[SOLVED] Debian 9 Doesn't boot after boot loader

[Mephistopheles]

[EDIT] This problem is now solved and it's all thanks to the people who helped me! I can now boot into Debian 9 successfully without any issues after finally managing to get the correct drivers for my GPU installed. Thanks to everyone for their help!

I dual booted my PC yesterday using Debian 9 and Windows 7, keeping Windows 7 as my main OS and only dedicating 35GB of Hard Drive space to the Debian partition. After going through the installation and successfully installing Debian alongside Windows 7 and my PC had restarted, I tried to boot into Debian only for it to get stuck on a black console-like screen that displayed this:

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/dev/sda3: clean 143558/1692432 files, 1204810/6763008 blocks
[     7.388140] sd 6:0:0:0:  [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[     7.388200] sd 6:0:0:0:  [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   11.622837] nouveau 0000:01:00:0: firmware: failed to load nvidia/gm204/gr/sw_nonctx.bin (-2)
[   11.622860] nouveau 0000:01:00:0: gr: failed to load gr/sw_nonctx
[   11.622875] nouveau 0000:01:00:0: gr ctor failed, -2

I don't know why this is happening, the only part I understand is the Nvidia part and that it obviously doesn't like something about the GPU, possibly drivers? I'm not sure how to fix this and I'm certain that re-installing debian probably won't help.
I installed the amd64 version of debian since I have a 64-bit CPU, I did consider trying the 32-bit version of Debian 9 although I can't see how that would make a difference in this situation, as it doesn't appear to have an issue with the 64-bit OS I installed.

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks.

[EDIT] I tried booting into safe mode and it seems like it's going to work, there are a lot of outputs in the console, but at one point it just stops and I left it running for like 15-25 minutes with no change so I've just left Debian alone for the time being.

[EDIT2] I have also recently started to get two more errors when attempting to boot

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[    10.375496] sd 6:0:0:0:  [sdb] No caching mode page found
[    10.375527] sd 6:0:0:0:  [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

It then gets stuck on that error indefinitely.

[Lysander]

After going through the installation and successfully installing Debian

Well, apart from the fact that now Debian doesn't start properly, I'd call it a successful installation.

I don't know why this is happening

It tells you why this is happening - firmware: failed to load nvidia/gm204/gr/sw_nonctx.bin. It looks like your graphics card is missing a package.

the only part I understand is the Nvidia part and that it obviously doesn't like something about the GPU, possibly drivers?

Yes, the firmware.

I'm not sure how to fix this and I'm certain that re-installing debian probably won't help.

I suspect it won't. Since it's dropping you to a console you may have to install firmware-misc-nonfree [the missing package for your card] through the command line.

First try this

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apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-misc-nonfree 

Now it may say that it's unable to locate the package in which case you would have enable contrib and non-free repos in sources.list through the nano command

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nano /etc/apt/sources.list

by adding "contrib" and "non-free" [without quotes] at the end of each repo line and then retrying.

I've just left Debian alone for the time being.

I would recommend leaving it alone for a bit longer than that. At the risk of sounding patronising, is this your first Linux experience? You may want to try another distribution like Ubuntu or Mint which are way easier to set up and use.

[Mephistopheles]

Since it's dropping you to a console you may have to install firmware-misc-nonfree [the missing package for your card] through the command line.

First try this

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apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-misc-nonfree 

I've tried doing this and it doesn't allow me to type a single thing, I've tried hitting a few function keys and trying out shortcuts to see if it would bring up a console, though to no surprise it did nothing.

Is this your first Linux experience? You may want to try another distribution like Ubuntu or Mint which are way easier to set up and use.

I have had experience with Kali Linux previously, and although my first time dual booting with Kali failed as I didn't follow the instructions properly, it still would boot into Kali, I just couldn't access windows 7, other than that it was fine. I've also had a few experiences with suse but I didn't install it onto the PC as it was on my grandparent's PC and I was extremely young, so that was just me using the operating system. Other than that I've had no other experiences so I'll probably take your advise and look into other more simple versions of linux.

[Lysander]

I have had experience with Kali Linux previously, and although my first time dual booting with Kali failed as I didn't follow the instructions properly, it still would boot into Kali, I just couldn't access windows 7, other than that it was fine. I've also had a few experiences with suse but I didn't install it onto the PC as it was on my grandparent's PC and I was extremely young, so that was just me using the operating system. Other than that I've had no other experiences so I'll probably take your advise and look into other more simple versions of linux.

I don't understand why people are so interested in Kali. There are way better distros to start with. You're clearly interested in Linux, and for anyone interested in starting out properly the first port of call should be Ubuntu LTS. It's where I started, it's where sooo many others started. I think it's an excellent OS for what it is.

Don't worry, if you continue your interest in Linux, and if you start learning more and moving up the distros, this forum will likely see you again at some point.

[None1975]

I have had experience with Kali Linux previously, and although my first time dual booting with Kali failed as I didn't follow the instructions properly, it still would boot into Kali, I just couldn't access windows 7, other than that it was fine. I've also had a few experiences with suse but I didn't install it onto the PC as it was on my grandparent's PC and I was extremely young, so that was just me using the operating system. Other than that I've had no other experiences so I'll probably take your advise and look into other more simple versions of linux.

Why you use Kali Linux? You are professional penetration tester, or security specialist? If not, Kali Linux is not for you. According Kali Linux web site

If you are looking for a Linux distribution to learn the basics of Linux and need a good starting point, Kali Linux is not the ideal distribution for you. You may want to begin with Ubuntu, Mint, or Debian instead. If you’re interested in getting hands-on with the internals of Linux, take a look the “Linux From Scratch” project.

[Mephistopheles]

Why you use Kali Linux? You are professional penetration tester, or security specialist? If not, Kali Linux is not for you. According Kali Linux web site

The reason I used Kali Linux a few years back was because I had an interest in those sorts of things, but no actual experience in either of those fields. But as of recently I have come to realise that Kali isn't the correct operating system for me and so I started looking for other operating systems and the first one I decided to try using was Debian since I had read about a lot whilst researching things related to Kali.

I don't understand why people are so interested in Kali. There are way better distros to start with. You're clearly interested in Linux, and for anyone interested in starting out properly the first port of call should be Ubuntu LTS. It's where I started, it's where sooo many others started. I think it's an excellent OS for what it is.

Don't worry, if you continue your interest in Linux, and if you start learning more and moving up the distros, this forum will likely see you again at some point.

Thanks, hopefully after a few years of getting used to some other Linux based OS's I'll be able to solve this problem myself and come back to these forums, I look forward to it!

[Mephistopheles]

First try this

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apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-misc-nonfree 

Now it may say that it's unable to locate the package in which case you would have enable contrib and non-free repos in sources.list through the nano command

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nano /etc/apt/sources.list

by adding "contrib" and "non-free" [without quotes] at the end of each repo line and then retrying.

A little update, whilst trying to install Ubuntu and having issues with that too, (i.e when I pressed install or try it would just display a black screen indefinitely) I discovered that having one display plugged into my GPU and the other plugged into my mobo's on board graphics, I was able to get a little further before, so with this in mind I booted into Debian's Safe Mode and was able to tap in the root password and now I have access to a console. I tried using "apt-get update" with a little success, although it says that it couldn't resolve "ftp.uk.debian.org" so it couldn't install all the necessary files. I also tried the other two commands,

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apt-get install firmware-misc-nonfree

This command came up with an output that stated it was unable to locate the package, and so then I tried

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nano /etc/apt/sources.lst

This came up with sources.lst though the entire screen was blank and after combing through the options on the bottom I couldn't figure where I was supposed to add "contrib" and "nonfree" on the ends of the repos you mentioned.

I was also thinking of perhaps re-installing Debian and choosing something else other than ftp.uk.debian.org
[EDIT] After reading a bit into it I've realised that the mirror I chose was probably the best choice for my country.

[kedaha]

I disagree with Lysander about using Ubuntu. It shouldn't be too difficult to set up and configure a desktop system. Once it's done, there's very little else you need to do. That is, of course, if you install Debian's core distribution: stable or "stretch" as it's currently known. Once you have a desktop environment in place, there's no "systems administration." It's not like running a server.
But if you have some fancy new graphics card, it may be a little more complicated. The proprietary drivers obstacle—and it's nearly always issues with graphics cards and WIFI drivers—often puts itself between beginners and the goal of getting a desktop system up and running, but doesn't make Debian more difficult per se.
For your information: nvidia/gm204/gr/sw_nonctx.bin is included in firmware-misc-nonfree.

[kedaha]

Just to add to my last post; I don't have such a graphics card but I think you'll need to install bumblebee as well.
if you can't install anything, that's because neither the network nor apt got configured during installation, but a look at /etc/apt/sources.list will confirm that.

[Mephistopheles]

Just to add to my last post; I don't have such a graphics card but I think you'll need to install bumblebee as well.
if you can't install anything, that's because neither the network nor apt got configured during installation, but a look at /etc/apt/sources.list will confirm that.

Thanks for the info! but whenever I look at sources.lst it's just a blank page and I don't know which of the options at the bottom of it I should use to be able to view any repos or what was installed and what wasn't during the Debian installation.

[kedaha]

Under the commented cdrom entry you should have this for the uk:

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deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main

# stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main
#deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main

[Mephistopheles]

I'm assuming that once I enter sources.lst there should be a list of things there, and a lot of text including what you have told me to look for, but whenever I enter sources.lst it's completely blank apart from the title "GNU Nano 2.7.4" and the different shortcuts at the bottom of the screen, other than that it's just black with the option to type things in. If there is something that I'm missing that's really obvious then I apologise

[kedaha]

Nano is a useful editor for editing configuration files.
If you just add the following lines, followed by Control O to save and Control X to exit the editor, followed by apt-get update. But it's likely that your network did not get configured, which is why the present configuration file is empty.

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nano /etc/apt/sources.list

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deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main

# stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main

[Mephistopheles]

I've realised why it was coming up blank and I feel like a complete idiot now, I was typing in the command as "nano /etc/apt/sources.lst", notice how I was putting "sources.lst" instead of "sources.list"

[EDIT] My sources.list now looks like this:

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#

# deb cdrom: [Debian GNU/Linuxm 9.1.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST 20170722-11:28] / stretch main

#deb cdrom: [Debian GNU/Linuxm 9.1.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST 20170722-11:28] / stretch main

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main

# stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main
#deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main

And when I type

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apt-get update

The console gives this output:

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Err:1 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stretch InRelease
  Could not resolve 'ftp.uk.debian.org'
Err:2 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stretch InRelease
  Could not resolve 'ftp.uk.debian.org'
Err:3 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stretch InRelease
  Could not resolve 'ftp.uk.debian.org'
Reading package list... Done
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/InRelease Could not resolve 'ftp.uk.debian.org'
W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/debian-security/dists/stretch/updates/InRelease Could not resolve 'security.debian.org'
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch-updates/InRelease Could not resolve 'ftp.uk.debian.org'
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

[kedaha]

I've realised why it was coming up blank and I feel like a complete idiot now, I was typing in the command as "nano /etc/apt/sources.lst", notice how I was putting "sources.lst" instead of "sources.list"

With the name "Mephistopheles, you're having a devil of a time...
The sources.list is now correct.
Now you need to get the network working and it'll be done.
Are you using WIFI or can you use a wired connection to the router?

[Mephistopheles]

Now you need to get the network working and it'll be done.
Are you using WIFI or can you use a wired connection to the router?

I'm using a wireless connection to the router through a wifi booster.

[kedaha]

I think the wireless connection part should be done under a different topic because, when it's solved, it won't be much help to others under the present title.

[kedaha]

So it might be a good idea to deal with the network issue in another topic and once that's dealt with, return to the present topic, if necessary, to deal with the graphics card thing.

[sunrat]

Just to add to my last post; I don't have such a graphics card but I think you'll need to install bumblebee as well.
if you can't install anything, that's because neither the network nor apt got configured during installation, but a look at /etc/apt/sources.list will confirm that.

He mentioned "PC" so I guess it's a desktop. Bumblebee only is for laptops with dual graphics afaik.