Zen Internet Support Forum

Bit of a mystery one here. With assistance from a friend I've rebuilt my business PC as dual boot. XP Pro and as an introduction to Linux Ubuntu 6.10. Ubuntu worked fine at the friends house so I hauled the PC back to the office. I installed a couple of external hard drives via USB and set up my dual monitor for PS work. AV and Firewall also.

After getting the above running ok I booted Ubuntu which promptly refused to load and I got this message..

[17179571.224000] ACPI Looking for DSDT.. Not found.

Presumable something I've done in XP has affected Ubuntu. I've had a look in the Ubuntu support and can find mention of DSDT but apart that its some sort of table little else.

Any clues please.

 

 

 

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Chris

If the USB drives are still connected when you boot into UBUNTU, try disconnecting them first.

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Martyn

Thanks for the advice I switched off the drives but still the same result. Do I assume if I physically disconnected the drives and it then booted correctly I would then have to install the drives ( plug the drives in and let Ubuntu find them) in order to proceed?

The majority of my work is kept on these external drives and if Ubuntu wont recognise them then as an OS its no use.

Thanks. 

 

 

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Chris

If the Ubuntu boot screen gives you the opportunity to add extra boot parameters, you could try adding acpi=off

If this works you could then add it to the Grub configuration.

Eric

 

Roseway thanks for the reply but as things stand I've no screen to do anything with at the moment.

Managed to bring up the edit screen but alas the acpi off didnt work. I put it at the end of the Kernel line is that the correct place?

 

Cheers 

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Chris

Presumably when you boot you get a boot manager menu? This should provide the means to add kernel boot parameters before you select Ubuntu and hit Enter. Parameters are separated by commas with no spaces, so you need to add

,acpi=off

after any which are already there.

Eric

 

Hello Chris,

Read your posting about XP & Ubantu. I have downloaded the ISO image & loaded Ubantu onto my laptop & I myself had problems with the menu screen loading up correctly too but in my case put it down to the laptop not having alot of memory given that it already has XP on it and ubantu was run from a CD disk.

**However, on readng your posting heres my thoughts: The ACPI error or problem. (think windows XP here for a moment please bear with me?) ACPI in windows is "Advanced Control Power Interface" ACPI controls how your computer in windows manages its power configuration. i.e. set it one way for a machine run 24/7, another way for laptop, another way for desktop, another way for on standby, and another for hibernation,etc.

**Chris, have you tried changing in your windows XP machine the power settings? have you tried turning off the power settings before trying to load up Ubantu. I just have a sneeking suspicion here that MS windows XP power settings might be whats causing the problem for linux at boot up?

Ivan

Thanks all for the suggestions I've found what appears to be the problem I have 2 external hard drives and if these are physically disconnected Ubuntu loads perfectly and if I then connect the drives they are recognised and work perfectly. But as stated before no way will Ubuntu load with the drives connected either switched on or off.

I dont really want to be plugging and unplugging the drives on a regular basis.

 

Ivan I'll have a play with the power settings as suggested and let you know the results. Strangely I posted this problem on the dedicated Ubuntu forum but drew no replies whatsoever!!

Cheers 

 

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Chris

No luck on the power settings Ivan I've got a Linux fetishist coming this evening to cast his eye over the setup and hopefully fettle matters. He gave a patronising sigh at the mention of Ubuntu and mentioned Centos presumably another distro of Linux?

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Chris

Hi,

YES! do report back I'd be interested to know who you get on?

Ivan

We scrapped the Ubuntu install and put on a Centos distro with exactly the same result. Wondering if a BIOS upgrade might solve matters as the board is getting on a bit.

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Chris

Retained the Centos install and after more fettling and a bios revision for the Asus motherboard the external HD problem appears solved. Now to try and fathom out the OS itself!!

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Chris