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I am installing ubuntu on multiple laptops by following this guide. I did it successfully on 23 laptops but on 2 laptops it freezes. When I boot it up, after login the desktop shows up, and after some time it freezes. Magic SysRq Key cannot be used also. Ctrl+Alt+F2 doesn't show the terminal. During installation, after boot up from the cd, many times installation failed because of random freezes. After many painful re-attempts I was able to install it, but the system freezing problem remains.

If booted into recovery mode shell prompt with networking, the shell prompt also freezes. But recovery mode root shell prompt works fine, so here is the data I collected:

/sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/i915_error_state

shows "no error state collected"

/sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/i915_wedged

gives wedged : 0

I have installed successfully on 23 latops having same hardware but on 2 laptops I got the above menioned problem.

The laptops are Dell vostro 1014. They had ubuntu 8.10 preinstalled, which worked perfectly well.

Both laptops pass memtest.

Installing ubuntu alternate gives same problem.

Community
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nixnotwin
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2 Answers2

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Try running a memtest on the failing laptops - it can be invoked from the Ubuntu installation CD if you hold down shift as it boots up. It's likely to be a failing RAM more than anything, if the laptops are identical.

evgeny
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  • 2 out of 23 is a rather high fail-rate... But I agree, it does look like a hardware fault more than anything else. – Oli Oct 14 '10 at 12:18
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Try the Alternate installer CD, it works on many computers on which the graphical install chokes on.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/alternative-downloads

Anwar
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Mike
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