Unable to install Ubuntu

adamgibson68

New member
Hi, I just bought a PC from pcspecialist (listed config at the bottom).
Tried now installing Ubuntu 1604 LTS and Ubuntu 1710 and in both cases got these symptoms:

In BIOS of new machine, disable UEFI.

Use Disks tool in Ubuntu 1604 (on another machine) to create an iso on a USB, then boot from that USB, follow installation instructions and entire installation appears to go smoothly. At the last step it requires me to restart, but (here are the symptoms):

* when I click restart it simply hangs.
* when I force restart with power button, it starts up and I get a normal and expected login screen, but when I login I get only a blank screen. No right click menu, no terminal accessible via Ctrl-Alt-F1 nor Ctrl-Alt-T. Mouse moves but there's nothing there and nothing I can access.

(Just to repeat for clarity: the above set of symptoms is identical for 1604 and 1710 iso; it also seems unaffected by changing whether I install proprietary drivers, or whether I disable wifi, in the installation process.

I've followed this process before on other laptops and never had any issues with it. Something seems wrong at the hardware level here, but, again, I cannot get any terminal (including via Ctrl-Alt-F1 or Ctrl-Alt-T) after reaching the logged in state.

Any suggestions?

(Configuration:
Chassis & Display Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 7700HQ (2.8GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 32GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 - 4.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Hard Disk 960GB KINGSTON UV400 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (540MB/R, 500MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor 1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Battery 2 x Cosmos VI Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 3
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options 1 x USB 3.0 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Firefox™
 

adamgibson68

New member
Based on a similar symptom, this may be related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1724317

I noticed that if I leave it hanging (after choosing 'restart') for several minutes, I get a black (not just blank) screen with a series of error messages that are similar to what's reported there (task kworker blocked for more than 120 seconds .. repeating). I noticed the kernel version I'm seeing is 4.13.0-21-generic, which is slightly ahead of what is reported there.
 

adamgibson68

New member
I was able to install Ubuntu 1404 successfully.

(Although the wifi card is not recognized, and I suspect that can't be fixed according to what I saw for the drivers (require a later kernel); may be wrong, but that's less important; don't want such an old version.)

It seems a bit weird/crazy that the none of the latest Ubuntus (16-17) can be installed, if it is indeed connected to the bug linked above, which it seems like it might be.
 

adamgibson68

New member
OK, first I should have looked at other threads, this one in particular is very similar, and has a good set of suggestions that help generally if you're having trouble with installing or booting Ubuntu: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?58080-Ubuntu-17-10-1-on-Optimus-VIII-17-quot

Second, it's rather interesting that I'm able to get 18.04 (the daily build, so the latest) working. It seems to have no trouble with the wifi, but I had to use grub menu and recovery mode boot, followed by 'resume boot' to actually log in. I'm not yet using the nVidia driver from their website, so far it only really seems to work properly with the nouveau, and boot continues to be a problem. I'll have to keep working on this. Any advice would be appreciated.
 

lausul

Member
Hello,

First, I went to this forum to try explaining how I succeeded to install a Linux distro on Optimus IX (after 10 afternoons of work). But I prefered checking if someone did not do this yet and I felt on your initial post.

Roughly speaking, I tried installing Linux Mint, Debian Stretch, ArchLinux, Fedora... Mainly, I failed to have a completely functional computer.

The first reason was that the Wifi driver (Intel 9260) was not directly functional without a Linux kernel 4.11+.

I then tried the Debian testing version (Buster) which has at least a 4.13 kernel. With that, I succeeded to install (manually) the Wifi modules (plus two others missing drivers) and the system starts allowing me to connect with my account onto my XFCE desktop.

But the system was not steady: it hangt when a shutdown or reboot was requested. I then found an eventuality on the web, that the Nouveau driver should be blacklisted. I did this when I started the computer and succeeded to reboot the system without hitches.

To temporarily blacklist Nouveau, you should type "e" when the Grub menu lists the systems to boot. Then, find the line that begins with "linux" and add "modprobe.blacklist=nouveau" at the end. Remember, this is a TEMPORARILY action! The next time, the "linux" line would forget the blacklist item.

Unfortunately, this has not been fruitfull. If I had a 1050 TI, this was also to be able to play some video games. And, thus, my worries came. If you have a Intel HD graphics component with NVIDIA graphics card, then you were in the Optimus reality (or nightmare ?) You should use a special system to allow both existing on the same computer and interacting each others. Following Debian wiki, the system named "bumblebee" should be used. But, in my own experience, it was not possible to have a stable computer. This functions when first installed, but the system hangs at reboot: an unresponsive blackscreen or a hang on the textual login prompt. I did a lot: removing nouveau driver, going in recovery mode purging nvidia and bumblebee and reinstalling them, etc. Each time, I was frustrated by not having a working NVIDIA system with native or Wine'd 3D games.

But as I said primarly, I finally succeeded to have a completely running and functional Linux distro on my Optimus IX.

I read about nvidia-prime as an alternative to bumblebee. Thus, I thought about Ubuntu. Yes, only now, because I'd like to have a full open source operating system. This is the reason why I started to try Debian or ArchLinux first. I know Ubuntu delivers non-free drivers during its install process. As far as I know, the nvidia-prime software is only present in Ubuntu.

OK, let's try the 18.04 Bionic Beaver !
USB install key: ready!
Booting on USB: OK!
Select language: French.
Hey oh! Hello!? ... The display is unresponsive! What the hell!

OK, let's talk shortly! I added acpi=off in the grub menu configuration and the installation process works normally, allowing me to install correctly Ubuntu.

- I did not have to install non-free firmware because this was already done.
- At one moment I found that I had only one core activated on my Intel CPU: this was due to the fact that I force "acpi=off" during boot. Now, I do no more need to disable ACPI and my system starts normally with the presence of 6 cores.
- I follow instructions on this page to install NVIDIA prime: https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/prime. It works correctly, I tested some games with Wine (Rime, Syberia 3 from GOG Games) and native ones (The Witcher 2 from Steam, the GOG one doesn't start).
- The sound card is detected and works fine.
- The webcam is a UVC one and the guvcview software handles it.
- The Wifi works fine.
- The Gigabit LAN also.
- The keyboard works, I followed explaination here on this forum to enable backlit (https://fr.pcspecialist.be/forums/s...r-Linux-(Optimus-IX)&highlight=backlit+linux)
- The trackpad is OK.
- My Logitech mouse with its dongle are correctly functionning.
- Type-A USB ports works.
- Card reader functions too.

What I have not yet tested :
- The fingerprint reader installed with my Optimus IX, I have no use for it at the moment.
- The bluetooth. It's detected and seems functional, at least.
- The Type-C USB port.
- The HMDI and mini display ports. I have not the usage yet.

I hope this might help you to install Ubuntu on your laptop or help someone else to achieve the same requirements.

I do not forget my primal envy to have a Debian or ArchLinux fully operational on my Optimus laptop. I will make a second partition in order to make experiments with this subject and, maybe, come back here in this forum with a complete tuto.

To be complete here is my particular config:

Optimus IX (Clevo N850EK1)
- Matte LED display 15,6" 144 Hz 72 % NTSC Full HD (1920 x 1080)
- Six Core Intel® Core® i7 8750H (2,2 GHz, 4,1 GHz Turbo)
- 32 Go Corsair 2400 MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16 Go)
- GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti - 4 Go de RAM vidéo GDDR5
- SSD M.2 256 Go WD Black™ NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
- Integrated memory card reader 6-in-1 (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
- 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 5
- GIGABIT LAN and WI-FI INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73 Gbps, 802.11AC) + BT 5.0
- Options USB 1 PORT USB 3.0 (Type C) + 2 PORTS USB 3.0 + 1 PORT USB 2.0
- Backlit RBG Belgian Keyboard
- Integrated Webcam 1MP HD

Regards,

Laurent
 
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