Hi,
I've been trying for weeks to install Ubuntu 14.04 onto my friend's new
Toshiba laptop with the new UEFI secure boot built-in. So far, no luck! I
can't even boot it up with the Ubuntu Live CD, regardless of SecureBoot
enabled or disabled.
First, some info and what I had done so far:
Laptop: Toshiba Satellite C50D-A
(My friend bought from JB Hifi for $480 - not a high-end machine)
CPU: AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphic 1.4 GHz 64-bit
Memory: 4 GB
HD: 500 GB
Display adapter: AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphic
OS: Windows 8 (I had since upgraded it to Win 8.1)
I had:
- Created a Win System Recovery image (using Win 8.1 built-in standard
tool) to a USB flash disk.
- Also used Win 8.1 built-in tool to shrink the C: drive to 255 GB, leaving
me the other half of the disk for my Ubuntu install.
I had no problem F2 at startup into the laptop's BIOS to change stuff like:
- Boot sequence
- Enable/Disable SecureBoot
- Swap between UEFI Boot & CSM Boot (or Legacy mode)
I had googled around quite a lot, and had tried several different
approaches suggested, to no avail.
Most of the forum sites/blogs suggest disable SecureBoot, some said no need
- as newer Distro like Ubuntu 14.04 nowadays have no problem booting with
SecureBoot on.
I tried both approaches, but the Live CD first could only display a
text-based version of GRUB 2 boot menu, with "Try Ubuntu" & "Install
Ubuntu" among the menu options (rather than the Ubuntu's usual graphical
one). Then when I selected either the "Try" or "Install" options, it went
into a total blank screen, and a moment later, everything stop - I tried
waiting for it, sometimes hours, but it never come back!
To try to see some messages, I used 'e' in the Grub menu to get into an
editing mode:
set gfxpayload=keep
linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/... boot=casper quiet splash --
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
To edit the kernel boot up parameters - generally involved replacing the
"quiet splash" with parameters like "nomodeset", "vga=radeon", "vga=792",
etc - all to no avail. But this time I could see some boot up messages
splashing out, and then stopped at certain point:
E.g.
- [drm] Initialized radeon 1.34.0 ...
- ahci 0000:00:11:0: flags: 64bit ncq ...
- r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver ...
- fb: conflicting fb hw usage radeondrmfb vs EFI VGA - removing generic
driver
- ACPI: Video Device [VGA] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no)
In general, it would seem the different boot parameters could only vary in
at most several boot steps, but none of them managed to go all the way to
successfully boot into Ubuntu Live.
I had also tried other Distros: Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit & Linux Mint 15
Cinnamon 64-bit - no different. I even tried an Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit CD -
but it boot straight into the Windows 8.1 instead.
Another thing to point out: I had also tried the CSM Boot option (in place
of the default UEFI). When in this mode, the whole "SecureBoot" feature
disappeared, and I managed to boot into Ubuntu 14.04 Live CD, all the local
programs, WiFi, Internet, the lots, all worked as normal! I had not tried
installing Ubuntu from there. Just as well! As attempt to boot back to
Win 8.1 failed - the error message basically was saying that the Win 8.1 is
not there anymore! I could only boot back to Win 8.1 normally after I had
reverted back to UEFI Boot mode.
As you can see, no joy at all! :-(
So my question: Is it a UEFI/SecureBoot problem, or an AMD Radeon display
adapter problem? If it's a display adapter problem, then why I could boot
into Ubuntu when not in UEFI mode? If it's a UEFI problem, then why
couldn't I boot into Ubuntu with the SecureBoot disabled (said so by all
the related forums & blogs I had visited so far - i.e. secureboot off - no
problem)?
I was pondering, if all else failed, to just install Ubuntu 14.04 into the
partition I had freed up, while in CSM mode. If this worked, then I could
persuade my friend to just stick to Ubuntu, and occasionally if wanting to
go to Wn 8.1, change back to UEFI before doing so. While this may work
(painfully), my friend might one day decide not to go back to Ubuntu, and
my efforts would be wasted. Worst still, installing Ubuntu in CSM mode may
render the Win 8.1 unbootable, and I don't think my friend want that!
Any suggestions, comments, or experience in such dual boot adventure would
be welcomed!
Thanks in advance.
Wen
LUV annual general meetings are typically our smallest meetings of the
year. It is a bold and few technically-inspired individuals who wish to
sit through the necessary administrivia that keep the organisation alive
in a formal sense, and the lack of an advertised speaker does suggest the
possibility of ad-hoc pot-luck when it comes the short, technical
lightning talks. However, I would like to make a special plea for LUV
members to attend this agm. The reason being is that, after four years as
president of LUV, I am going to step down from this position.
This is not because of any internal friction within the organisation, and
it most certainly is not because the workload is too onerous, or the
responsibilities too demanding. It is none of those things. Being
president of LUV has been a privilege, an honour, and an opportunity to
contribute in some small and meaningful way to one of the world's largest
and oldest Linux user groups, a transformative operating system and
application suite that embodies technical excellence and the high ethical
principles of transparency through free and open-source licensing. Linux
has changed the world and being part of that is really quite a wonderful
experience.
The reason I am stepping down as president is really quite simple: It's
time for someone else to take up the role of chief organiser and leader.
It is time for someone else to give the organisation direction and
contribute their innovations. Organisations need to regenerate themselves
and one method to do those is to ensure that people do not become too
attached to the positions that they hold. It is a sign of an
organisation's illness if this does not occur in leadership roles (in the
more administrative positions, e.g., treasurer, it is certainly less of
problem). Where it does not occur the potential for empire-building within
the organisation and obsession among the individuals concerned. Thus it is
in the interest in preventing stagnation in the organisation and giving
people the opportunity to make their contribution, that I am stepping down
as president.
This does not mean however, that I am leaving LUV. Having served on the
committee, or as public officer, since 2006, I would welcome any
nomination that recommends me as a committee member. I intend to still be
involved in helping LUV organise meetings, contribute to software freedom
day, establish chapters in different parts of the state, write policy
positions, and so forth. But please, no nominations as president.
It is somebody else's turn.
--
Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech
Mngmnt) (Chifley)
mobile: 0432 255 208
RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
Hi Luvers,
is it possible for a file to be written to and the time stamp not changed?
Specifically, is it possible for a swap file to be changed and the time
stamp not changed? OR if the time stamp on a swap file has not changed
for several days, does that mean that the system has not used swap for
that time, since this is the only swap space available? or could it be
that the kernel process that initiates swap does not update the
filesystem fully?
Thanks
Daniel.
Hi All,
I'm slightly above a user level now. My computer is office equipment.
Am not in an IT career. Was a tech back in the DOS and Win 3.x and Win
95 days.
Been such a happy user of Fedora and Ubuntu for the past ~9 years.
Now feeling pretty disgusted and fed up with all things Linux. Why?
Just spent EVERY spare moment of the last 2 weeks just trying to get the
current versions of 3 popular Linux distros to work on my new hardware
system. Failure!
Just built 2 matching desktop boxes:
Motherboards: Gigabyte GA-B85m-HD3
CPUs: Intel (quad) Core i5 model 4440 at 3.1 GHz
Memories: Corsair Value Select 8GB DDR3, single bank
Disks: Western Digital WD3200BUDT 320gb SATA
Wifi: ASUS PCE-N15 PCI-E Adapter
They pass all the hardware tests with flying colours.
(1)
I like the old Ubuntu 10.4 on my laptop, so first I installed Ubuntu
14.04.1 on the above desktops:
Wifi dies or slows down after a few minutes, so always rebooting.
init 1 - crashes system, instead of shutting down to single user.
telinit 1 - does the same thing.
shutdown now - does the same thing.
Unity sucks, heard of MATE, couldn't install (above wifi problems).
Tried to dual-boot with WinXP-64. Microsoft's probable sabotage.
Sent Q's to relevant forums on all the above, no good replies.
Googled my brains out trying to find solutions, nothing worked.
(2)
Then tried Mint 17 MATE (Everyone's obsessed with Mint, and calling
Ubuntu obsolete.):
Wifi dies or slows down after a few minutes, so always rebooting.
init 1 - crashes system, instead of shutting down to single user.
telinit 1 - does the same thing.
shutdown now - does the same thing.
Sent Q's to relevant forums on all the above, no good replies.
Googled my brains out trying to find solutions, nothing worked.
(3)
THEN tried Debian 7.6 (If Mint depends on Ubuntu, which depends on
Debian... then Debian must be a few months ahead of the others on
certain bug fixes [e.g. Dropping down to single user mode, and the wifi
glitch].):
Cryptic, confusing and counter-intuitive install process.
Very slow install -- repeatedly seizing up - fixated on my USB mouse!
Insisted on a UEFI booting system.
Crashed install -- Failed download of updates, when told not to try.
First "successful" (?) install failed to boot up.
Second "successful" (?) install has no GUI, and can't apt-get GUI.
But at least Debian asked me during the install to provide...
rtl8192cfw.bin and
rtl8168e-3.fw
... in regards to my wifi adapter. This MAY be a hint to why Ubuntu and
Mint can't stay online for more than a few minutes per boot-up.
But I've got NO idea how to get either of those two files installed into
Ubuntu or Mint -- particularly as how the second one is embedded inside
a ".deb" file!
Words of useful advice =greatly= appreciated.
Carl
Bayswater, Victoria
Hi all,
Following my very short lightening talk on this topic at the AGM, here
are relevant info that may be of interest to some:
Program website is www.scientistsinschools.edu.au.
Program national contact email is scientistsinschools(a)csiro.au
Program Vic contact email is SIS.vic(a)csiro.au
Briefly: This is a program administered by CSIRO which aims at providing
opportunities for an ICT professional to be partenered with a Teacher or
school on a particular project with ICT content. How this partnership
takes shape is up to the Teacher/School and ICT professional to
negotiate and decide. For example it can involve classroom contact or
only online/teleconference contact. Or it can involve only supporting
and advising a teacher or school, with no classroom involvement or very
little - But it can also take other forms.
For a bit of history: this is an extension of an ongoing program since
2007 where Scientists and Mathematicians were similarly involved in
school projects. There have already been about 4000 projects set up
under the program in Australia. The program is being extended to ICT
professional and I believe only since earlier this year. It
specifically focuses on ICT based projects.
I am getting on this program and would like to encourage others to join
in as well. Let me just say that this program can have relevance to
Linux and Open Source.
2 things:
a. It is a volunteer program - no pay.
b. You need to get a Working With Children Clearance to be able to
participate.
I am happy to talk more about this off list with anyone interested, but
the website has lots of info. And you can register your interest there.
Disclaimer: I am not representing the Program Administrators or acting
on their behalf in anyway. I am only posting this email on my own
initiative because I believe its a good thing.
Cheers
Daniel.
What's a simple way to extract XML values with little memory use or
dependencies?
I just need to extract a single value at a fixed place in the XML schema and I
need to do it on an embedded Linux system that doesn't have much installed.
It's got the basics (Perl, shell, etc) so any common script should work.
Any suggestions?
PS my backup plan is sed...
--
My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
--
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with K-9 Mail.
https://developers.google.com/+/hangouts/writing
Google has written the above guide to writing Hangouts apps. None of the
examples they have covers the most basic use case of sending a message. Also
their examples seem rather complex, I just want to basically send a single
message and not receive a reply.
A Google search didn't turn anything up.
Is there any easy way to do this? I'd like a little Perl or shell script to
just send a message.
--
My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
--
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with K-9 Mail.
