Xfce 14 installer crashes at end (UFS related?)

[J65nko]

I tried to install Mint 14 Xfce but the install tells me it crashed and offers to file a report. Unfortunately
I don't get that opportunity.

The crash happens at the end of the install during the hardware configuration IIRC. My effort to make a screenshot and save it to an USB stick failed.

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$ uname -a
Linux mint 3.5.0-17-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 9 19:31:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The first primary partition of the disk contains an OpenBSD install using the BSD UFS file system.
The installer has some problems with UFS. From the dmesg:

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[  368.127139] You didn't specify the type of your ufs filesystem
[  368.127139]
[  368.127139] mount -t ufs -o ufstype=sun|sunx86|44bsd|ufs2|5xbsd|old|hp|nextstep|nextstep-cd|openstep ...
[  368.127139]
[  368.127139] >>>WARNING<<< Wrong ufstype may corrupt your filesystem, default is ufstype=old
[  368.152129] UFS-fs error (device sda1): ufs_check_page: bad entry in directory #2: rec_len is too small for name_len - offset=0, rec_len=12, name_len=260
[  368.843990] You didn't specify the type of your ufs filesystem
[  368.843990]

This is repeated a few times

After the installer crashed I can still use the Live DVD. From an xterm I can even mount the OpenBSD UFS file system and read from it:

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 $  sudo mkdir /u
$ sudo mount -t ufs -o ufstype=44bsd -o ro /dev/sda1 /u
$ ls -l /u

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     512 Dec 21 09:16 altroot
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    1024 Dec 21 09:18 bin
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   68516 Dec 26 05:46 boot
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 9196398 Dec 26 05:46 bsd
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 7393176 Dec 26 05:46 bsd.rd
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root   17408 Dec 26 09:08 dev
[snip]
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root root      11 Dec 26 05:46 sys -> usr/src/sys
drwxrwxrwt  5 root root     512 Dec 26 09:07 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root     512 Dec  4 20:40 usr
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root     512 Dec  4 20:40 var

The Linux fdisk -l output:

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Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005dbe2

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63    62914622    31457280   a6  OpenBSD
/dev/sda2        62914623   125829182    31457280   83  Linux
/dev/sda3       125829183   153092158    13631488   83  Linux
/dev/sda4       153092159   156301487     1604664+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

The first install failed. That is why I created the 3 primary Linux partions ( for "/" and "/home" and swap) with the command line OpenBSD fdisk.

My previous two Ubuntu installs also had problems with UFS but somehow seemed to cope with it.

Is there any way I can pass the correct UFS type parameter for the UFS mount?

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$ sudo mount -t ufs -o [color=blue]ufstype=44bsd[/color] -o ro /dev/sda1 /u

Actually it also could be something else because after the UFS errors, the swap partition at sda4 is being added:

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[  688.224605] >>>WARNING<<< Wrong ufstype may corrupt your filesystem, default is ufstype=old
[  688.237301] UFS-fs error (device sda1): ufs_check_page: bad entry in directory #2: rec_len is too small for name_len - offset=0, rec_len=12, name_len=260
[  786.610105] Adding 1604660k swap on /dev/sda4.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1604660k

This is also the last line of the 'dmesg'.

Any pointers?

[RichardH]

I had the same problem when I tried to install using the "live" version of LM 14 Xfce: choice #1.
When I selected Choice #2, "Install to hard disk", it installed as expected with no errors.

[How-old!]

There is a fault with the basic installer in Xfce 14 download which is (almost) corrected on the first (language selection) panel. It is necessary to either have a wired connection, an active wireless connection installed from the liveCD or have updated the liveCD online. It can be overlooked, but a link to offer an updated installer appears on the first line of that first panel, but sometimes its appearance is delayed long enough that one has already moved on to the second panel! Failure to follow one of these procedures causes the dud installer to churn out failure messages.

[RichardH]

Thanks for the tip!

I managed to install LM 14 Xfce,
but did not wait long enough for the new installer
when trying to install LMDE 14 Xfce.