update AHCI option ROM.
- Support Killer Xeno Pro card.


v1.8:
- Update CPU AGESA code.
- Support OCZ RevoDrive card.
- Improved memory compatibility.
- Support HDD 2.2TB or above.


v1.9:
- Support AM3+ CPU.
- Update M-Flash module.


Somewhere along the line they added/changed power management features.  There are a few other undocumented features/changes.  Ie v1.6 has no IOMMU options while v1.9 does, however it’s not stated in any of the update descriptions.  Unless that’s what “Improved memory compatibility” means...


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## plutoniumman (Aug 5, 2011)

Yay!  MSI released new BIOS that supports AMD's new CPU + Linux works again 
Just to let anyone know who may have been watching this thread...


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