Can't Boot Properly from USB

Question

After I boot from my USB it starts to write a log, and freezes at some code that says something like novea drm if I remember correctly, the .iso works fine on a virtualpc. Does anyone know what's wrong?

Answer 1

That's probably Nouveau DRM and without more info, it sounds like a corrupted file/sector.

Try putting your USB drive into another computer and run a scan on it to ensure it's not going bad, then reinstall Ubuntu on it and try booting to it again.

Edit: Given your comments, I'd venture to guess your computer's USB controller is going bad. You mention that it tries to detect the mouse and keyboard but eventually skips them. Can you tell if it actually finds the mouse and keyboard (sometimes, there's a [okay] or [fail] on the line in question)? If they're not being detected, then it's possible the USB controller is going bad. If they are, then go to Edit 2.

If the USB controller is going bad, that means the motherboard as a whole is going bad, and while you could keep it running for a while, it's only a matter of time before it gives out completely. Now would be a good time to start shopping for a new computer (or digging up your warranty information if your computer is new enough).

Edit 2: Now that you've posted an image, I found this forum topic that may be of use to you. In short, it may be an issue with your graphics card. You can adjust your settings at boot when at the Grub boot menu. The ubuntuforums has a good tutorial on how to change boot time settings.

Specifically, it says this about nomodeset and nVidia drivers:

nomodeset
The newest kernels have moved the video mode setting into the kernel. So all the programming of the hardware specific clock rates and registers on the video card happen in the kernel rather than in the X driver when the X server starts.. This makes it possible to have high resolution nice looking splash (boot) screens and flicker free transitions from boot splash to login screen. Unfortunately, on some cards this doesnt work properly and you end up with a black screen. Adding the nomodeset parameter instructs the kernel to not load video drivers and use BIOS modes instead until X is loaded.

Note that this option is sometimes needed for nVidia cards when using the default "nouveau" drivers. Installing proprietary nvidia drivers usually makes this option no longer necessary, so it may not be needed to make this option permanent, just for one boot until you installed the nvidia drivers.