Ubuntu update to 14.04 - bricked my laptop

[VirtualLarry]

I have this Asus laptop, with a 1007U. It shipped with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

I upgraded it at some point to Ubuntu 14.04. It upgraded fine, and I was still able to use it.

I then updated it last night. It installed kernel 3.13.0-85, and it won't boot any more.

Messing around with it, hitting ESC at boot time gets to a boot menu, with a recovery option.

I did the recovery, which returned it to factory specs.

Then when I booted 12.04, it prompted me to upgrade to 14.04. I did so, and upon reboot, it hangs the same way.

I can't seem to press or hold SHIFT during Ubuntu boot to get the GRUB recovery menu. It doesn't work.

Is my laptop now a hunk-o-junk? Has Ubuntu and Asus abandoned me?

I already lost all of my user data. At this point, I just want a usable Linux laptop. Is that too much to ask?

Edit: The boot process for Ubuntu starts, it shows red and white dots underneath, after a time, it says something about waiting for /dev/something/cryptswap1, press S to skip or M for manual. Regardless of what I press, or if I just wait, eventually, there are five red dots under the Ubuntu logo, and then it does nothing. Pressing the power button briefly, causes the HDD light to flash a few times, but otherwise, the HDD light is off.

 

[jhu]

What's the exact model you have?

 

[jhu]

Another idea, try putting the harddrive in another computer and see what happens. Could be a hardware problem. Can also install Ubuntu via this method and put it back in the laptop.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231118

ASUS Laptop X200CA-DB02 Intel Celeron 1007U (1.5 GHz) 2 GB Memory 320 GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 11.6" Ubuntu

I think that's the one. I bought mine from Newegg, and I don't think that Asus offers (or offered) more than one Linux Ubuntu laptop with a 1007U.

Edit: I don't think it's a hardware problem, as it's not a hard-hang, per se. At least since the power button causes the HDD light to blink a few times if I push it after the Ubuntu loader has "hung".

Especially, since this only happened when I updated the kernel in 14.04. I suppose I could use the recovery to 12.04 LTS again, but I like having a newer distro.

I could also wait until Ubuntu packages a newer kernel than 3.13.0-85, and then do the restore / upgrade dance again then.

 

[jhu]

Also, try booting the Ubuntu installation via USB amd see what happens.

 

[Anteaus]

From your post it could be a crypto thing. If parts of your drive are encrypted and aren't being unlocked it could cause chaos. I would use parted to clear the drive as well as build a new MBR table using the type command..

 

[manly]

This could be helpful:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/3419...for-dev-mapper-cryptswap1-is-not-ready-yet-or

You can manually upgrade to newer kernel and X-Windows packages:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

 

[VirtualLarry]

This could be helpful:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/3419...for-dev-mapper-cryptswap1-is-not-ready-yet-or

You can manually upgrade to newer kernel and X-Windows packages:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

Piggyback on Eliah's solution along with the bug reports on ubuntu (1310058), I was able to workaround the issue where encrypted swap gets lost when rebooting ubuntu 14.04.

Yeah, that sounds like what's happening.

I wonder, too, since the laptop only has 2GB RAM (minus whatever amount is needed for the Intel iGPU), do you think that Ubuntu 14.04 is running out of RAM booting, and that's why it hangs?

 

[sweenish]

I guess the next step is creating a separate user data partition once things are up and running again.

SuSE does this automatically.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Yeah, that sounds like what's happening.

I wonder, too, since the laptop only has 2GB RAM (minus whatever amount is needed for the Intel iGPU), do you think that Ubuntu 14.04 is running out of RAM booting, and that's why it hangs?

Min sys reqs for desktop Ubuntu is 384 MiB of RAM.

 

[cfslap]

I have this Asus laptop, with a 1007U. It shipped with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

I then updated it last night. It installed kernel 3.13.0-85, and it won't boot any more.

The issue seems specific to this kernel version. I'm having the same problem with it but the previous one runs just fine

Linux AsusZen 3.13.0-68-generic #111-Ubuntu SMP Fri Nov 6 18:17:06 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

For now I've just removed that -85 one but since the new LTS has just been released I guess I will have to get ready to figure this out.

 

[sweenish]

So, is Linux going to get a pass on releasing a borked kernel, or will I get to see MS levels of anti-enthusiasm?

 

[Essence_of_War]

Oh so you've determined that it has to be a borked kernel and couldn't possibly be a hardware or firmware problem. VL hasn't even tried to do a verbose boot yet.

 

[lxskllr]

Oh so you've determined that it has to be a borked kernel and couldn't possibly be a hardware or firmware problem. VL hasn't even tried to do a verbose boot yet.

Let's assume it is a kernel issue. An older kernel can be used, or a new kernel can be compiled with a fix. Not exactly the take it or leave it terms of MS.

 

[sweenish]

Oh so you've determined that it has to be a borked kernel and couldn't possibly be a hardware or firmware problem. VL hasn't even tried to do a verbose boot yet.

Having read the thread, it seems a likely culprit. And let's not pretend the kernel is some unassailable piece of code. I've had to wait on kernel fixes enough times at work to know it's just as liable to be broke as hardware or firmware.

Let's assume it is a kernel issue. An older kernel can be used, or a new kernel can be compiled with a fix. Not exactly the take it or leave it terms of MS.

I can concede this. But even so, it's the kernel. It just shouldn't be happening. Especially if Linux actually desires to be a mainstream, consumer OS.

Year of Linux. Any year now.