[02:48] <grantbow> q: random friend gave me an HP Pavilion dv6 aka qg291ua laptop that fails to boot windows 7. My usb 12.04 grub boot medium boots to a black screen with a blinking cursor. I think I need a magic kernel parameter to make it boot. any suggestions?
[02:55] <akk> Do you know if it's actually booting from the USB (and then failing), or not even seeing the grub boot at all?
[02:55] <akk> I'm wondering if it might be a bios boot setting issue rather than a problem booting grub.
[02:55] <grantbow> it's booting grub2 and when I loopback mount the iso it seems to load the kernel and sit there
[02:55] <akk> So much for that idea.
[02:56] <grantbow> http://rww.name/articles/grub2iso/
[02:56] <darthrobot> Title: [Booting ISOs from GRUB 2]
[02:56] <grantbow> it works on many machines but not all
[02:56] <nhaines> grantbow: my laptop is a dv6 and boots with no modifications.
[02:56] <grantbow> I was caught without my other machine and other medium to try booting from
[02:56] <akk> Ah, this isn't a normal single live usb, it's a grub-with-isos thing?
[02:57] <grantbow> nhaines: interesting
[02:57] <grantbow> akk: yes
[02:57] <akk> I have one of those too, but I've sometimes seen it fail on machines where a normal live usb will work.
[02:57] <nhaines> I would try a DVD.  It's the computer or it's the install media.
[02:57] <akk> I don't understand why (I confess I don't totally grok how the grub-to-iso transition happens).
[02:58] <akk> (I don't think anyone else groks it either -- at least, if anyone does they're not writing public explanations :)
[02:58] <grantbow> it doesn't like the 12.10 dvd
[03:01] <grantbow> I hate the bios dance. booting a machine shouldn't be so hard.
[03:02] <akk> We'll all come to love bios after we have to "up"grade to secureboot UEFI machines. :(
[03:02] <nhaines> UEFI without secureboot is awfully nice though.
[03:03] <grantbow> aha! It doesn't auto-detect cd and dvd well. Manually telling it to go to disc is working!
[03:03] <nhaines> Last client machine I built had a pretty mouse-driven GUI.  I had to keep shoeing her 6yo away from it.
[03:03] <akk> The older EFI on macs was a major pain with ubuntu.
[03:03] <grantbow> or, tries to work, darn it, same black screen and blinking cursor
[03:04] <grantbow> nothing on ctrl-alt-F1 vt
[03:12] <grantbow> I think this is a qvc model
[03:29] <grantbow> after long timeouts it finally booted. Not sure if there is a hardware problem involved or not yet.
[03:29] <grantbow> at least I can copy files off now! hurray!
[03:29] <akk> It's a start! Yay.
[03:29] <akk> Wonder what the timeout was doing/waiting for?
[03:31] <grantbow> udevd [*]: timeout: killing '/sbin/blkid -o udev -p /dev/sda?' [*]
[03:31] <grantbow> with numbers for the *'s and ?
[03:34] <grantbow> the trouble will now be talking my friend through booting from CD with the right timing on the esc key and choosing the CD.
[03:35] <grantbow> I can rest easier knowing at least it can be done
[03:36] <grantbow> toggling wifi made it scan to connect, that's a good sign
[03:36] <akk> Yes, that's often the hardest part getting laptops to work.
[03:37] <akk> Hope it's not broadcom.
[03:40] <grantbow> bcm4313 but it worked out of the box
[03:41] <grantbow> though it is throwing qos stuff to the console vt
[04:18] <nhaines> PLOT TWIST: installing the proprietary driver kills wireless support.
[09:12] <nhaines> Just finished work on my new Ubuntu business cards.  If I get good feedback I'll print them in time for SCALE.  :)