15.10 system install hang

Question

I have a machine that has happily been running 14.04 for ages, until I borked it (it no longer lets me log into a GUI desktop - logs available if interested). I decided to try a fresh install of 15.10 from DVD (made from a .ISO I had MD5SUM checked), but it hangs after about 2 minutes while showing me dots. The coloured dot stops moving. DVD has been verified, memory has been tested and is OK.

I have tried a reinstall of 14.04 from USB, but the result was the same.

The machine is: NOVATECH ELITE N1586 - 15.6" INTEL I7 4700 MOBILE PROCESSOR - 16GB DDR3 MEMORY - 256GB MSATA DRIVE - 1TB SATA HARD DRIVE - DVD WRITER - NVIDIA GTX 780M GRAPHICS

BIOS is AMI 2.15.1236

All my installs hitherto have gone without much problem, so I have no idea how to debug / proceed.

Answer 1

Install Ubuntu 15.10 by following these instructions ... Boot from the Ubuntu installation media.

When the boot menu appears : Highlight Try Ubuntu without installing and press the E key.
Add the nouveau.modeset=0 parameter to the end of the linux line ... Then press F10 to boot.

When having entered the desktop start the installation process, once completed restart the PC.

When the GRUB boot menu appears : Highlight the Ubuntu menu entry and press the E key.
Add the nouveau.modeset=0 parameter to the end of the linux line ... Then press F10 to boot.

Now install the latest official NVIDIA drivers and Optimus support.

When the login screen appears press Ctrl + Alt + F1.

Enter your user name and password.

Execute these commands :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-355 nvidia-prime
sudo reboot  

In case you have to adjust which card to use in BIOS select NVIDIA or switchable graphics mode. Open NVIDIA X Server Settings -> Prime Profiles to switch between the intel and NVIDIA GPUs.