BleepingComputer.com: CD boot problems

Hi, and thanks for reading. Recently, I've been having a problem with my computer regarding newer Linux distro CDs. My problem is that when I start up the CD for a new Linux distro, it will boot normally, and give me the option screen asking me what I want to do. I choose to boot from Live CD, and then it begins booting. I wait a while, but then my screen goes black and then fills with garbage. The interesting part is that the exact same screen appears no matter what CD I use. I have tried and get the same results with Ubuntu 11.10, Kubuntu 11.10, and openSUSE 12.1. I can also boot Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Kubuntu 10.04 LTS and Xubuntu 10.04 LTS perfectly, and in fact, have Ubuntu 10.04 installed along with Windows 7. I have attached a couple images showing what my screen looks like when it messes up. Sorry for the low quality, as I obviously couldn't take a screenshot. Any help is appreciated.

Image 1
Image 2

This post has been edited by Uninstaller: 16 January 2012 - 02:19 AM

Try burning the media slower. I haven't had that problem in some time, but I've had to slow burns way down to get them to work in the past. Even going all the way down to X2 in rare cases.

Make sure to check the md5sums on your downloads. You could be getting networking problems that corrupt the files without knowing it.

If the media you used that worked is different from the media you're using that doesn't work (including brand and type), get another kind and try it again. I had a drive that claimed to do DVD+/- and I had problems. I replaced the DVD+ with DVD- and it worked fine.

Thanks for the reply, stiltskin, and I followed your instructions. I had been using the same brand and type of CD, so that couldn't be the problem. I tried burning openSUSE again at 10X speed, (the lowest my drive supports) and got the same results. I had verified the sha1 hash, so that wasn't the problem either. If it's any help, I'm using a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M, and I have heard of this type of thing happening with NVIDIA graphics cards. I do have the option to enable VESA on the CD, so if I should try that let me know. Thanks.

EDIT: Selecting VESA prompted the same result, unfortunately.

This post has been edited by Uninstaller: 16 January 2012 - 03:22 PM

It could be your burner is going out. I've lost a few myself.

Are you buring these on the linux or Windoze side? If only one, try the other. I used to get bad burns on Windows sometimes back when I used it. I've also had cases where a linux install (Ubuntu did it twice for sure, but I think I had it happen on another one time before there even was an Ubuntu) would work for awhile and then it was start failning on all burns. Try it on the other. You can also download the .iso and try burning it from a live session if you have two digital drives instead of just the one, or if you can boot a live one from a thumb drive.

I almost never burn CDs/DVDs any more. I work exclusively from my netbook and make bootable thumb drives whenever I want to start something new. It's even better than using rewriteable discs. On the rare occassions I burn anything, it's either music for my truck or something for someone else.

I'm burning all of my CDs on Windows, and know it's not my burner because I've successfully burned two Puppy Linux CDs, but I'll try burning on Linux and report back later.

EDIT: So, when I booted from the Ubuntu CD burned on Ubuntu, it began booting, then I got the same screen for about one second. The command line thing appeared, and I pressed the power button once. It began terminating all processes, then I got about 15 Nouveau timeout errors. It told me to remove the CD, then press enter. When I pressed enter, three symbols appeared on-screen. I tried again, and the same symbols appeared. So I pressed the power button again, and three different symbols appeared. I held it down and it powered off. Can someone explain this?

EDIT: I also tried Linux Mint, and it gave me a CD error.

This post has been edited by Uninstaller: 16 January 2012 - 10:12 PM

This may not be relevant to your problem, but because it is so similar, I just wanted to post this information.

A few weeks ago ( on my Linux only machine ) I couldn't get any live cd/dvd to load/install. I kept getting black screens and a lot of ones similar to your pics - lots of rectangular colors, parts of the image loading here and there, and such. I suspected the problem to be with my ( onboard ) video. I knew the discs were ok because I had successfully used them before.I Googled a lot but couldn't come up with anything. FINALLY.... I did get an older cd to load and install ( MoonOs ). So, at this point I took my machine to the shop. I should mention that the shop I go to specializes in Linux.

They took a quick look at it, and as a test, they tried to run a HD video, and my machine froze up. So I left it so they could run all the bench tests on it. They called me a few days later and said all the tests proved ok, but - the tech noticed some noise coming from the power supply fan, so they were going to replace the fan. When they opened it up, they found a blown capacitor, so they replaced the power supply. Since I brought it home all the live cd/dvds load and install just fine. Problem solved!!!!!!


I don't know if the cap blew from excessive heat because of the defective fan, or a power surge. I hook my machines up to a battery backup/surge protector now.


I thought this was kind of an odd situation, so I just wanted to share it.

RAM, power and burners can all have similar problems to what is described. I keep a spare power supply around just in case, just so I have one I can swap in if something starts getting screwy. I test memory with memtest+. And I'll check the burn on another machine to see what happens if both test OK. Ihaven't had to do that on my own machines since I started booting from thumb drives, but I still have to follow those steps with my son's machine.

I once had a dual-boot machine (a long, long time ago, when I personally used Winders). The Windoze side would boot, run for awhile, then lock up. The linux side would kernel panic during boot. I traced it to bad memory. I also concluded from that (and a few problems with my son's machine) that Windwoes isn't very good at helping to narrow down hardware faults. Like I determined with his current machine having a motherboard problem, which MS' kludge OS didn't help at all in locating.

Bumping thread. The problem has not been resolved as of yet. In fact, I just attempted to boot into Fedora 15 and got the same result as before. Any advice would be appreciated.

the iso you are trying to burn was it from a 64 or 32 bit download. that might make a difference if you have a 32 bit machine and download a 64 bit iso it might not work. just a shot in the dark. there should be both 32 and 64 bit isos avail to download.

here is a link for ubuntu 11.04 note you can toggle from 32 to 64 for the download

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all of the releases you've mentioned use Gnome 3? There may be something not working with your graphics card and that. What graphics card do you have? And also (I didn't see it above, but you may already have) did you try burning the cd's with another burner?

EIDT: Just realized you tried Kubuntu and others with the same result...sorry :/ (Although it might be the version of X.org that all of them use.

This post has been edited by A Future Pilot: 17 February 2012 - 08:52 AM

Sorry for the long wait. I'm burning 64-bit ISOs, although I know for a fact I do have a 64-bit processor. The processor in question is an Intel Core i7 processor, at 1.6 GHz. I seem to have a decent graphics card, but in case that is the problem, I'll list my system specs here.




RAM: 12.0 GB of RAM

Processor: Intel Core i7 Processor @ 1.6 GHz

Graphics Card: NViDIA GeForce GTS 360M; 1 GB of VRAM

Hard Drive: Seagate Momentus 7200.4 SATA 3Gb/s 320-GB Hard Drive




If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.