Ubuntu 14.04 installation hangs despite `-- forcepae` option

Question

trying to install the new Ubuntu 14.04 on my old laptop I got the message:

*ERROR: PAE is disabled on this Pentium M
(PAE can potentially be enabled with kernel parameter "forcepae" - this is unsupported, may cause unknown problems, and will taint the kernel)
This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU:
pae
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU*

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite M30X-124, with a 1.8 GHz Pentium M (I think its a Banias type one) and 2 GB of RAM.

I have therefore tried the -- forcepae option via pressing tab during boot, F6 followed by ESC, selecting "install..." and adding the forcepae flag. I then see an "ubuntu"-logo in the middle of the screen and dots changing color below that. Only minutes later the dots stop changing color, the DVD spins down and the system stops doing anything. I've also tried booting up the live-system with and without the forcepae-option but always failed.

Does anyone have an idea how I can get Ubuntu 14.04 installed on the device? I don't have any other Linux system running and since I don't want any dual-boot on that laptop, I've already wiped the old Windows installation and cleared all partitions on the hdd so that the Ubuntu-installer can partition the hdd optimally.

Solution

Since your system starts to boot user space it is probably not PAE at fault.

Remove "quiet splash" from the boot parameters and add "debug" and hopefully you will see an error, or at least the point at which it hangs.

Old laptops have old hardware, and in particular, old graphics cards, which haven't been well tested on the latest kernels and Xorg. It is possible that your system is hanging or crashing as Xorg starts. You can test this by booting the Ubuntu server install image, if it works then you can then complete the install, reboot, and 'apt-get install ubuntu-desktop' to install the graphical packages.

Comments

[bain]

Remove "quiet splash" from the boot parameters and add "debug" and post the error (if it doesn't just hang).

[bain]

Ubuntu 14.04 32-bit and 64-bit both require PAE. In this case, the CPU must have support for PAE, because if it did not then the system wouldn't begin to boot.

[Elder Geek]

@bain good to know. I guess I don't have any hardware that old in use anymore.

[Elder Geek]

@bain his version of the CPU does not support PAE, that started with Dothon, not Banias

[bain]

Intel put PAE into most Banias Pentium M CPUs, but disabled it by default. Using forcepae overrides that and enables it.

[Elder Geek]

@bain source of specs cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium_M/…

[bain]

Yes, official specs represent the fact that it is disabled. help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE "A number of older Pentium M processors produced around 2003-4 (the Banias family) do not display the PAE flag, and hence a normal installation fails. However, these processors are in fact able to run the latest (and PAE-demanding) kernels if only the installation process is modified a little."

[Elder Geek]

@bain feel free to provide a better answer

[bain]

@user277857 This suggests using boot parameters i8042.nomux=1 highres=off nohz=off irqpoll with your laptop. Add them after forcepae.

[user277857]

Unfortunately that did not do the trick. Said Sound Card State is still labelled [fail] and instead of the GUI starting up the screen now shows a pattern of black and white stripes with some funky colored dots all over...

[bain]

Try nomodeset instead. It could be a GPU problem. What graphics card does this laptop have? Does server installer boot okay? It could also be a CD detection problem. Try running the installer from a USB flash drive.

[user277857]

meaning "debug -- forcepae nomodeset"? The graphics card is an ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700 and the board has a 855 GME chipset. I haven't tried the server installer, yet.

[bain]

That is what I meant, nomodeset turns off kernel modesetting, which helps to boot some systems where the kernel has problems with the GPU. But Radeon 9700 is a R300 chipset card which should be well supported with the open source drivers. Can you ssh in when the gui hangs?

[user277857]

the nomodeset option seemed to work - the installer ran through. Only the graphics is damn slow so that the windows animations look more like a slideshow and typing has quite some lag time. Don't know if that is an installation/driver problem or an Ubuntu 14.04-problem... Can I switch off any optical gimmicks to boost the performance? I already had a look into the system settings, but there's not much to change (I can't even change the screen resolution!).

[bain]

Problem is nomodeset disables acceleration. Make sure you have done a full system update (apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade) and then boot without "nomodeset" (you can alter the parameters at grub console). If it still fails report a bug to the Radeon project at freedesktop (if you can get a copy of dmesg after a hang that would be useful). The Radeon open source developers are responsive to bug reports, and are available on irc and have a mailing list. You could also try updating your kernel to see if that helps.

[bain]

I forgot Radeon R300 needs a firmware, check that you have the linux-firmware package installed (firmware is /lib/firmware/radeon/R300_cp.bin) and package xserver-xorg-video-radeon

[user277857]

ok, I'm getting what you mean, but to be honest, my linux knowledge is very limited. Sorry if that is not the real purpose of this forum, but can you explain the procedure a little more in detail? I guess the update can be done from a console (I already updated via the GUI - don't know if that's the same). But what do I need to do to alter the boot parameters to omit the "nomodeset". As for the linux-firmware package I will check via the applications. I know I've already looked for the xserver-xorg-video-radeon package as I found that hint already yesterday - it said that is already installed.

[bain]

Edit /etc/default/grub to change the boot parameter, see How do I add a kernel boot parameter?