It has taken more than a week of trying everything I could think of to figure out why the installation of Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS Desktop was failing on my Dell PowerEdge T340 when it used to be ok.If I allow a connection to the internet while installing Ubuntu the installations fails with No Boot using either BIOS or UEFI. If I physically disconnect the internet, the installation succeeds!Does that mean that a new bug has been introduced in the updates, or does it mean that the T340 should no longer be certified for Ubuntu?Should this be reported as a bug?I also don't know what to expect if I update after installing.Any comments or advice will be most welcome.
Update:I had left a comment about the updates that I suspected as causing the problem but the last time the install went corrupt it turned out to be a hard drive hiccup. Now the drives are replaced and the suspected updates seem to be cleared now.
The installation fails every time if Ubuntu has any connection to the internet available even if "Download updates while installing Ubuntu" is unchecked. I believe this is because Ubuntu will download security updates whether you want it to or not. Even removing the NIC configuration doesn't stop it because Ubuntu will find it and configure it for its own use. The Ethernet cable must be unplugged to get a successful install.
For each additional update that is loaded, I believe that 2 reboots are required to test in case the 1st reboot is needed to finish installing the update.
When the installation fails, the Boot-Repair utility reports that "No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc" and "According to the info in the boot sector, sdc1 starts at sector 0. But according to the info from fdisk, sdc1 starts at sector 1." - A repair by Boot-Repair won't work because I installed in BIOS mode (that is what worked before and a UEFI install fails as well).
So far, I have installed updates;
- Security updates - Ubuntu base - Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs (intel-microcode:amd64)
- Security updates - Ubuntu base - Processor microcode firmware for AMD CPUs (amd-64-microcode:amd64)
- Other updates - Ubuntu base - Intel SOF firmware - signed (firmware-sof-signed:amd64)
- All "Other updates"
and the system has survived. It could be one of the remaining security updates (hopefully not some combination that will make it more difficult).This will likely take a lot more time to solve unless someone has a faster method to find the problem.
Update:I have finally identified the group of offending updates. All other updates have been installed without trashing the installation.
- Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers
- Generic Linux kernel headers
- Generic Linux kernel image
- Header files related to Linux kernel version 6.5.0
- Linux kernel extra modules for version 6.5.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP - 25.5 MB
- Linux kernel extra modules for version 6.5.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP - 76.5 MB
- Linux kernel headers for version 6.5.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
- Signed kernal image generic
I was going to try to see if I could get some of these installed to narrow it down further but it seems that you only have the illusion of full control of selecting updates. At one point I selected four of them and the other four got dragged with them. As I was doing some other specific updates I also saw some of the remaining updates disappear, or change locations, and even create new categories that they moved to.
I think my next step is to figure out how to report this to Ubuntu and hope that my installation doesn't decide to update them automatically because they are labelled security updates.
At this point I should add more info about the affected system;
- Dell PowerEdge T340
- BIOS Version: 2.15.1
- Management Engine Version: 5.1.4.913
- CPLD Version: 1.0.5
- UEFI Compliance Version: 2.7
- Memory: 48GB ECC DDR4 2666 MHz 1.20V
- Video Memory: 16 MB
- Memory Operating Mode: Optimizer
- CPU: Intel Xeon E-2136 3.30 GHz
- PERC H730P RAID Controller (RAID-1) Package Version 25.5.9.0001, Firmware Version 4.300.00-8368, NVDATA Version 3.1511.00-0028
- HDD: 2 x WDC WD10EFRX-68JCSN0
Additional Note:Even though I have managed to get Ubuntu installed again, there are more issues, most obvious is monitor resolution, aspect ratio, etc. Perhaps this is due to some mismatching given that I am unable to update the packages mentioned above. Whatever was in those updates a couple of weeks ago was working fine (I had re-installed frequently while experimenting with hardware and software). I don't have specific details and can't confirm if the monitors that I have tried were detected properly before because there was no sign of trouble and no reason to look. Now, at best, the aspect ratio looks squished, and at worst, the "Unknown Monitor" will sometimes revert back to 640x480 with important features off the screen and impossible to use. I can only hope for a resolution so it becomes possible to use Ubuntu again.