[plug] Ubuntu 8.04 AMD64 install

[Tomasz Grzegurzko]

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 1:51 AM, Arie Hol <arie99 at ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> On 3 Jul 2008 at 0:59, Tim wrote:
>
>> I've been trying all evening to install 8.04 on an AMD 64 3500+
>> machine. It's currently running 6.10 and I am trying to do a clean
>> install.
>> No matter how I boot it, with the desktop or the alternative CD, or
>> with the desktop or alternative "iso" from hard drive, no matter what,
> it
>> freezes ether while loading the kernel, or when the kernel is loaded
> 100%.
>> I never get past that point.... BUT, the i386 installer is booting fine
>> off my USB hard drive. Huh? So I thought for a moment, maybe I had
>> forgotten what was under the hood, having not done any work with this
> box
>> physically for 2 years (I'm back in Perth this week. Then heading off
>> again).
>>
>> Any suggestions to getting it to install then? Other than settling for
> a
>> i386 install.
>>

Sounds like an x64 specific issue then. I can suggest a few things,
but having not experienced this kind of thing on any of the x64 boxes
I run Ubuntu means I can't give a direct answer...

1/ Run an i386 CD and bootstrap your HDD (debootstrap) to an x64 and
upgrade the kernel. It may be a known issue with the version of the
kernel from the live cd.
2/ Check /usr/src/linux/Documentation/x86_64/boot-options.txt for some
settings that may correct the behaviour.
3/ Upgrade the BIOS. It's possible it's telling Linux something false
(happens all the time) and they've not yet got some
hack-for-a-bodgy-vendor workaround in the kernel for a particular
feature that's being used.
4/ Play around with the hardware inside the machine. Run it as
bareboned as possible, remove everything you can, down to the last
stick of RAM, and then put things back in one by one.
5/ Post the kernel boot log of what happens while the machine is
booting. This may require serial port kernel boot up -- difficult I
know as I've had to do the same from a PowerPC 7200 to a Pentium PC
(the only computer in the house WITH a serial port) plus the adapters
of the serial ports on the mac were very.. foreign.

That's all I can think of right now. Let us know how you go.

Tomasz