I have a very frustrating problem with my PC. I cannot install any recent version of Ubuntu Server (or even Desktop) since 9.04 even using the text-based installer. I boot from a USB stick created by Unetbootin (I also tried other methods such as startup disk creator with no difference).
On the Server installer, it gets to "Detecting Hardware" (the second one about disks and all other hardware, not network hardware) and then either hangs at 0% (waited 24 hours), or reboots after a minute or two.
My system (late 2007):
ASUS P5NSLI motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz
2 x 1GB Corsair 667MHz RAM
nVidia GeForce 6600
I have unplugged everything (including the only hard disk, CD-ROMs and floppy). I have only one stick of RAM (tried each one to no avail) and am booting the installer from a USB stick (booting from CD-ROM yields the same problem). I also tried several of the boot options (nomodeset, nousb, acpi=off, noapic, i915.modeset=1/0, xforcevesa) in all combinations) to no avail. The only active parts of my system are the video card, mouse, keyboard and USB stick.
I have also updated the BIOS to the most recent version.
(FWIW, on the Desktop installer, I get a black screen after hitting the Install option.)
Even after removing "quiet" I am unable to see what kernel panic is occurring (or not occurring) to cause the install to crash. I am only able to save the debug logs via a simple webserver in the installer. After the last line (I repeatedly refreshed), the server stops responding and the installer hangs or reboots:
Jan 2 01:04:03 main-menu[302]: INFO: Menu item 'disk-detect' selected
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.154372] sata_nv 0000:00:0e.0: version 3.5
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.154409] sata_nv 0000:00:0e.0: Using SWNCQ mode
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.154531] sata_nv 0000:00:0e.0: setting latency timer to 64
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.164442] scsi0 : sata_nv
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.167610] scsi1 : sata_nv
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.167762] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9f0 ctl 0xbf0 bmdma 0xd400 irq 10
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.167774] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x970 ctl 0xb70 bmdma 0xd408 irq 10
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.167948] sata_nv 0000:00:0f.0: Using SWNCQ mode
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.168071] sata_nv 0000:00:0f.0: setting latency timer to 64
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.171931] scsi2 : sata_nv
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.173793] scsi3 : sata_nv
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.173943] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9e0 ctl 0xbe0 bmdma 0xe800 irq 11
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.173954] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x960 ctl 0xb60 bmdma 0xe808 irq 11
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.174061] pata_amd 0000:00:0d.0: version 0.4.1
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.174160] pata_amd 0000:00:0d.0: setting latency timer to 64
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.177045] scsi4 : pata_amd
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.178628] scsi5 : pata_amd
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.178801] ata5: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xf000 irq 14
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.178811] ata6: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xf008 irq 15
Jan 2 01:04:04 net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface eth0
Jan 2 01:04:04 net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface lo
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.485062] ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.633094] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.641647] ata1.00: ATA-8: ST31000528AS, CC38, max UDMA/133
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.641658] ata1.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.657614] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.657969] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST31000528AS CC38 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.658482] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.658588] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.658812] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.658823] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.658918] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.675630] sda: sda1 sda2
Jan 2 01:04:04 kernel: [ 309.676440] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Jan 2 01:04:05 kernel: [ 309.969102] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Jan 2 01:04:05 kernel: [ 310.281137] ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Anybody have any additional ideas I could try? I am getting ready to just toss the motherboard.
