Can't get version 20.04.2 to run

[derekc23]

Hi
I?m new to Kubuntu, and in fact to Linux.

I particularly wish to run Kubuntu to use FFmpeg with Nvidia Hardware acceleration.

I have a Desktop computer with several hard discs including SSD and conventional SATA drives. One SSD M2 has Windows 10 installed.

I have managed to install Ubuntu on an SSD and this runs but I?m having trouble completing the FFmpeg Nvidia instructions.

I made a USB stick using Rufus of Kubuntu version 20.10. This failed to install, and came up with a ?known? error which I now can?t remember but I?ll try to install it again if it helps the solution.

I then used the same USB stick to install version 20.04.2 LTS. This installed (according to the installer).

When I reset the computer and went to the boot menu, the version is showing, but surprisingly it shows my Windows 10 drive beside the name. When I try to run version 20.04.2 LTS I get ?GNU Grub version 2.04? some text about TAB listing commands, and a prompt.

Unfortunately I can't post attachments.

Can anyone help with this, please?

Derek Clements

[GreyGeek]

Welcome to Linux, Dereck, and welcome to KFN!
There are several people on this forum very knowledable in both Linux and WIndows. Fortunately, I am not one of them. My last WinX experience was in the year I retired, 2008, so my Winx fu is very dated. More knowledgeable people will be along shortly. Meanwhile, you could help a lot by posting the make and model number of your desktop, and of your SSD, and if Win10 is Home or Pro.

[derekc23]

Thanks for reply!
The desktop is custom built. The SSD that I was installing to is a Sandisk 500 Ultra II. Windows is 10 Pro.

Derek

[oshunluvr]

I want to welcome you here and to Linux as well Derek! You will be able to post attachments after a couple more posts. We admins are always battling spammers and limits like that help keep them to a minimum.

Since you're new, it may be best to keep issues separate and fill in some details as much as possible.

Some points regarding your issues:

First, the Ubuntu family of distros of which Kubuntu is one follow an identical lineage which is clearly visible in the naming convention used. The version numbers of 20.04 and 20.10, etc., indicate that both versions were released in the year 2020 and 04 means April and 10 means October. This tells you that 20.10 is the newest release. Something to be aware of is even-year April releases like 20.04 are Long Term Support releases which means you'll be able to avoid a release upgrade for 5 years. Support and updates for all others end after 9 months. My point is 20.10 will cease to be updated around July this year. There's nothing wrong with starting out with 20.10, but as a new user you might consider sticking to LTS releases like 20.04 so you aren't forced into release-upgrades so soon. To learn about the release cycles: https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle

Understand when you install Kubuntu you are actually installing Ubuntu but with a different Desktop Environment (DE). Almost everything else is identical and most applications will work in either DE with some additional software installed. This is important to understand because when you are searching the Web for info, almost everything that applies to Ubuntu will also apply to Kubuntu. Plasma (Kubuntu DE) looks different than Gnome (Ubuntu DE) and uses different toolkits (programming tools and languages) but down deep its the same. There are at least 5 other DEs you can try later if you choose to while still using Ubuntu.

Rufus is known to be problematic with some Linux ISOs. I would start by installing Etcher and re-recording the USB stick if you are having issues installing.

As far as the boot menu, the boot manager is called GRUB and you should see a boot menu (all text) with Ubuntu as the top choice, followed by "Advanced options for Ubuntu" (a sub-menu that allows you to boot older kernels), then "Memory test" (obvious what that does) and finally, "Windows". Remember what I said about Kubuntu being Ubuntu? Kubuntu shows up in the GRUB menu as Ubuntu. Seeing "Windows" is as expected unless you wiped Windows completed AND removed the UEFI entry for it. GRUB reads the UEFI files and adds whatever it finds to the boot menu.

The results you reported after selecting "Ubuntu" sound like GRUB installation failed in some way. You can post the error messages or post a couple more replies (IIRC 3) until the forum lets you post a pic. Likely, you're at the GRUB prompt - a greater than symbol with a message saying you can type Help to see a list of commands. Since you haven't really done much with your new install, you can try re-installing it. Also, if you boot to the USB stick you can select "Try Kubuntu" and play with the OS before installing. This is a good way to verify all your hardware works out-of-the-box. If you re-install and still get the same results, we'll have to roll up our sleeves and dig deeper.

With multiple drives installations can be confusing for newcomers so go slow and make sure you're doing what you want. Partitions are not "lettered" like with windows so take care when select a target partition for installation.

We probably going to need more specific details to make heads or tails out of where you're at.

We can talk about FFMPEG after you have an install running.

[derekc23]

Thanks for thorough reply! I will certainly try your suggestions!
The fact that the first two entries in the Boot manager are:

Windows Boot Manager (Samsung SSD 970 PRO 512GB)
ubuntu (Samsung SSD 970 PRO 512GB)

Clicking on the second entry gave:

GNU GRUB version 2.04
Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere
else TAB lists possible device or file competions.

grub> _

where the Samsung SSD is my main Windows 10 system disc leads me to suspect that the Kubuntu installation may have put part of the installation on that disc. I didn't unplug the other discs because that would have been a major task. However, my first installation of 'normal' Ubuntu onto a different SSD went perfectly. I'm considering backing up that version (since it worked!!) and then trying Kubuntu on that disc, with your suggestions.

Incidentally, what's the recommended method of backing up a whole ubuntu disc?

[jlittle]

... leads me to suspect that the Kubuntu installation may have put part of the installation on that disc...

On a UEFI system, that would be normal; UEFI is designed to work that way. There is normally one EFI System Partition, or ESP, and all operating systems are supposed to put their boot loaders' first stages in it. The idea of a drive for each operating system is seductive, it certainly seduced me back in the day, but both UEFI and grub don't want to do things that way and if you do you have to fight them both.

The "grub>" prompt usually means the first stage of grub hasn't found the place where the next stage, most of itself, is. (This is usually found at /boot/grub from a Linux perspective.) The fact that you've got this after selecting an option in a grub menu is weird, it means the option is chaining to another grub instance, which has got lost.

I suggest you identify what partitions you have on all drives, and which is the ESP, then reinstall Kubuntu. If a reinstall would mean losing data, please post the details of the partitions and drives; you may have to boot to a live installer ("Try Kubuntu") to find them out. On an SSD Kubuntu installs in ten minutes or so, not counting updates (which can take much longer). We may be able to tell you the grub commands to get Kubuntu going.

There's lots of ways to back up ubuntu, but "the whole ubuntu disc" isn't a useful concept IMO. Linux isn't Windows and generally doesn't care about how its files get where they are, a copy of the files (with the right ownership) will do (Windows doesn't want to make it easy for you to copy it.) And UEFI is a bit like that too. But for a recommendation, look for a tool that uses btrfs or rsync under the hood. Sure, you can think like Windows and use clonezilla to clone a drive, but the results can be horribly inflexible, and have lots of gotchas.

[oshunluvr]

You can manually boot from the grub prompt but it takes some doing, first of all is knowing which drive/partition your Kubuntu install is on.

[derekc23]

Thanks very much Jlittle for this informative reply.
I'm working on it!

[derekc23]

Thanks oshunluvr. I think I know where Kubuntu is, but I'll try the suggested reinstall first.

[oshunluvr]

To add to what Jlittle says about backups - IMO a "whole disk" backup isn't actually very useful. You would only need to resort to a whole disk restore if your had a catastrophic failure like a drive actually dying. Then you'd have to restore to a different disk, that was blank, and then manage the differences. You'd spend hours getting back up. It takes much less time to just do a new install. One exception might be if you had two disks that were of similar size and just run clonezilla once in a awhile. But then of course the second disk is getting used but it's not useful until the first disk dies.

Most Linux users either have a separate /home (your personal files and data) and just back that up - along with maybe a few system files that you specially configured for your system like a network config, or they (like I) use a file system called BTRFS which has snapshot and backup features built-in. You can make backups and transfer them to backup storage without using an entire second disk and it is done in the background so you can still use your system while the backup is occurring.

[derekc23]

Thanks for all your help.
I did some experimenting:
In the first post I mentioned I had a working 'normal' ubuntu on, lets call it disc A.
I had tried unsuccessfully to install kubuntu to disc B.
So I tried 'normal' ubuntu on disc B. That failed with the same error.
I then tried kubuntu on disc A. It worked!! So I am assuming that Ubuntu of either flavour doesn't like disc B!
I really love the new version - I've now got to play with it to understand the differences in layout etc, compared with the previous version.

When I start Kubuntu from the Boot menu I get a grub menu first with various options including advanced options and memtest - is this normal as it didn't occur with 'normal' ubuntu?

My only problem now is that I have disc B with the unusable version. I'm assuming that I can't just reformat this as it has links to the MBR on the master disc?

I want to use FFmpeg to join large numbers of TIFFs produced by a video enhancing program, using Nvidia GPU acceleration. Any advice on this? It would be nice to find a ready to use version with the acceleration, but I assume that doesn't exist.

Sorry for lots of questions!

[derekc23]

Thanks for all your help.
I did some experimenting:
In the first post I mentioned I had a working 'normal' ubuntu on, lets call it disc A.
I had tried unsuccessfully to install kubuntu to disc B.
So I tried 'normal' ubuntu on disc B. That failed with the same error.
I then tried kubuntu on disc A. It worked!! So I am assuming that Ubuntu of either flavour doesn't like disc B!
I really love the new version - I've now got to play with it to understand the differences in layout etc, compared with the previous version.

When I start Kubuntu from the Boot menu I get a grub menu first with various options including advanced options and memtest - is this normal as it didn't occur with 'normal' ubuntu?

My only problem now is that I have disc B with the unusable version. I'm assuming that I can't just reformat this as it has links to the MBR on the master disc?

I want to use FFmpeg to join large numbers of TIFFs produced by a video enhancing program, using Nvidia GPU acceleration. Any advice on this? It would be nice to find a ready to use version with the acceleration, but I assume that doesn't exist.

Sorry for lots of questions!

[derekc23]

Thanks for all your help.
I did some experimenting:
In the first post I mentioned I had a working 'normal' ubuntu on, lets call it disc A.
I had tried unsuccessfully to install kubuntu to disc B.
So I tried 'normal' ubuntu on disc B. That failed with the same error.
I then tried kubuntu on disc A. It worked!! So I am assuming that Ubuntu of either flavour doesn't like disc B!
I really love the new version - I've now got to play with it to understand the differences in layout etc, compared with the previous version.

When I start Kubuntu from the Boot menu I get a grub menu first with various options including advanced options and memtest - is this normal as it didn't occur with 'normal' ubuntu?

My only problem now is that I have disc B with the unusable version. I'm assuming that I can't just reformat this as it has links to the MBR on the master disc?

I want to use FFmpeg to join large numbers of TIFFs produced by a video enhancing program, using Nvidia GPU acceleration. Any advice on this? It would be nice to find a ready to use version with the acceleration, but I assume that doesn't exist.

Sorry for lots of questions!