Cannot install, hangs after "Freeing initrd memory: xxxxk freed"

Which Dapper Flight or Alpha version(s) did you test with?

Also, have you tried booting the Dapper install with the boot option "noapic" entered on the boot command line?

The current Dapper install cd I'm using says 6.04 built on 20051026ubuntu20. Is it possible to try a more current version, and if so, where can I find it?

When the install menu comes up and 'Install to the HD' is selected, I press F6 and after the '--' I typed 'noapic' this stalls after the line 'Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.' After resetting and waiting for the install menu, I select 'Install a server,' and type 'noapic' after the '--' it hangs after '[ 67.135930] Freeing initrd memory: 4436k freed.' Both of these scenarios are consitenetly repeatable.

On a whim, I selected 'Install to the HD,' and tried 'nolapic.' Then I got the following message: 'Uncompressing linux, ok booting the kernel. BIOS Bug, local APIC #0 not detected,' the log daemon started, and the language-selection screen appeared. This is also consistently repeatable.
 I can now drop to a shell and I will include some log files in a little bit. I will also try running with 'DEBUG_BOOT=3' to see if I get more information.

lspci -vv

cat /var/log/syslog

To correct my earlier post, the correct boot option would have been 'BOOT_DEBUG=3' instead of 'DEBUG_BOOT=3' I did try booting with this option and I didn't see any significant difference in the verbosity of the output, but I may be wrong.

What steps should I take to get more information?

Also, the reason that the 'Install to the HD' option hangs after 'Uncompressing linux, ok booting the kernel.' while the 'Install to server' option hangs later, is due to the 'quiet' option.

try booting with "acpi=ht noapic nolapic" and see if that helps.

Simply 'nolapic' is enough to get the installer to work. I was able
to successfully perform a server install. I'm not at the computer
currently, but I'm sure your options would boot as well. I will
report anything to the contrary in about an hour.

Where does this bug need to be? Is this something to do with buggy
bios, buggy hardware detection, or a combination of the two? How can
I track it down?

Thanks. Waiting for instructions.

On 4/21/06, pat.pannuto <email address hidden> wrote:
> try booting with "acpi=ht noapic nolapic" and see if that helps.
>
> --
> Cannot install, hangs after "Freeing initrd memory: xxxxk freed"
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/40093
>

ryanmbruce: do you still have this problem?

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and feel free to submit bug reports in the future.

i am having the same problem as ryan is describing. by running a regular install the computer hangs after "Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel."

i tried booting with "acpi=ht noapic nolapic". i get to a screen with the ubuntu logo and it says Loading essential drivers .. OK then Mounting file system and nothing follows it. Then a screen shows up with the following. "[17179571] BIOS bug, local APIC #0 not detected!..."

one thing i did notice in the boot options was this line.
ramdisk_size=1048576
my computer only has 512MB of memory, not 1 GB. further investigating this issue i restarted the computer and choose Memory Test. a screen with a blue background appears but no numbers are changing. two lines that stick out to me are "Pass 0%" and "Test 52%". pressing c for configuration or esc for reboot does nothing so it appears that the computer froze...which it probably did.

i am a beginner when it comes to linux but i do know most of the basic shell commands.

any help would be appreciated.

Try booting with just "nolapic" and not with "acpi=ht noapic" as ryanmbruce indicated that is what worked for him.

It gets as far as starting to mount the root file system then the following appears..
Uncompressing Linux.. Ok, booting the kernel.
[17179573] BIOS bug, local APIC #0 not detected!...

and it hangs there.

i am assuming i put that text after the "--" in the boot options.

charliek,

What is the full boot options line you're using?

-Ryan

On 8/14/07, charliek <email address hidden> wrote:
> It gets as far as starting to mount the root file system then the following appears..
> Uncompressing Linux.. Ok, booting the kernel.
> [17179573] BIOS bug, local APIC #0 not detected!...
>
> and it hangs there.
>
> i am assuming i put that text after the "--" in the boot options.
>
> --
> Cannot install, hangs after "Freeing initrd memory: xxxxk freed"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/40093
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

by default:
boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram rw quiet splash --

again noting that my computer has 512MB of RAM and not 1GB, and that running a Memory test freezes the computer.

thanks for checking back on this old topic.

i've tried several combinations including any of the following:
mca-pentium no-hlt
noapic
nolapic
gdth=disable:y

all without any luck.

this IBM does have a pentium processor.

i attempted to install Fedora 7 on the same machine and it also got to the point of "booting the kernel" and then it hangs. it looks like a hardware compatibility issue.

am i just out of luck? this computer was not meant to have linux installed on it?

It is a bit hard to know without having more information about your hardware. Have you looked for a BIOS update at all?

come to think about it, a BIOS update is possible. i bought this computer from my school because they were getting all new computers. they wiped our the hard drives on the pc's and some of the drivers need to be updated.

i'm just not sure how to update the BIOS, or any drivers, without an OS installed..

i just updated my BIOS since i found this statement listed in the website below. "It addresses a potential issue which might cause a system to exhibit erratic behavior such as a system hang, reboot, blue screen or Kernel Panic (Linux)". unfortunately, it did not solve my problem. i am attempting every possible boot option i tried before but they are unsuccessful.

http://www-304.ibm.com/jct01004c/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-52466&brandind=5000004

It's been a while since I've installed ubuntu, so I don't remember
this issue very well, but I think if you let the computer sit after it
hangs, it should eventually drop to a shell. From there you can do
some very basic things (enough to get some log files off onto a usb
drive) If you could run 'lspci -vv' and 'cat /var/log/syslog' then
upload the output, that may help.

-Ryan

On 8/18/07, charliek <email address hidden> wrote:
> i just updated my BIOS since i found this statement listed in the
> website below. "It addresses a potential issue which might cause a
> system to exhibit erratic behavior such as a system hang, reboot, blue
> screen or Kernel Panic (Linux)". unfortunately, it did not solve my
> problem. i am attempting every possible boot option i tried before but
> they are unsuccessful.
>
> http://www-304.ibm.com/jct01004c/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-52466&brandind=5000004
>
> --
> Cannot install, hangs after "Freeing initrd memory: xxxxk freed"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/40093
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

after waiting about 10 minutes the Ubuntu installation never dropped to a shell.

i have the same problem installing Fedora 7 except i can access a shell after 60 seconds. it does not allow me to run that first command you suggested... and there is no /var directory, it doesn't exist.