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[Launchpad Bug Tracker <1319521@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Computer, Toshiba Satellite L655, bios version 3.5
(BIOS can not be updated to version 3.6, though I've tried.  Wrong size.)

Problem:
TWICE in the past month, involving two separate installations on the same healthy internal hard drive conventional Ubuntu updates have essentially disabled this computer from booting to Ubuntu unless the user chose to boot to "Previous Linux Versions" from the GRUB menu.

I've investigated what works and what does not and determined version
3.8.0-29-generic will allow the computer to boot fine, but versions
ending in -39-generic or -49, will not work.

The boot failure is extremely odd to watch.  It boots all the way up to the login screen, and before you can enter a password, the screen turns black and a page of technobabble appears, and from there it appears nothing can be done.  No prompt, just text on the screen, the last line of which reads:
CR2: 00000000ffffffec

I tried to install Linux-crashdump, but failed and I could not figure
out why.  Something about a lock.

In order to further prove my hypothesis that the problem was unrelated
to the internal hard drive, I attached a self-booting external drive
running the same version of Ubuntu.  It had not been updated in a while
and worked fine.  I then updated Ubuntu and then it began acting like
both of the installations on the internal hard drive.

I'm hoping that after a fix is released for this, booting the computer
to an earlier version and running update will solve the booting issue.

Per the bug reporting instructions, I have tried to upgrade the BIOS
from its current 3.5 to the latest release, 3.6, but the Toshiba
distributed linux boot cd image fails to permit the update claiming that
the ROM image is 480,000, and that the current BIOS is too small, just
400,000.  It would appear that updating is not an option, unless there
is something about updating a BIOS I still need to learn.

Not to distract from the primary matter, but I'd like to add that Ubuntu
12.04 has never acknowledged the battery in this laptop either.  Not
only will it not report the battery state, but even the ISOLINUX boot cd
provided by Toshiba initially refused to update the bios because it
could not find a battery, and yet the battery is healthy enough to run
from for several hours.  I would agree this seems more like a fault of
the laptop or the BIOS than a flaw of linux, but if anyone could figure
out how to adjust Ubuntu to correct for such a shortcoming, it would
make this laptop more pleasant to work with.

** Affects: linux (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Low
         Status: Incomplete

-- 
After routine update of a healthy installation to version 3.8.0-39, Ubuntu 12.04LTS (32bit) would crash at login screen
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1319521
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