Ubuntu Server 20.04.3 LTS won't boot after installation

Solution 1:

The old style Ubuntu Server iso file with the Debian installer

I suggest that you take a step backward and try the well tested Ubuntu server iso file with the debian installer. It is rather well hidden, but here is a link, where you can download it,

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-legacy-server/releases/20.04/release/

You can try

ubuntu-20.04.1-legacy-server-amd64.iso

Remember to check the sha256sum,

<<< 'f11bda2f2caed8f420802b59f382c25160b114ccc665dbac9c5046e7fceaced2 *ubuntu-20.04.1-legacy-server-amd64.iso' sha256sum -c

Cloning to a USB pendrive

You can clone from the iso file to a USB pendrive for example with

the Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator or
Disks alias gnome-disks or
mkusb.

Use a simple USB pendrive

A simple and cheap Sandisk Cruzer Blade USB 2 pendrive works well, but I have had problems with a more advanced USB 3 pendrive, that 'pretends' to be a SATA drive. The installer wanted me to insert a CD disk !!! So if that happens, you can simply borrow or buy the simplest possible pendrive and try again.

Stay with the kernel series or upgrade the HWE stack

It will probably work well with the 5.4 linux kernel series, but if you upgrade the hardware enablement (HWE) stack you will get the same kernel series as Ubuntu 20.04.3. That in turn will be upgraded with new HWE stacks until 20.04.5 (with the same kernel series as the next Ubuntu LTS release, 22.04. There is a risk however, that something will stop working with new HWE stacks, so if the server works well, I suggest that you stay with the 5.4 linux kernel series.

Try different boot modes

Edit 1: If you have problems with this iso file too, I suggest that you switch between UEFI mode and BIOS mode (alias CSM alias legacy mode), but in my computers this legacy server's debian installer works both in UEFI mode and BIOS mode.

Try different virtual screens

Edit 3: In the beginning my server's screen was showing the text properly, but after an apt update && apt upgrade and reboot the screen was locked with only a blinking cursor. Maybe this is what you see. The server could/can still be reached via ssh via the network from another computer (if openssh-server is installed).

I get around this by entering different virtual screens.

Press a hotkey combination CtrlAltF1 or CtrlAltF2 ... CtrlAltF6.
If you press CtrlAltF7 you will probably get back to a screen with a twinkling star in the northwest corner of the sky.

I get rid of this twinking star by the following tweak: put a # character in front of the line that sets the boot "quiet splash", change

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to a comment (not active code, only information)

#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

in the file /etc/default/grub and after that run

sudo update-grub

Install via Xubuntu Core

Edit 2: If still problems, you can install the lightest possible desktop system, Xubuntu Core. It has a desktop, but not the typical desktop application programs. It will probably work to install your system, and once installed you can remove the package

xubuntu-core

which is a meta package and the packages that you think use too much drive space. Then you can instead install the program packages that you want in your server,

ubuntu-server openssh-server ...

This is not straightforward but it is possible.

PS.

Look at my comments to your question again. Maybe they can help you find a solution or workaround.

Solution 2:

It sounds a lot like your system is using a legacy bios which only supports booting from MBR while the Ubuntu installer tries to format the disk using GPT instead of MBR style. The easiest way to fix this is to convert from GPT to MBR:

https://superuser.com/questions/1250895/converting-between-gpt-and-mbr-hard-drive-without-losing-data

Then you need to manually reinstall grub:

sudo apt-get purge grub-* os-prober grub-gfxpayload-lists 
sudo apt-get install grub-pc os-prober grub-gfxpayload-lists 
sudo grub-install /dev/sd<your boot device without partition number>

Or even worse: There had been devices around that used 32 Bit UEFI and where not able to load 64 Bit Grub binaries or something along those lines. I remember this special issue with some older Laptops made by MEDION. In order for those systems to boot correctly, you need to place bootia32.efi on your /EFI/BOOT on your UEFI partition. See this answer for reference: Ubuntu on 32-bit UEFI (only) based tablet pc

Solution 3:

Your machine is very old, better use a 32bit Linux.

Get Debian 11, it's a fine and stable OS.

32bit-Boot-CD-Installer: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/11.0.0+nonfree/i386/iso-cd/

32bit-Boot-DVD-Installer: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/11.0.0+nonfree/i386/iso-dvd/

PS Debian is like Ubuntu, but better for older hardware

PPS you can "burn" those ISO also to a USB stick, it will boot (via dd if=/tmp/debian.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress && sync, where sdX is your USB stick)