Nothing but problems with new install!

Support & Help Requests
#1

Hi Everybody,

This installation is just cursed! Ubuntu 17.04, MATE desktop. Clean install in it’s own hard drive. Windows 7 installed on first hard drive, Ubuntu on second; installed Ubuntu after installing Windows (cause we all know what happens if you try to do it the other way…)

First, Grub doesn’t display Windows 7 as a boot option; nothing but Ubuntu choices are present.
Second, after booting into Ubuntu, file manager doesn’t even see the first hard drive with Windows 7 on it.
Third, during install, it utterly failed to connect to my wireless network (so upgrades couldn’t be downloaded on the fly), forcing me to chase after the upgrades manually post-install. It connects just fine from the desktop.
Fourth, frequently getting “experiencing internal error” messages.
Fifth, Software Boutique keeps crashing when “stocking.” Error in Terminal shows as “segmentation fault.” What do I do with that?
Sixth, when cycling through the screens in “Welcome” > “Updates and Extras” > “What’s in My Computer”, "Welcome crashes, again with the “segmentation fault” when run from Terminal.
Also Seventh, the install program gave me grief when trying to reformat the target drive; I wanted to utterly nuke it and start fresh, but I couldn’t get it to do so, and had to select a “reinstall” option in order to proceed.

This thing does more wrong than it does right! What the hell has happened to Ubuntu? I’ve installed and used it before in several desktops that I’ve built, without problems of any kind either installing or running, and several times in this same laptop (generally when Windows gets too squirrely to tolerate, I re-install both OS’s), again without any problems. THIS time, however, nothing but trouble!!

I used a commercially burned disc from OSDisc.com, right from an Ubuntu site (because the laptop has suddenly stopped reading self-burned discs in Windows, and won’t read the Ubuntu disc I’ve used before to install Ubuntu). It installed, but with the above-mentioned weirdness, and all the other stuff I’ve described.

I’m not a total newbie, either to computers or Ubuntu (first PC was a '286-12, with a whopping 1 mb of ram and a massive 40mb hard drive running DOS 4.0), and I’ve been messing with Ubuntu (pretty much on a “consumer-level”) since 2007 or so.

What am I to do with this haunted install? Bite the bullet and totally pull the plug and re-install it again and just hope that things go better this time?

#2

Do what I do and stick to LTS releases and only go to the next LTS when it is half-way through it’s lifespan. That way, you avoid all the early bugs that, over time, get squished.

So, for example, I am currently on 16.04 LTS. But, will only change to 18.04 LTS sometime in 2019/20

#3

Have you checked if the disc was fine (check disk for errors on the boot menu of the LiveCD)?

[quote]Fifth, Software Boutique keeps crashing when “stocking.” Error in Terminal shows as “segmentation fault.” What do I do with that?
Sixth, when cycling through the screens in “Welcome” > “Updates and Extras” > “What’s in My Computer”, "Welcome crashes, again with the “segmentation fault” when run from Terminal.[/quote]
It might also be a good idea to check your RAM with Memtest (from GRUB or the LiveCD boot menu). Warning: it’ll take several hours. Let it do at least 5 complete passes. If it hasn’t found errors then, continue up to 10 passes. If no error then, it’s very unlikely that your RAM is faulty.
Note that Memtest doesn’t stop by itself, it’ll continue forever until you press the Esc key.

#4

Thanks for the replies, stevecook172001 and terzag.

Oh, man, I took a second look at the disc I ordered, and sure enough, it ain’t an LTS release. I went back to where I got the disc, and found I hadn’t scrolled down far enough; there it is, way down on the list, 16.04 LTS, 64-bit. I picked from the top of the list, 64-bit. Yeah, didn’t realize I was purchasing a non-LTS disc; made an unconscious assumption… and am now paying the price. It’s a measure of how rattled this damned laptop has got me. Major “duhhhh” factor here.

First Windows tanks (big surprise there…), then I can’t read my known-good Ubuntu 16.04 install disc I burned some time ago, then the touchpad quits, then it won’t connect to the wireless… won’t even see it. And that’s just Windows; it’s why I went for a clean install. Then the clean install had problems. Then I couldn’t install Ubuntu (the no-read burned disc thing…); just battle-rattle at that point. Pulled the trigger to get a good Ubuntu disc too quickly.

I upgraded the install to 17.10 from 17.04, and that seems to have fixed many of the problems; “Software Boutique” works, no more “Welcome” crashes, and so far no more “Experiencing Internal Errors” messages. Still agree with you; had I been awake when I ordered the disc, I’d have gone for the LTS; I’ve been burned by going “bleeding-edge” before.

No, terzag, I haven’t checked the disc for problems yet… probably my next logical step, though. Be good if it did, then I could explain all this garbage, and get an LTS disc instead, as well.

The “bad” self-burned Ubuntu disc reads just fine in my wife’s Dell laptop ( not feeling like such a laptop snob anymore, with my high-end Asus -vs- her lowly Dell… look who’s having all the problems now!). Her machine will even boot from it, where the stupid Asus won’t. Think I’ll pick up a cheapie LiteON DVD burner from NewEgg or somewere, for around $20, and see if that clears the problem up. It’ll tell me if there’s an actual physical problem with the Blu-ray drive that’s in it now.

This thing gives me much more trouble, I’m going to take it out back and take my shotgun to it, and then buy another Dell…

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#5

Don’t worry mate. You are not alone when it comes to things going wrong on you. Been there, done that, bought the T shirt…:slight_smile:

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#6

I think I know what happened there :rolling_eyes: One of the libraries used by Welcome/Boutique was updated and exposed some “bad” code within these programs, so they ended up crashing.

That was fixed, and 17.04 users should add the Welcome “Updates” PPA to get the absolute latest version – if anyone is to run into that, see here:

Side suggestion – if discs are causing bother, how about imaging a USB stick?

#7

Thanks for the reply, Lah7. The upgrade to 17.10 fixed the segmentation fault crashes in “Welcome.” And I did stumble upon how to create a bootable USB stick whilst casting about for solutions to these troubles. Wasn’t even sure if my machine could boot from USB, but it can and does. Thanks again!

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