Upgraded to Ubu10.04: freezes 90% of the time during boot, super slow, PLS help?

Linux Support
1

I was on ubuntu 8.? (forget what, doubt it’s relevant.) I upgraded to 8.16 i believe, because there was no direct upgrade to 10.04 yet I wanted it. I upgraded to 10.04 after that without issue I believe, I entered 10.04 flawlessly without a problem, however the problem started after that

Currently, I have the issue of my bootup failing- I have to boot up restart restart literally 5 times usually to get ubuntu alive for that session, then repeat the next time I want to log into Ubuntu. Today it has gotten worse, and won’t let me use it whatsoever because it crashes after password + enter.

Here is what happens: I power on, I see ubuntu screen with the 5 dots, that finishes, I get to this screen http://i.imgur.com/iNXqWhU.jpg please excuse the poor picture, I am doing this in a rush to get ubuntu back

After that screen, sometimes I wait forever and it will not pass the screen. Sometimes Ubuntu shows my cursor and the “enter password box” however it freezes right then and there, while the screen gets dimmer. If neither of these two happens, usually Ubuntu will light the screen to correct brightness, my cursor can move, I can enter my password, when I hit enter the whole system crashes and it will not move, not even my cursor. Finally, if I get lucky, my cursor can move and I can enter Ubuntu, however it feels like it is rarer and rarer

I will say I am 99% sure it is not my actual hardware/motherboard dying… I dual boot with windows and I check into windows often. Windows works no problem which is the reason I am on this forum at all. Windows has shown literally no problem whatsoever, no delay, never crashes anything, not even a little indication that the computer is worse than fresh

It is an Ubuntu problem. I really cannot afford re-installing Ubuntu right now. I have to use Ubuntu for my homework urgently, plus for the rest of the year

Please help me?

2

Do you get the message about clearing orphaned inodes every boot ?

Was this an OS upgrade rather than a fresh install ?

You do realise 10.04 is end of life, so no longer supported right ?

Open a terminal and install smartmontools:

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

Now what’s the output from:

sudo fdisk -l

and

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda6
3

Ok, I’m going to stick my neck out and assume that the installation is not older than the hard drive. Which means the hard drive is more than likely 8 years old … given the average lifespan of a hard drive is around 3 years, you’re more than a standard deviation or two into borrowed time.

That aside, the symptoms you describe sound a little like a failing hard drive.

I would recommend booting from a live distro, then running “badblocks” on the drive to see how many errors it has.

  • make sure when you run badblocks you choose the “read” i.e. non-destructive option.

(the chances of it being “another” hardware issue, i.e. motherboard etc, are pretty slim)