LMDE won't install on netbook [solved]

[cindy_lu52]

I have been trying to install LMDE (10) on my Aspire One. It has a 1.66 GHz Atom processor with 1 GB memory and 160 GB hard drive. When I start the installer, I select the language with no problem. Then I select the time zone, again no problem. Then I select my keyboard - no problem. then I click on "forward". I see the dialog box come up which says "scanning partitions". After about 3 seconds, the installer quits and I am back to the desktop.

I am not interested in saving anything of the hard drive, as I've backed everything up on an external drive. I've been able to install Linux Mint 10 (gnome). Is there some kind of contention issue?

I'm installing off a flash drive that I've created with uNetBootIn, just like the regular Mint 10.

Does anyone have any ideas why it's not working?

[richyrich]

Found this, hope it may help : http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 360138/url
( It is for 64 bit, but there is a link to the 32 bit tutorial right near the top )

good luck, richy

[cindy_lu52]

Yes, that is all good, but when I get to step 4 (step 8 in 32-bit) Nothing happens - in other words, the installer quits after step 3 (step 7). I can only guess that gparted is hosed.
Oh, yeah, the MD5 for the downloaded ISO matches, so I don't think it's corrupted.

[richyrich]

sorry . . another member may come along with help . . .

[cindy_lu52]

Well, thanks for trying, I appreciate it!

[richyrich]

At step 8, have you tried choosing the Manual partitioning ? if so, what can you see ? (step 9)

[cindy_lu52]

I might try that *if* I could get to that step. As I said, after selecting the keyboard, I get a dialog box while it is scanning partitions, then it quits - I don't even get to do anything with partitions because it doesn't get that far.

Oh, there are NO buttons on the dialog box.

[wayne128]

Assuming your USB preparation is good, and yet you cannot proceed at the step, it is likely that your hard disk had something that does not play well with the installer, thus it quit.

Since you have already save all the file, you can afford to wipe the whole hard disk.
But you might also want to figure out what is stopping the installer from proceeding.
It can help other who has similar issue.

Method A : find out what is stopping installer

First thing to do is boot with Live CD or your Live USB, open a terminal and type sudo fdisk -l then hit enter, post the result of fdisk.
Do similar with another command sudo parted -l print

The result should help if fdisk and parted would report something on the internal hard disk partition.

Then some other works will be necessary later after reviewing the output of fdisk and parted

Method B, wipe out the disk so it looks like a factory-install fresh drive

Another way is, since you are already in the position to start fresh, you can really just clean your drive by wiping away its partition table, then the installer will see it as a unformatted drive ( as if you have it as factory original condition). Then there should not be any 'old baggage' that prevent Mint installer from proceeding.. of course that assume your hard disk is in good condition.

The method is outline below:
1. Boot up from your USB stick
2. Start a root terminal. (Get a "#" prompt.) you can type sudo su and hit return to get # prompt
3. type fdisk -l just to see what disks you have and what partitions are on your disk(s).
If you have only one disk you should get just /dev/sda
if it is something else other than /dev/sda showing up, and you are not sure, then stop and just post what you see.

4. Now if you want to continue, do this dd command
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda count=64
where /dev/sda is the device reported in 3. above,


This dd command would write all zero bytes to the first 64 blocks of the drive.
Once completed, it looks like a factory-fresh drive with no partitions or formatting.

You should be able to install Mint.

[cindy_lu52]

Well, I tried 2 other versions - KDE, LXDE and got pretty much the same thing. However, I tried just running gparted which is what is used to partition the drive and it crashed. I suspect gparted is the problem. As I've stated before, I can't even get to the partition part of the install. I have no personal problem re-partitioning the drive or wiping it anew. ...however, the partitioning program seems to have problems. Right now I have two copies of Mint 10 (gnome) which seem to work pretty well. But I *want* to run LMDE.

While running one of the Mint 10 copies I got the following information.
From fdisk:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004205a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 17860 143453125 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 17860 19458 12835841 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 19076 19458 3068928 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 17860 19076 9766912 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

From parted:

Model: ATA WDC WD1600BEVT-2 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 147GB 147GB primary ext4 boot
2 147GB 160GB 13.1GB extended
6 147GB 157GB 10.0GB logical ext3
5 157GB 160GB 3143MB logical linux-swap(v1)

[wayne128]

There is no error running fdisk and parted, thus partitions are OK

Something is not right.

There was a time when second LMDE release on Dec2010, version 201012, lots of people reported problem with 32-bit version. either boot issue or installation issue.

For sanity check, ensure your version is the respin, 201101 version

Linux Mint "Debian" - Linux Mint Debian 32-bit (201101)
Information about this edition
Release Debian
Edition Linux Mint Debian 32-bit (201101)
Desktop Gnome
Media DVD
Size 1GB
MD5 daeabb182b016cd62bfced5483441b5a

[vrkalak]

I have, the exact same Acer Aspire One 10" Netbook (the specs are exactly the same)

I have LMDE x64-bit running on my AAO Netbook with absolutely no problems.

Back to the beginning . . .
How did you download the lmde.iso? and from which site?
Did you check the MD5Sum numbers to make sure they matched?

Then, how did you save it to the USB-drive? Unetbootin?
Or another USB-persistent applicatiion/program?
Or a direct save via CLI and the terminal to the USB?

Does the USB-drive with LMDEx32 open as a "Live" feature?
Is there another computer you can check the USB-drive and the Debian/Mint installer on?

If all else fails ... You might try saving the LMDE.iso to USB-drive by this method > http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/statler ... stallation
This is from the Crunchbang Forum but it is easily converted to using LMDE (as both distros are Debian-based)

[cindy_lu52]

To Wayne128:

Yes, I rechecked the MD5 and it is the same, I also did a "CD check" from the usb menu and it came out fine.


To vrkalak:
I downloaded the iso from the mint site (I've actually done it three times with the same results). The MD5 checks out with what is posted. I used uNetBootIn to burn the flash drive - it is the very same flash drive I have used to install Mint 10 (twice) as well as the same flash drive I've used for other uses. The flash drive is used as a boot and comes up live, everything seems to work, even my wireless connection to the internet (which I'm using right now). When the installer scans my hard drive it crashes. If I start gparted (the partitioner) from either of the Mint 10 copies that run on the system, it crashes.

I'm now wondering why Mint 10 works but nothing else does.

[wayne128]

To Wayne128:

Yes, I rechecked the MD5 and it is the same, I also did a "CD check" from the usb menu and it came out fine.


To vrkalak:
When the installer scans my hard drive it crashes. If I start gparted (the partitioner) from either of the Mint 10 copies that run on the system, it crashes.

I'm now wondering why Mint 10 works but nothing else does.

I think with all these information, I have to suspect some kinds of compatibility issue between the USB flash and gparted. I read ubuntu forum with some people having similar issues of gparted crashes with USB flash drive. Some bugs were filed there, you can look at them if you wish.

Here is my thought, but it takes you time and some effect to do it with your hardware.
As my suspicious is on the USB flash, the first thing I wish to know is the what is the brand / model of the USB flash. Then following are more ideas.

1. do a fdisk -l and post the partition details of the USB flash
Check what kind of cylinder/head/sector.
Typically head/sector are 255/63

Now this is experimental, do a zeroing to your USB flash, so that it is totally clean.
you can use dd command to write zero to the whole USB flash drive, or any other method you are familiar with.
Or even just use Win7 and use its Disk Management tool to format the USB with FAT32.
As much as possible stay with 255 head and 63 sector.

Then repeat the unetbootin preparation and see what happen.

A few more idea, if you have those stuff with you

2. Use another brand of USB flash, repeat the same procedure you are already familiar with, capture its fdisk -l to see partition table.

Often this would just work out. I have three USB sticks, several computers and old laptops, one USB stick had most trouble with one of the not-too-old computer, it just refuse to even boot up. The same USB stick works in at least 4 other computers/laptop.

While another USB stick, of different brand, using exactly the same method to prepare the same iso , would be 100% working with that computer.

I have not been able to know the real technical reason but it points to some kind of compatibility /firmware inside USB stick. As flash is cheap nowadays I ended up having three pieces for all my play , fun and learning.
So when one cannot work, the other usually can..

3. Use a USB drive, instead of USB flash. Usually USB drive is much more 'compatible' ( solid firmware design, large corporation and large computer manufacturer base) and because it is very fast, it normally have much less problem booting up computer.

Be sure to back up all data since using this as bootable USB drive mean you need to wipe out the drive.
Do not try it on first generation Sata-USB-3.0. Many cannot boot due to hardware.

[Oscar799]

Moved here from Newbie Questions

[gosa]

As my suspicious is on the USB flash, the first thing I wish to know is the what is the brand / model of the USB flash....

I just read this thread, and after skimming through it I have to agree on that assessment...

Now - I can't really offer any help in the matter, but it is possible that I can help you with a reason for why you're having problems...

I had the same problem when I first tried to install LMDE on my computer a couple of months ago. When it first happened I tried to blame LMDE since "I could install other distributions without problems".
After reading around and also getting some help from the people in this forum I narrowed itdown to being a problem with my usb-stick that I was using.

What I'd like you to do is to boot the the live-usb you created, open a terminal and run gparted from the terminal. If I'm right you're going to get something like this:

Code: Select all

mint@mint ~ $ sudo gparted
======================
libparted : 2.3
======================
Backtrace has 15 calls on stack:
  15: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_assert+0x31) [0x7f79c10275c1]
  14: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x392f6) [0x7f79c10522f6]
  13: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x39a73) [0x7f79c1052a73]
  12: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x3a72d) [0x7f79c105372d]
  11: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_disk_add_partition+0x1cb) [0x7f79c102dd3b]
  10: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x3bc74) [0x7f79c1054c74]
  9: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x3be65) [0x7f79c1054e65]
  8: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_disk_new+0x75) [0x7f79c102e815]
  7: /usr/sbin/gpartedbin() [0x44a884]
  6: /usr/sbin/gpartedbin() [0x45a721]
  5: /usr/sbin/gpartedbin() [0x477ec7]
  4: /usr/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so.1(+0x383f2) [0x7f79bfaac3f2]
  3: /lib/libglib-2.0.so.0(+0x697e4) [0x7f79beef57e4]
  2: /lib/libpthread.so.0(+0x7971) [0x7f79be4d7971]
  1: /lib/libc.so.6(clone+0x6d) [0x7f79be23392d]
Assertion (head_size <= 63) at ../../../libparted/labels/dos.c:662 in function probe_partition_for_geom() failed.

And it that is the case you've happened upon a know bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/558431

The reason why I - at first - blamed LMDE was that I have 4 identical (or at least seemingly identical) Kingston DataTraveler 102 usb-sticks. 3 out of these 4 works perfectly when transferring an iso with Unetbootin and the 4th of those transfers alright, but it makes Gparted freak out completely. When I used the "bad" stick with Gparted starting it from the menu it just closed down, and when running the installer it just got stuck - just like you described it.

In the end I solved it by marking the "bad" usb (it still works as a storage device - I just can't format it in Linux) so I know not to try to use it together with GParted.

So - I guess the "easy" suggestion for you in this case is to indeed try another usb-stick, preferably another manufacturer (I tried other Kingston - the G3 series and have the same problem with them).
Then on the other hand if you like to "tinker" with stuff I suppose it is possible to fix it somehow - maybe there's an update out somewhere that manages these sticks...

[cindy_lu52]

That did it!!!!

Apparently Verbatim USB sticks don't work, My new Sandisk one did. It was just by accident that I was always using the Verbatim one.

[gosa]

That did it!!!!

Apparently Verbatim USB sticks don't work, My new Sandisk one did. It was just by accident that I was always using the Verbatim one.

I'm glad it worked out for you!

One thing though - I don't think it's Verbatim in general that don't work - if you've had a couple of them it's quite possible that some of them would've been ok.
(at least that's my impression)

Btw - I see that you've done the same thing I accidentally did yesterday... Put the [solved] statement in the subject of your first post of this thread instead of in your reply like you have now... People only see it if it's in the first post.