Ubuntu 7.10 can't install on e1505

Question

I posted this over on ubuntuforums.org, but not getting any responses. I am just trying out Ubuntu after not using any flavor of linux in about 10 years. My machine is an Inspiron e1505 with the ATI Mobility Radeon x1400 video card. I have been completely unsuccessful getting it installed, although my problem IS listed in the forums. Basically, I boot from the 7.10 CD. I choose to install, and it happily moves to the next screen, lots of info scrolls by as all the scripts are run, and then, I end up with the following error: Microcode 'bcm43xx_microcode5.fw' not available or load failed. After a little while, a blue screen comes up telling me that the video system has restarted more than 6 times in 90 seconds. Now, I did some googling, as well as searching on these forums directly. This specific problem appears to be related to the 1390 wireless card. OK, fine. However, the fixes for this involve being able to be in the system, or be able to get to the console. CTRL-ALT-F1 at any point does not give me a console. Is there some boot option I can add so that it DOESN'T load into the GUI, and just leaves me at my command prompt, and possibly be able to fix this? I have seen a number of posts where people using this same model said they had no problems installing it. Oh, and while I was experimenting, I also tried 7.04 Feisty Fawn and 8.04 Hardy Heron. 7.04 just freezes on the loading screen, no errors or anything, just a plain black screen. 8.04 DOES actually install, but finding any drivers or anything for it is next to impossible. I mean, the system itself DOES work, but I can't install the correct ATI drivers, because they don't exist (at least not where I found all the other drivers). Anyone have any bright ideas on what I can do to get either 7.04 or 7.10 working? I'd prefer to stay away from the 8.04 since it isn't the stable build. Keep in mind, although I am not a computer illiterate, it has been 10+ years since I have done anything with Linux.

natehall · Answer

You should be able to get into the terminal during the boot-up. I know before you sign in you can click options in the lower left corner than sessions and then fail safe terminal. If you boot off a cd and it can't load it should give you a terminal by default.

mepnoob2005 · Answer

If you have onboard video as well as your ati card then just hook to the onboard video for the install. You can work on getting the right driver for your ati card after you get installed. Another fix would be to use a different vid card for the installation. Another option would be to try MEPIS. MEPIS can give you more options at the grub boot screen. If you were trying to install MEPIS I would say to use the 'vesa' option at boot then try and get the right video driver installed later. My experience is mostly MEPIS but I have used several ubuntu releases too. The reason I use MEPIS over ubuntu is that MEPIS comes with the kde desktop. I like the kde desktop a lot better than the gnome desktop that comes with ubuntu. Kde is way more configurable. MEPIS is one of the best at detecting your hardware.

RobRunsLinux · Answer

The bw43xx is for Broadcom wireless ethernet card, there's firmware that has to be downloaded to operate it.

There appears to be a problem starting X up, with your ATI Radeon card. It's crashing and then Upstart (Ubuntu's init(8) replacement) is attempting to restart it.

As Ubuntu don't use Runlevels, I'm not sure easiest way to pick up updates off network in text mode. You probably need the proprietary ATI driver.

Anyway adding a "1" to the boot prompt will start it in single user mode. By doing "ls /etc/{init.d/,}rc2.d" you should see various system daemons that get started on bootup. One of them will be called network or networking. Something like /etc/init.d/network start, will bring interface up. If that fails, try "ifup eth0" to.

I stopped using Ubuntu, because I found, the "it just works" philosophy got too much in the way, when it didn't, or not quite perfectly. But I can fire it up on an old system, if you don't suceed.

If you do try another distro, Open SuSE 10.3 is another solid distro with large commercial support, that is manageable in text or GUI modes.

adar · Answer

Yeah, I was able to get past the broadcom problem by disabling the wireless in the BIOS. Now it appears to still be a graphics problem. I will give vesa a try. I was able to get it installed using the text installer, but it still wouldn't launch xwindows. It starts loading the gui, and then stops giving me a message about my display doesn't support DVI (except it didn't say DVI, I just can't recall what it was offhand). I think I will give OpenSuse a whirl. This is more just one of those things I feel like playing with, not really something vital that I am looking to switch away from Vista permanently or anything. I appreciate the responses from all of you guys. Unfortunately, my wife is down with the flu, so I haven't had any time to even mess with it this weekend yet. I know I will get it working. Heck, I was able to get a slackware system up and running as the main server when I ran an ISP 10 years ago, and things were way tougher back then :) So many things I had forgotten about. I kept using CTRL-ALT-F1 like everyone was saying to get to a console, but didn't realize what it was doing. Then I remembered that was the command to switch to the first virtual console and that I could spawn multiple consoles. Love that feature.

RobRunsLinux · Answer

That makes sense. Funny thing was I just read a review of Ubuntu in PC Plus magazine, which eulogised about "Bulletproof X" finally obviating need for text mode!

They do say that "Ubuntu desktop is far better than Vista, so it does not need to change much", after kinda griping about evolutionary nature of changes, rather than big things that are fun to right about. heheheheh

Using Vesa makes sense temporarily, but I found on Open SuSE 10.3 my AMX X2 5600+ with NVidia GE 8300 GS box, that screen peformance was sluggish. For some reason the monitor was not recognised by DDC, nor was the "nv" driver usable. I have a bug report, but I need to re-install to re-produce and re-open it, providing all the log files. It may be due to bad install timing, as during install it rebooted with a kernel, that had bad driver for my network card and prevented updates and install completing satisfactorily.

Perhaps once you are up and running, you'll be able to use a legacy ATI driver, with some kernel source stub. I've either avoided binary drivers (ie bought a Matrox card), or had cheapo NVidia cards for 3D, as the ATI drivers have always had a reputation.

Message Edited by RobRunsLinux on 12-16-2007 04:08 AM

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Ubuntu 7.10 can't install on e1505

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