[Bug 1968147] Re: Unable to boot Ubuntu and Ubuntu flavors on older laptops

[Chris Guiver]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
Ubuntu better.

Bug reporting is mostly about finding & fixing problems thus preventing
future users from hitting the same bug.

I suspect a Support site would be more appropriate, eg.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu. You can also find help with your
problem in the support forum of your local Ubuntu community
http://loco.ubuntu.com/ or asking at https://askubuntu.com or
https://ubuntuforums.org, or for more support options please look at
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/community-support/709


FYI:  I'm replying here on a 2009 dell that is running Lubuntu jammy; and use machines from as old as 2006 in QA-testing Ubuntu and flavors of Ubuntu and have no issues booting. Your issue doesn't rule out invalid ISO (did you verify it as per documentation) or improper write to ISO (far more likely a problem in my experience, did you rule this out? as you've provided few clues as to having done this). I can see you've tried from your explanation though, so thank you.


You've provided no hardware specifics (those could be provided by a `apport-collect` using another bootable ISO, but you'd have to clearly state you used an different ISO to provide that detail, as it would report your ISO version/date as from the ISO used when report was made), nor what ISO you're actually using. Ubuntu jammy is currently in testing, so dailies are produced (sometimes more than one per day) with the ISO marked as to which it is. You've not provided this detail, or link the QA-test on the ISO tracker (iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/429/builds) which would allow that detail to be obtained via that recording of your test.

Please note many support sites do not support Ubuntu jammy (or flavors)
as it's not yet a released product. IRC, Ubuntu Forums do however as
examples.

** Changed in: grub2 (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1968147

Title:
  Unable to boot Ubuntu and Ubuntu flavors on older laptops

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  I have several older laptops (~12 years old) that I’d like to install
  Linux. The laptops don’t have support for EFI/UEFI. They only have
  support for BIOS or Legacy mode. The laptops have a 64 bit CPU.

  I attempted to install Ubuntu Budgie 21.10 and after successfully
  completing POST, the laptops stall and display GRUB on the screen. It
  doesn’t progress any further.

  I’ve ruled out the following:

  -USB flash drive or USB port failures by booting with different USB flash drives and USB ports.
  -ISO corruption as the hashes match.
  -Problems with the laptops as they successfully boot Ubuntu 20.04.4.
  -LiveUSB issues as it makes no difference if I use dd, cat, Startup Disk Creator, UnetBootin or balenaEtcher.

  I’ve noticed that Ubuntu Budgie ships with GRUB 2.04 but Ubuntu uses
  an ISOLinux bootloader. As the laptops fail to get past GRUB, my only
  guess at this point in time is that GRUB 2.04 and later versions are
  incompatible with certain BIOS models.

  In further testing of Ubuntu Budgie 20.04.4, the devices boot. Ubuntu
  version 22.04 like Ubuntu Budgie 21.10 results in the laptops not
  getting past GRUB. As the images could not boot, I'm unable to raise
  the bug report via the live USB session.

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