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I ran into a problem with Ubuntu 13.04.

I installed it without any problems. When I reboot my machine it hangs on a black screen with a blinking cursor after grub.

  1. I tried recovery mode as well and it hangs at switching to clock source tsc.
  2. I tried the nomodeset parameter for the kernel, but it results in the same.

I used a dualboot Ubuntu 12.04 & Windows 7 before, now I only want Ubuntu 13.04 alone.

Can someone help me with that?

Braiam
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wurstchenman
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1 Answers1

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Try booting from Ubuntu install CD:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

if it doesn't work, try chrooting:

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo chroot /mnt
sudo grub-install /dev/sda1

Debugging grub loading:

Hold shift during boot, then hit e to edit the GRUB entry. Remove the part that says "quiet splash" and replace it with "text" to see what's happening during boot.

Have a look here: Linux kernel hangs at 'Switching to clocksource tsc" on Pentium 4.

and try to edit the boot entry (just add clocksource either with hpet or acpi_pm value):

clocksource=hpet quiet splash

If it works you might want to change in /etc/default/grub this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash clocksource=hpet"

then run

sudo update-grub
Tombart
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  • When I try to run grub-install /dev/sda it say : Path `/boot/grub' is not readable by GRUB on boot. Installation is impossible. Aborting. – wurstchenman Apr 28 '13 at 11:53
  • do you have just one partition? paste here output of fdisk -l or rather df -m – Tombart Apr 28 '13 at 11:58
  • Yes I only have one partition for the system, and a second one for swap. Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 2048 242069503 121033728 83 Linux /dev/sda2 242069504 250068991 3999744 82 Linux swap / Solaris – wurstchenman Apr 28 '13 at 12:58
  • I've updated the answer – Tombart Apr 28 '13 at 13:44
  • I will try that, but just to be clear, the problem is right after grub. I keep you updated – wurstchenman Apr 28 '13 at 14:01
  • So I tried your way. First of all there is a mistake it should be --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda instead of /dev/sd1. It succeeded without any issues. BUT it still does not work. I can boot into grub, select Ubuntu or Advanced Options for Ubuntu, nothing works. I still only see the blinking cursor. Any other solutions?? – wurstchenman Apr 28 '13 at 15:06
  • hmm.. that's strange. try to remove "quiet splash" from booting entry, I've updated it in the answer – Tombart Apr 28 '13 at 15:31
  • I tried something similar before with the nomodeset parameter instead of text. I deleted the quiet splash. As I wrote in the first post, it stuck at "switching to clocksource tsc". – wurstchenman Apr 28 '13 at 16:07
  • it looks like kernel issue :( you can try downgrading kernel – Tombart Apr 28 '13 at 16:50
  • I could not figure out any way to downgrade the kernel within a live environment. Therefore I cannot try this method. I will install 12.10 an try an upgrade from there. Maybe this will work. I really want to try out Unity 7 and the new Nautilus with build in MTP-support. – wurstchenman May 02 '13 at 09:20
  • What is your hardware vendor/configuration? you might try setting GRUB parameter acpi off. It might be issue of some settings in BIOS, or maybe old version of BIOS. – Tombart May 02 '13 at 09:36
  • I have an ASUS u33jc. Should I use this parameter instead of something? Is the removal of quiet splash necessary in combination with acpi off? I also should mention that Ubuntu is installed on a Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I could try to update the BIOS an see if it changes things. – wurstchenman May 02 '13 at 10:49
  • First try editing the grub entry with adding clocksource=hpet (I've updated it in the answer) – Tombart May 02 '13 at 11:31
  • So, after a little of using Windows, I just installed Ubuntu 13.04 as I did before. But now, I just works right out of the box. Don't ask me why, I did not change anything at all. But I simply works. – wurstchenman May 15 '13 at 20:49
  • Wow :) I'm glad, you've finally solved it. – Tombart May 15 '13 at 21:11