random nonblocking pool is initialized Ubuntu server 14.04

[    3.490158] firewire_core 0000:06:02.0: created device fw0: GUID 001e8c000042dc3f, S400
[    3.616414] random: lvm urandom read with 30 bits of entropy available
[    3.671945] bio: create slab <bio-1> at 1
[    3.843667] EXT4-fs (dm-0): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[    4.026158] Switched to clocksource tsc
[    4.460003] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (183) terminated with status 1
[    4.462054] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
[    4.470931] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (194) terminated with status 1
[    4.472846] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
[    4.482749] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (196) terminated with status 1
[    4.484555] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
[    4.493858] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (198) terminated with status 1
[    4.495605] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
[    4.503723] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (200) terminated with status 1
[    4.505317] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
[    4.516120] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (201) terminated with status 1
[    4.517821] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
[    4.552321] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (203) terminated with status 1
[    4.553990] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
[    5.143395] random: nonblocking pool is initialized
[    5.480640] Adding 7970812k swap on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap_1.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:7970812k FS










It is doing this because Ubuntu is trying to switch to a high resolution video mode for the console and your hardware isn't cooperating.

Fixing this while at the machine

When Grub2 shows up:

• Highlight the menu item for Ubuntu and press 'e'
• Go to the line where it loads the kernel and press 'End' to go to the end of the line
• Add 'nomodeset'
• Press F10 or Ctrl-X to boot it

With any luck it will boot into the login screen. This won't save that option but at least now you can edit the file for Grub2 and update it to save that option if it works. I blogged about this recently.

Fixing this for good

• Log in (ssh will probably do, if you know the machine's IP)
• Update the grub config file nano /etc/init/grub
• Find the line that starts with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
• Edit the line to include nomodeset, in my case, the line looked like this afterwards: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"
• Save/exit nano
• Run update-grub
• Reboot

Thank you! For others, the line you add nomodeset to is the line that starts with linux /boot/vmlinuz..., not the initrd line.

Note: The easy way of doing this with modern versions of GRUB is by editing /etc/default/grub and add "nomodeset" (separated by a space) to the end of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable