SOLVED: Installation Mint 9 hangs after keyboard selection

[.William.]

Hi.

I used Linux Live USB Creator (LiLi) to install Linux Mint 9 Isadora (Gnome) on my USB thumb-drive.
Also I had LiLi make a 'Casper RW' file to be able to optimize my settings and install updates in Mint and see if they work and then safe them.
It was my intention to then install Mint to my pc with the 'Install Mint' feature from within my usb installation.
This should have worked.
During the configuration for the hard-drive install I encountered the following problem;
Steps were:
1) Select Language
2) Select timezone
3) Select keyboard layout
After keyboard selection the install program will hang (freeze up).
It will not load the next screen were you have to select the space on your hard-drive were you like Mint to be installed on.
This part of the installation makes use of GPArted for the partitioning tasks.
I googled it and found many others have reported this same problem at the Mint blog. (ofcourse kinda useless since the blog doesn't provide technical support nor does it reply to the messages)

I tried some things out which I am posting here :

~ $ sudo gparted
======================
libparted : 2.2
======================
De backtrace heeft 16 aanroepen op de stack:
16: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_assert+0x2a) [0x11af0a]
15: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x42507) [0x152507]
14: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x43317) [0x153317]
13: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x4460c) [0x15460c]
12: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0xf7b1) [0x11f7b1]
11: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_disk_add_partition+0x262) [0x123032]
10: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x45fa3) [0x155fa3]
9: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x4619f) [0x15619f]
8: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_disk_new+0x75) [0x123e15]
7: /usr/sbin/gpartedbin() [0x80901e6]
6: /usr/sbin/gpartedbin() [0x809fc9b]
5: /usr/sbin/gpartedbin() [0x80c0532]
4: /usr/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so.1(+0x30eb2) [0x201eb2]
3: /lib/libglib-2.0.so.0(+0x65def) [0x324def]
2: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0(+0x596e) [0x88696e]
1: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(clone+0x5e) [0x9cba4e]
*** assertion (head_size <= 63) at ../../../libparted/labels/dos.c:659 in function probe_partition_for_geom() failed ***

~ $ sudo gparted /dev/sda
======================
libparted : 2.2
======================

$ sudo fdisk -lu

Schijf /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 14593 cilinders, totaal 234441648 sectoren
Eenheid = sectoren van 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Schijf-ID: 0x5f2e9dcc

Apparaat Opstart Begin Einde Blokken ID Systeem
/dev/sda1 * 4096 12689407 6342656 37 [onbekend]
Partitie 1 eindigt niet op een cilindergrens.
/dev/sda2 12693504 171512093 79409295 7 HPFS/NTFS

Schijf /dev/sdb: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
23 koppen, 23 sectoren/spoor, 14804 cilinders, totaal 7831552 sectoren
Eenheid = sectoren van 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Schijf-ID: 0x3ade6e57

Apparaat Opstart Begin Einde Blokken ID Systeem
/dev/sdb1 8064 7831551 3911744 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Schijf /dev/sdc: 8029 MB, 8029470208 bytes
255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 976 cilinders, totaal 15682559 sectoren
Eenheid = sectoren van 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Schijf-ID: 0x00000000

Apparaat Opstart Begin Einde Blokken ID Systeem
/dev/sdc1 * 44 15679439 7839698 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Sorry for the international language in it but the elementaries are universal, no ?

From what I red on different forums the problem is within GParted, and specifically it has something to do with patches applied in version 2.2 of libparted.
I figured that if I could downgrade the libparted in my Mint to an earlier version it could possible be fixed that way.
But I don't know how to downgrade libparted nor do I know for sure if that could work.

Is there someone here who thinks he/she could lend a helping hand ?
It would greatly be appreciated by me and the many silent seekers of answers from the Google search-engines

Sincerely,

William

[jpjeffery]

Join the club. This is a problem that seems to have been around for years (not just with Mint).

I had it a couple of weeks ago with a newly downloaded Ubuntu install CD. Then I tried Mint 9 and it worked. Now I'm trying again on the same laptop with the same HDD and the same Mint installer and it's now halting at the same point the Ubuntu installer halted at. It's crazy!

[.William.]

I am aware my problem isn't unique in any way, but I'd hope there is some solution for it.
Since it appears the problem lays with GParted, specificaly with the patches applied to the libparted version 2.2 package, I can imagine that downgrading libparted to an earlier version could possibly fix the problem and allow the installation to continue. At least this is what I make up from different posts on different forums.
If someone can tell me how to downgrade libparted I will try it to see if it works.

A bit troubling is the fact that if you are right and this problem has been around for years I like to know why there is no warning that this might happen as I put a week of work into this and if I can't fix it I will have to do everything over.

[.William.]

I solved the problem without getting into complicated workarounds.
What I did to be able to move on with my installation is I made a backup with the backup tool provided in Mint and stored that on my other usb thumbdrive. Then I installed Mint to my hard disk and restored the backup to it using the same tool. This way at least I didn't have to do everything over. The restoration of the backup went very fast and most of it was successful. The restoration took no more than 15 minutes. Doesn't take away that there are issues that should be resolved by the Mint development team. At least they should inform new Mint users that installation from usb thumbdrive has a higher risk of failure.

On the bright side: My Mint is now running smoothly in a dual-boot constellation with 'that other OS' and I notice how I am already beginning to forget it is even there. On my next pc, which I will be buying in the next few months, I will make Mint my primary boot system for sure. I love the way you can make it your own and personalize it just by digging into the available repositories ! For example: I trew OpenOffice out right away since itś a resource hog and replaced it with AbiWord which can do all the things I need it to do. I'm not a student so I only used the writer part anyway and AbiWord can do this perfectly and is much lighter to work with in my opinion. I also love the theming you can easily do with Mint although Compiz could be supplemented standard with a theme browser which I think itś lacking right now. As you can see Iḿ already moving to the next phase of end-user ship and Iḿ liking it. A peaceful feeling of deliverance (from MS) has come over me, and you may quote me on that.

Sincerely,

William

[allercg]

(SOLVED!!!!)
Hi,
I'm new in Linux and can't do much stuff in console and bla bla bla but if anyone is interested in knowing how I solved it in a really easy way this is what I did:
- When you get to the screen when you can select the different keyboards JUST DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING AND PRESS FORWARD, OTHERWISE THE FORWARD OPTION WILL BE GONE FOREVER. Select the default one ( USA , I think) and then change it if you need when everything is installed.
Good luck and tell me if it worked guys!