How do you get 16.04 to boot?

[Karl Auer]

On Sat, 2017-07-01 at 12:55 -0700, Pastor JW wrote:
> For some reason 16.04 has never booted since it went on.  It will sit
> for hours with nothing coming on the screen, no prompt for user
> password or any login screen.

I hesitate to ask, but is the system definitely switched on? Is the
monitor definitely switched on? Is the monitor definitely attached to
the PC, and attached to the correct video output on the PC? Is the
monitor cable correctly attached to the monitor, and to the correct
input on the monitor?

Assuming "yes" to all the above:

Immediately after turning the system on, do you see anything *at all*
on the screen? For example, BIOS messages, manufacturer splash screen,
anything at all that would indicate that the monitor is switched on and
connected properly? Even just watch the monitor very carefully and see if there is any change, however subtle, in the brightness of the screen.

If there is nothing (and I do mean nothing) displayed during the boot
process, I would suggest attaching the monitor to a known good system
to make sure that the monitor really is working.

If the monitor is working, then is there really *nothing* on the
screen? For example, is the screen background something other than
black, or is there a cursor flashing somewhere?

How long is "hours"? I mean, is that hyperbole on your part, or have
you actually waited for multiples of sixty minutes?

You got 16.04 onto this system - how? If it was off a LiveCD or USB
stick, can you still boot that medium and does it still get you to a
working Linux?

Does your PC have more than one video output? If so, what happens if
you attach a monitor to the other output?

If the PC has a static IP address, is it pingable? If you have another
Linux box available in your network, install and run zenmap and do a
quick scan of the network. Does the blank PC show up? Depending on what
sort of home router you have, you may also be able to identify the
blank PC via the DHCP entries on the router.

All of the above is just trying to find out whether Linux may actually
have booted, but be unable to display anything.

If it has not booted at all, the problem is very different.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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