Re: grub freezes at "grub loading."

[Jad]

I did a memtest and it appears I have a faulty ram.
I suppose this is the problem.

Does it make sense, even if the EFI setup worked and the USB booting works?

On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 6:35 PM, Jad <address@hidden> wrote:
> I have a lenovo Y500
>
> I am trying to install some flavour of GNU/Linux on it.
> I tried:
>  - Ubuntu 12.10
>  - Ubuntu 12.04
>  - Mint 14
>  - Arch
>
> I changed the boot mode to "legacy" (no EFI).
> I wiped out the hard disks as I am not interested in windows 8
>
> The PC contains two hard disks:
> one 12Gigs SSD
> one 1T HDD
>
> I tried each of the distros above:
> - on the SSD, using MBR
> - on the SSD, using GPT
> - on the HDD, using MBR
> - on the HDD, using GPT
> GPT partitioning scheme was done following the advice in the Arch wiki.
>
> In all cases, and regardless of setup, I always end up booting in a
> black screen.
> If I keep "shift" pressed, all I see is "GRUB loading." (note the single dot)
>
> In the case of Arch, I also tried an EFI setup which after lots of
> pain finally worked, as I was guided by a nice knowledgeable guy on #archlinux
> But it turns out my graphical card does not in EFI mode. So I am back
> to point 0.
>
> I've been googling for a week, but "GRUB loading." yields absolutely
> nothing. I can't find a single person who has the same problem as I
> have. On internet, people have advised me to try nomodeset etc, but I
> can't access grub to change anything.
>
> A good bunch of people have been really nice and trying to be helpful,
> but in the end, all advice ends up being:
> - check your memory (which I don't think applies, since the EFI setup worked)
> - check your distro's MD5 (all checked)
> - reinstall GRUB (reinstalled a million times)
> - check that protected boot is off (it is, and EFI is off anyway)
> - check that your hard disks are/are not in HCI mode (I tried both for
> every installation trial)
>
> People don't seem to understand I can't even get to the GRUB menu.
> Since I was unable to find the exact string "GRUB loading.", it leads
> me to think that GRUB is freezing while trying to write "GRUB
> loading..."
> But I am new to all this, so I don't really know.
>
> I have spent now 5 full days on this, almost not sleeping. It is
> driving me crazy.
> I don't even understand how to debug this, since it just stops at stage 0.
> Any kind of help would be deeply appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance for any pointer you might have