USB boot problems

[jzakiya]

I have a Lenovo V570 laptop I got June 2011.
Intel I5-2410 64-bit, 4 core, 2.3GHz, 6GB
Dualboot Windows 7 Home Premium

I previously had KDE 2011.07 on USB which booted with no problems from
which I installed on my laptop.

I installed both the KDE 2012.02 and LXDE 2012.02 on the same USB drive
(at separate times, not both at the same time) and they both have problems
completing booting up into their desktops.

The problems seems to be with the video recognition process.
For each iso the process ends up with the screen going blank, not even a
cursor, and no action or interaction is possible. For both isos I have to do a
hard poweroff just to get back.

In each case I have tried some of the kernel options when the boot screen
appears to adjust APCI and ACPI settings, to no avail.

This is a definite regression between the 2011 and 2012 isos.
 

[horusfalcon]

I have a Lenovo V570 laptop I got June 2011.
Intel I5-2410 64-bit, 4 core, 2.3GHz, 6GB
Dualboot Windows 7 Home Premium

I previously had KDE 2011.07 on USB which booted with no problems from
which I installed on my laptop.

I installed both the KDE 2012.02 and LXDE 2012.02 on the same USB drive
(at separate times, not both at the same time) and they both have problems
completing booting up into their desktops.

This seems like a step backward, all right.  I haven't played with any of the 2012 stuff yet, and so really can't help you.  I might have to snag an ISO or two and see if I can replicate your problem.  (Might take me a while - I just started days off and have some catching up to do before I can really relax.)

Meanwhile, I hope we get some traffic here to help you with this.

Later On,
D

[Just18]

Have you tried adding    vesa   to the boot options to see if that gets you to a desktop?

[jzakiya]

Lenovo V570 (June 2011), Intel I5-2410M (64-bit 4 cores), 2.3GHz,
6GB, 640GB, Intel 2nd Gen graphics, 1366x768 resolution.

When using KDE 2011.06 as USB drive, am able to run Live on my laptop
and detect all 4 cores, but graphics set at 1024x768, and system shutdowns
correctly.

This is a dualboot with Windows 7 Home premium (64-bit), which detects all
the hardware (4 cores, full 133x768 resolution, etc) with no problems.

I installed KDE 2011.06 to harddrive from USB and am using
2.6.38.8-pclos3.pae.bf kernel to use all 6GB of ram.

So KDE 2011.06 with 2.6.38.8-pclos3.pae.bf kernel is my current base system
from which I continually update.

When I boot up, if I ***DO NOT*** select any kernel options with F3 key
on boot, the following message flashes by on display (< 1 sec, I had to
repeat process to finally catch message) just before booting KDE desktop.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fb: conflicting fb hw usage inteldrmfb vs VESA VEGA - removing generic driver
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/ I googled this error message and found on an another distro forum this appears to be
/ an issue with an Intel graphic driver for 810 graphic set, which PCLOS doesn't
/ have, or at least I could not find when looking through Synaptic, which only
/ has 710 as highest Intel driver, unless it's under another name/setting.
/ The fb is framebuffer, and drmfb is probably Digita Right Management FB.

After this, KDE boots into the left side of my screen
which is split into a vertical left/right half, and the video
is output as color/size compressed to fit into that half. The
right half is just blank.

However, everything else "works". In fact, with PCC, the OS detects all 4 cores
and even the video mode is detected as 1366x768, even though the video is
displayed distorted and compressed, and the system will shutdown correctly on
its own.

When I reboot and hit F3 just before the desktop boots up, if I select the
NO APCI setting, it will boot into a full screen VESA video mode at 1024x768,
however, only 1 of the 4 cores is now detected, and the system will not shutdown
on its own. I have to do a hard shutdown with the power button. So the cores and
power control are messed up with that setting, but get fullscreen video (though
I get kde error messages when trying to run any screen saver).

Now, if I select the F3 option - No local ACPI, it will boot in the halfscreen
mode again, but only 1 core is detected, and it won't shutdown on its own.

So this is the behavior using the KDE 2011.06 build installed on my laptop.

Following the Unbuntu forum, below is some output they suggested checking.

jzakiya@localhost ~ $ dmesg |grep drm
[drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
jzakiya@localhost ~ $ dmesg |grep fb
pci 0000:00:1f.3: reg 20: [io  0xefa0-0xefbf]
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xc0000000, mapped to 0xf7e80000, using 3072k, total 65472k
vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=41
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device

Now with both the KDE/LXDE 2012.02 isos, I separately loaded them onto
the same USB drive I am using for 2011.06 and booted my laptop with USB.
The process gets to the point where the pre KDE/LXDE bootscreen appears,
then a similar flash of display output occurs, whereupon the screen just
goes blank (no cursor, no nothing except a blank screen), and will not respond
to any keyboard input. The only way out is to do a hard shutdown with the
power switch again.

So, whereas the 2011.06 build creates a useable Live USB drive which boots
on my laptop, and a useable harddrive install, the 2012.02 builds will not
boot into a useable Live USB system on my laptop.

From some of the display output I was able to catch, the issue seems to be
the ACPI settings, and, again, conflicts with the fb. So, these builds
exacerbates issues with the video and power settings from 2011.06 build.

I hope this gives you enough to work with.

[Just18]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fb: conflicting fb hw usage inteldrmfb vs VESA VEGA - removing generic driver
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This appears to have no detrimental effect ......  I have it on a laptop for both 2011 and 2012 ISOs. It has not caused problems that I am aware of.

Did you try booting and ONLY adding the boot option Vesa? ......  maybe you did and I missed it ...

[jzakiya]

From the scenario I have explained it is apparent that the problem is
PCLOS ***does NOT*** have the correct video/power Intel drivers
for this laptop. Since Window 7 boots and detects all the hardware
correctly it obviously is using all the correct drivers to do that, while
PCLOS doesn't. I have a  Toshiba Satelite with an Intel P4 that runs
KDE 2011.06 and it does not display the error message previously
presented and runs and shutdowns correctly, and was installed from
the same USB drive I installed the OS on my Lenovo laptop.

The solution to this problem is for PCLOS to start using a newer kernel
with the Intel drivers for the Intel chipset in my laptop. The kernel in
the 2012.02 isos are the same in 2011.06, and are REALLY OLD!  The
Linux kernel is now upto 3.2.x and has significantly upgraded its support
for the newer Intel Sandybridge, et al chipsets.

However, the 2012.02 isos are still a serious regression from 2011.06
because at most it should not be any worse than 2011.06.

To do a simple test, create a 2012.02 USB drive and go to your local
Best Buy, or whatever still exists near you that sells computers, and try
to boot some laptops with it.  That's what I did with my 2011.06 USB
drive at Best Buys, and I tried it on various laptops (Toshiba, Lenovo,
Sony, Samsung) and picked the Lenovo because it had no problems
booting with the Live USB system, and was the lowest priced.

[Xenaflux]

That's what I did with my 2011.06 USB
drive at Best Buys, and I tried it on various laptops (Toshiba, Lenovo,
Sony, Samsung) and picked the Lenovo because it had no problems
booting with the Live USB system, and was the lowest priced.

Which is exactly what I am going to do this week.
Which Lenovo did you buy. ?OK got it from your first post. Tx
They are very popular here in this area.

[jzakiya]

I verified the chipset used on this laptop is an Intel 810
for which PCLOS (or the kernel it uses) doesn't have the
appropriate driver to fully work with it correctly.

This will probably be fixed by using a newer Linux kernel/drivers
which works with this chipset fully.

[Just18]

Well the 2012 works on my Toshiba laptop which has an Intel 810 chip.

The 2011 did not auto apply the correct resolution, but the driver was there and worked.

The res could be corrected in the KDE CC temporarily or through PCC permanently.

[jzakiya]

Well, I went to Best Buys this afternoon with KDE 2012.02 on my USB drive,
and tried to boot on 3 Intel based laptops, a (newer) Lenovo V570 (my laptop
that I got in June 2011), a Sony and a Samsung. I also tried an HP with an
AMD quadcore Vision chipset.

And the results.......

None of them would boot. They all exhibited the same behavior I get when
I try to boot my laptop using KDE 2012.02 on a USB drive.

Houston, we have a problem.

[AS]

I previously had KDE 2011.07 on USB which booted with no problems from
which I installed on my laptop.

The solution to this problem is for PCLOS to start using a newer kernel
with the Intel drivers for the Intel chipset in my laptop. The kernel in
the 2012.02 isos are the same in 2011.06, and are REALLY OLD! 

The above suggest you that your findings are not coherent, nor correct 

[jzakiya]

So....has anyone else tried to boot some laptops with a USB drive with KDELXDE 2012.02?

[AS]

2012.02 KDE is working fine for me, from LiveCD, from LiveUSB, installed.

You don't specify (or I missed it) which tools did you used to transfer the ISO to the USB stick, PCLinuxOS LiveUSB is what I have used.

If it is possible, post a link to the "exact specs" of your notebook ... there are many eyes on this forum ...

Additionally, while trying to boot from USB, press F3 (options) remove the option "quiet", change the option "splash=silent" to "splash=verbose", the verbose output will tell you at which point the booting process is freezing...

AS

[Just18]

So....has anyone else tried to boot some laptops with a USB drive with KDELXDE 2012.02?

Yes,

my own Toshiba with Intel chipset and i810 graphics as well as another Tosh that came into me today with an AMD processor and Radeon graphics.

Both booted without incident .....  on the AMD the resolution was not correct, but easily rectified.

No booting problems.