Ubuntu hangs on boot screen


Recommended Posts

When I try to boot Ubuntu it hangs on the boot splash screen.

I previously mounted some NTFS hard drives and which one of them is no longer in my PC, is this the reason why it hangs?

Also since the last time I had the Ubuntu HDD in my system i have removed one HDD installed another HDD, removed a 3.5" card reader for a 5.25" card reader and installed a new DVD rewriter.

Edited by as1_sp
Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/553032-ubuntu-hangs-on-boot-screen/
Share on other sites

Any of your hardware USB devices? Sometimes you have to unplug them to get the boot-up to complete.

If not, my next item would be to unplug the card reader.... I bet Ubuntu is having a hard time figuring that one out......

Barney

Try booting in recovery mode.

sudo apt-get install nano
sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

put a # (lb) sign in front quiet splash on the line in front of your booting kernel. this will disable the boot splash so that you can see the specific process which is hanging. you can remove the # to enable splash again later

  as1_sp said:
I disconnected the card reader and Ubuntu still hangs at the splash screen. When i went to recovery mode; some bunch of lines start scrolling and then it says:

Begin: Waiting for root file system... ...

and just hangs there.

then it's not finding the root partition. This can be caused by the hrd drive being in a physically different location (cable-wise of course), or the root partition itself actually being dead.

this is a quick easy fix assuming your root partition's intact and just somewhere else:

1. Boot from a LiveCD like Knoppix, Mepis, or Ubuntu.

2. Open a terminal. Login as root. (Ubuntu users 'sudo')

3. Type 'grub' which makes a GRUB prompt appear.

grub>

4. Type 'find /boot/grub/stage1'. Your output should look something like this (hd1,3). That’s your hard drive/partition. Once you have that info, you can tell grub where your root directory is, and where the MBR should be.

5. Type 'root (hd1,3)' (this is where the last command told you where your root directory is

6. Type 'setup (hd0)' (this sets it back up in the mbr properly)

7. Type 'quit'

thanks MR_Candyman.

I tried what you said but Ubuntu still hangs at the splash screen. So I used the recovery mode and this time it says:

ALERT! /dev/hdb1 does not exist. Droping to shell!

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-2ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)

Enter help for list of commands.

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

(initramfs)

Boot Ubuntu as a "LiveCD", and then open a terminal and do a sudo fdisk -l (that is a lowercase letter "L", not the number one). That will list out all of your drives and partitions.

When you changed your drive configuration, the partition that it used to point to no longer exists, or you moved it when you swapped drives around.

When i did the sudo fdisk it says that my hard drive is:

/dev/hdc

/dev/hdc1

When i did the sudo fdisk it says that my hard drive is:

/dev/hdc

/dev/hdc1 ext3

/dev/hdc2 extended

/dev/hdc5 swap

then when i do the find /boot/grub/stage1 it displays (hd0,0)

is this right?

Also i tried doing what MR_Candyman with just my linux hdd in my system and it still hangs.

And in the recovery mode the part where it says /dev/hdb1 does not exist; is this referring to the hdd that i mounted into linux?

Edited by as1_sp

Well, it looks to me that your Linux hard drive used to be the slave drive on the primary IDE. During your drive swapping, it is quite possible that you moved it to be the master drive on the secondary IDE. This would explain why it is looking for /dev/hdb1 (when it was installed), but seems to be currently located on /dev/hdc1 (where your fdisk showed it to be).

what does it say after step 4 in the directions I listed. Mark's right in saying you switched to to be master on the secondary IDE channel and it was slave before.

It should be saying that your root is at (hd2,0) (though I don't know what that extended you have is for...possibly /home)

it won't be because of that at all.

to unmount it though just go "umount /dev/whatever"

EDIT: damn, that just reminded me of something...you need to mount your linux partition before doing the steps I told you, that way it will actually save the configuration...that would definitely explain why it was still pointing to the wrong place

actually, what SHOULD work, and you'll probably find easiest (as long as it does work) is to type in terminal:

mkdir /mnt/root

mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/root

chroot /mnt/root /bin/bash

grub-install /dev/hdc1

now this should re-install grub onto hdc1 and hopefully work (I can't remember if this way re-installs to the mbr or not, if it doesn' then it won't work, if it does then it will)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Lots of people want a world where everything is personal and nothing is ever discussed rationally. List me as one of the people who doesn't think that's a good approach.
    • I think it's great that we're learning more about the early universe through observation. Knowing that our assumptions were off is a good thing. Once space based gravitational wave detectors exist, we may be able to "see" into the period where the universe was still condensed before matter formed. That'll be cool
    • yeah, the "but X had it first" comments rarely add any value. Sometimes it is interesting that a feature gap for a seemingly simple feature can last for years or decades, but in this case, it is such a minor feature that I doubt anyone really cared.
    • Linux dev quits after "personal attacks" from user over Kapitano antivirus tool by David Uzondu Kapitano was a tool with a simple job: to give the ClamAV scanning engine a modern face on Linux. It relied on the ClamAV database, a massive, constantly updated list used to sniff out all sorts of nasties like viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Since ClamAV is primarily a command-line tool, it depends on a GUI (frontend) for users who prefer not to live in the terminal. There are apps like ClamWin on Windows, ClamXav on Mac, and, until recently, Kapitano on Linux. Screenshot of Kapitano Now, the dev behind the Linux frontend, "zynequ," has marked the project as "Not Maintained" following what he described as personal attacks and harsh words. It all started when a user created an issue on the project's Codeberg page with the title, "Kaptiano resulted in 24 positives- for win.exploits and Trojans." In the post, they claimed the antivirus frontend was generating false positives on their Linux Mint system. The user noted that all the flagged files were related to the Kapitano Flatpak itself and ended with a rather aggressive warning. The whole thing seemed "strange," they said, concluding with, "program has ZERO reviews, and should remain that way until source code is verified by an independent source. DO NOT DOWNLOAD!" Zynequ, the project's author, responded by calmly referencing the wiki and explaining that the problem was with ClamAV itself, not his application. Kapitano, built with GTK4 and libadwaita, is just a wrapper that sends commands to the clamscan utility but has no say in what gets flagged. The developer also called the user out for the "personal attacks." He addressed the zero reviews situation, pointing out that this was hardly a conspiracy since the project was very new, launching back in June. Zynequ insisted that there is nothing "fishy" about their code and that it is fully open for review. The interaction soured from there. After zynequ closed the issue, the user created a duplicate one, then proceeded to resubmit the complaint under issue #13, this time with a different title: Kapitano developer is a malicious actor. Get this malware distributor blocked. After a heated back and forth with the dev, the user finally posted, "Your project is off of my laptop disk. Let it rest. Goodbye." This exchange is what led to the zynequ publishing their final note. They explained that Kapitano was "a hobby project, created in my free time without any financial support," and that it's hard to stay motivated when "personal attacks" are directed towards you. Zynequ noted that the project's code was now released into the public domain under The Unlicense, meaning anyone could fork it and do whatever they want with it. Kapitano will be delisted from Flathub, and the Codeberg repo will still be alive for a few months before they delete it and close their account for good.
    • Being harder to detect as a non-human work, doesn't justify its existence, to me.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      Doreen768 earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      James_kobe earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      James_kobe earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      macomen earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      656
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      253
    3. 3
      Xenon
      169
    4. 4
      neufuse
      148
    5. 5
      +FloatingFatMan
      133
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!