my linux mystery

[trog100]

i have been playing with linux live usb stick stuff...

at first it all worked perfectly the machine booted and ran linux live i tried a few to see which worked best and which i liked.. no real problems..

then for reasons much investigated but still unknown to us it stopped loading any version of linux.. the system just hangs at some point.. it boots but will not complete the loading process.. basically it did work now it dosnt..

usb stick.. external drive.. dvd drive.. i cant load or install linux.. ??

i can live without linux but am niggled by what is going on.. it runs linux from a virtual box but wont load it..

its a new machine.. gigabyte gaming 5 motherboard.. 4790K cpu with windows 10.. i havnt updated my system specs so ignore them.. eight years is a long tine.. he he..

the machine came with win 7 but nagged me into loading 10.. ..

it worked okay with win 10 at first but then decided it didnt like anything else being loaded.. it could be a hardware problem but i am baffled..

anyone have any ideas..

trog

 

[Aquinus]

What GPU do you have an what version and distro of Linux? Someone the other day had a similar issue with a GTX 970 but had zero issues using integrated graphics after removing the GTX 970. If you happen to also have a GTX 970, I would make sure you have the latest version of whatever distro you're using. Since this is a live usb/cd, kernel logs aren't stored in persistent storage so it may be hard to diagnose the issue.

If it worked before and not now, something most likely gad to change with your BIOS or hardware configuration. A LiveCD doesn't simply stop working unless data on it is corrupted.

 

[trog100]

"A LiveCD doesn't simply stop working unless data on it is corrupted."

that is the "mystery".. all mine seem to have done just that.. ones that would load now dont and new ones dont load.. they all simply hang on my machine..

my hardware has not changed since they all loaded and worked i have even updated my bios it hasnt changed things.. i cant load or install any linux distro on my machine.. ??

its my machine.. a stick i made for my son and a disk which did load on my machine and all still load on his simply hang on mine..

simply running windows in a normal way shows no problems.. it all works as it should do.. i just cant load any linus distro my machine just hangs.. i have spent a fair few hours trying to figure out what has happened.. i am totally at a loss.. he he..

i do have two 970 cards and some distros didnt have sound or the proper drivers but they did at least load.. now they dont.. he he

fatdog worked nicely and so did mint.. i say did but now for totally unexplained reasons none of them will load.. something odd has happened.. its ether something windows 10 has done or a hardware fault..

apart from this strange inability to load anything other than windows all is fine or seems to be.. to be honest i can live without linux on a stick but thought i would see if any light can be thrown on what to me seems to me to be a genuine mystery..

a cpu fault.. a motherboard fault or something windows 10 is doing.. i havnt a clue.. all i know is that nothing linus will now load on my machine.. i would love to find out why.. he he..

trog

 

[trog100]

a fatdog distro from a CD i just made.. it gets so far and then simply stops.. something similar happens with all of them whatever distro however loaded ether from an external usb drive .. CD.. usb stick or a card..

with the fatdog distro it always stops in the same place.. other distros hang sometimes with just a flashing cursor.. they boot but wont load.. all my drives check out okay..

trog

 

[Aquinus]

It sounds like an issue with the default open source drivers. IIRC nouveau is a kernel module for nVidia graphics when the proprietary driver isn't installed. Ubuntu tends to keep these packages up to date pretty well. Have you tried Ubuntu 15.04 to see if it works? 14.04 LTS probably will exhibit the same behavior. This most definitely feels like a driver related issue with your 970s. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen this happen.

 

[trog100]

the odd thing is it did all work.. its possible an nvidia driver change started the problem off but i would have thought the nouveau driver would still load but not work or give me a blank screen.. it all seems to boot and work until actually loading takes place then it all stops..

i have tried text only and every option there is plus other distros and media.. its just as if something is stopping or halting the linux loading process..

if i try something not important and it dosnt work i tend to just put it down to vagaries in the machine and give up.. what has me baffled with this one is it did all work fine and then it just stopped.. i started off just wanting a bartepe that worked then decided linux was a better option and would quite like a portable linux install.. mint was nice when it worked..

from the best of my knowledge (memory) i have not changed anything that might have caused this refusal to load linux.. and nothing i do now seems to fix or alter the problem..

all help is appreciated.. some things bug me and this weird problem is one of them.. i did have a nice mint version with email and everything working fine including the proper nvidia drivers.. now nothing will load except windows.. he he..

another windows 10 conspiracy theory maybe.. he he..

its not the media it all works and installs on an old dell machine i have.. it did work on my machine now it dosnt

fatdog.. proteus.. puppy.. mint.. plus a few other distros all hang at some point during the loading process.. weird.. he he..

win 10 loads and runs fine..

trog

 

[yogurt_21]

I say try loading the latest ubuntu like Aquinus suggested and if that doesn't work perhaps it is a conspiracy. I haven't tried to load a live cd on a machine with windows 10 so I don't know. But it is odd that it would be affected at all. One of the big points of live cds is recovery and if something on the installed OS is preventing the live cd from booting then that goes out the window.

 

[Kursah]

I have no issues dual booting Win 10 and Ubuntu 15. And I started with the live cd on USB iirc. I agree with the above and wonder if its driver related...odd situation for sure!

 

[trog100]

i have an old quad core Dell office machine in regular use in my house.. i did some linux experiments on that one yesterday.. it now has three operating systems.. win 7 and ubuntu mate installed on the HD and linux tarpup running from an old usb mini drive plugged in the back..

i still cant get bugger all to load except win 10 on my own machine though.. he he he..

what i do find amazing is that tarpup which can be installed for free on any old usb stick that is laying around works a treat for normal browsing and the like.. i can see why MS is a tad worried about keeping its position in the world..

i doubt i am ever going to find an answer as to why my own machine is now refusing to load any kind of linux system but my opinions of linux as a general purpose operating system has gone up a bit..

having played with tarpup on a stick which really is a magic little portable operating system with most essential things built in i recon 90% of home PC users could manage quite happily without windows..

trog

 

[Liquid Cool]

I had this exact problem...it's been a couple of years, so I can't remember the exact cause of the issue, but I do remember it derived from a hard drive not being formatted correctly. AND it happened after I loaded a bunch of distros for testing...then loaded Windows 8...and then went back to loading more distros. Just switch out the hard drive with a spare and test your system.

We've gone 100% Windows free in our home. We use either Fedora 22, or Ubuntu Gnome for desktops and Ubuntu MATE for laptops. Gaming I do through SteamOS, I can even load my Origin/GOG(Click) games through SteamOS. Works just fine.

I like your sig.

Best,

LC

 

[trog100]

my machine has three SSD drives.. it came with just a 256 drive but now has a small 128 for the operating system and another 1T for storage plus the original 256..

my linux problems seemed to start when i bought a couple of fast-ish 16gb sandisk flash drives to put a linux system on.. everything had been working fine with some older sticks i had and an old mini 30gb mini usb drive.. it all booted and loaded as it should..

as soon as i started trying to use the new sandisk sticks things went pear shaped.. after that no stick (or CD) would load linux even the ones i know work on other machines.. for some strange reason the small 30gb still managed to load a linux mint distro i had put on it.. it hung but then after about a minute carried on and loaded mint.. then that stopped working..

apart from the linux issue my machine is running fine.. the 4790k is cruising at 4.6 with a 2.8 vcore.. the pair of 970 cards are fine with a nice overclock and no voltage increase and (linux apart) i am happy with how it all goes..

firestike shows a tad under 18000 overall score and 25000 on the graphix score and it games well.. i am reluctant to dig deeper looking for answers simply because the machine is set up and running so well.. i would love to have an answer to the linux loading problem but so far am at a total loss as to what has happened.. something has but i havnt a clue what.. he he..

two months ago i was still running the machine in my specs with a dual boot XP and win 7 on it.. i am now a born again uruk slaughtering gamer.. he he..

trog

 

[OneMoar]

need dmesg log
could very well be a issue with the disk and its just deciding to hang there
make sure secure boot is disabled the the boot mode is set to "other-os"

 

[sunweb]

There is no mystery.
Win10 MUST have secureboot enabled. Nowadays you can change firmware settings or change firmware itself from OS. Sure you need a reboot but you do reboot each time windows wants to apply most of updates. Obviously you didn't notice. Do as OneMoar said and everything should be fine.

 

[trog100]

i have a little update on this one.. my linux sticks now load as they should again..

the gigabyte gaming 5 bios has several boot priority options.. one i can see the point of but a list of boot priority options for each detected drive i cant figure..

let me say that secure boot wasnt enabled officially.. it isnt enabled with the optimized defaults.. linux did load as it should then for no logical reason and no setting changes done by me it stopped loading and starting hanging at some point.. i could not load any linux distro no matter what i did..

its now working again but not for any logical reason.. the boot priority options all contain a "windows boot manager" option.. the other boot options were set to none windows 8 options.. this is what turns the secure boot tricks off i think.. its a win 8 and 10 thing..

what i did was to set the boot priority options with the windows boot management option as disabled.. on this setting the machine would not boot into anything at all.. it simply said no operating system found no matter what drive i pointed it at..

so i enabled the option again and it all booted including my linux sticks.. i am going to call this some kind of bug..

out of curiosity i reloaded the bios optimized default settings which should have resulting in linux booting as it should but it didnt.. i was back at the hanging again..

i had saved the accidentally discovered linux working profile before trying the bios default setting which i must state linux loaded fine on before things went pear shape.. also bear in mind i had also reflashed the bios with a later one in my attempts to get linus loading properly again.. nothing logical worked...

so what have i done.. turned windows boot management off and then on again plus made a couple of random boot order priority changes none of which should have resulted in linux not hanging and loading properly..

ether way i can now load linux again but the mystery as to why it stopped working in the first place still remains.. he he..

trog

ps.. the "mystery".. when i attempted to install linux properly did windows 10 override all my bios settings and somehow enable secure boot and why if i load bios defaults which should (and did originally) load linux fine does it still not work.. something not quite right is going on.. something i cant explain..

 

[OneMoar]

There is no mystery.
Win10 MUST have secureboot enabled. Nowadays you can change firmware settings or change firmware itself from OS. Sure you need a reboot but you do reboot each time windows wants to apply most of updates. Obviously you didn't notice. Do as OneMoar said and everything should be fine.

lolno
windows 10 does not require secure boot. no version of windows requires secure boot
stop spouting non-sense you read on /.