In order for me to boot into 12.04, I have to add the parameter acpi=off in grub. Any other options as specified here do not allow me to boot into Ubuntu.
My question is simple, what does setting the parameter acpi=off actually do?
And more importantly does repeatedly booting with acpi=off damage or harm the computer in anyway?
Using acpi = off disables your Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
off temporarily while booting Ubuntu. If you have to add the acpi = off to let ubuntu boot successfully, it means that the ACPI on your computer isn't compatible with this version of ubuntu.
I don't think using acpi = off repeatedly wrecks your computer, because it only disables ACPI temporarily.
However, if you don't want to add the acpi = off parameters every time you boot, you can disable the new card (BIOS) or disable ACPI (also from the BIOS). Use the second option if you can't find the New Card Interface.
But, if you have Windows, disabling ACPI from the BIOS may wreck Windows and the computer will force you to reinstall it. So do that if you have a hidden windows recovery partition in your computer.
