[SOLVED] Operating System Not Found

[Acmer]

Hello!

I'm having problems with installing Mint. First some background and info:

I'm currently trying to install Mint on a Fujitsu Amilo laptop. The machine is about 4 years old I think. 4 gigs memory, ~2.4 dualcore, something something.
The laptop had Win 7 when I got it. Formatted and installed Ubuntu 14.04.3 (i386) with "OS not found" error at first try. On second try everything went well.

I had Ubuntu for about a month and then a friend hinted about Mint. Well, I'm a noob with linux so I decided to give it a go. Downloaded Mint Cinnamon 17.3 64 bit .iso and burned it on DVD. Format and install. Everything went well and restarted. Before shutdown I get the ModemManager1 -error. Nothing works so had to force shutdown. Powerup and there's the "OS not found". Another install from DVD and same results. Made a mintStick and format+install. No modemmanager1 -error but after restart there's the "OS not found". ~5 retries with slightly different choices and always the same. Made a boot recovery stick and installed from DVD but still the same error on boot.

There's very few options in BIOS and none of them is even close to something that some fixes suggest. I've changed the boot order a few times to make it boot correctly. HDD seems to be error-free.

Any suggestions what I could try next? Would trying a 32 bit install help? I've skipped all code walls and tricks that take a week to go through.

[kc1di]

have you tried boot repair after installing?
you can get it here along with more info.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

You must install Mint/Ubuntu in the same mode as windows 7/10 -- that is if the machine is UEFI enable then they both must be installed in UEFI Mode.
Good Luck

Also at the end of the boot repair run it creates a log file with suggested fixes. that file is stored in the cloud. It will give you the web address , make sure you right that address down. So you can share it with others. It may contain clue if boot repair does not fix the problem the first time.

[Acmer]

Same mode as windows? I don't have windows on my laptop. I don't know what UEFI is, but I suppose it's not "UEFI enable".

Thanks, will try the boot repair trick in a few hours!

[Acmer]

Nope, it didn't help. Still the same old "OS not found". Any other ideas?

Here's the paste link:
http://paste2.org/X1XG350Z

[fabien85]

Form your boot-info on pastebin, you are trying a Legacy/BIOS install.
I dont have much experience with this type of install. There is no error flashing to my eyes on the boot-info, but that may be because of my inexperience.

Would be good to determine if your computer is UEFI capable. Because if so, it will be much easier and more robust to do a UEFI install. If you have the computer manual, search for any occurence of UEFI or EFI. If you dont have the computer manual, explore thoroughly the BIOS, searching for the same.
If you find any occurence of it, please post the context, and it's quasi completely sure your computer is UEFI capable.

If you dont find anything, then chances are you have a legacy computer, and you will need help of one of the more old-school forumer.

For a legacy install, things look not bad to me : you have grub in the Master Boot record of the hard drive, grub files are on the partition sda3 and your system is on sda1, and fstab looks ok. Then again I'm lacking experience to inspect the other details.

[austin.texas]

Check your BIOS settings for "Secure Boot". If it is there, disable it.

[Acmer]

No secure boot in bios. Tried many things today, nothing helped. Tomorrow I'll try checking the hdd for errors (did quick check today) and a few new boot recovery tricks, including repartitioning.

Btw, 'smart guys' checked some of my logs and I got no UEFI

[austin.texas]

Another possibility - Have you tried booting with no USB drive connected?

Is there some reason you wanted to have a separate /boot partition? It seems to me that just adds one more layer of complexity. Usually that is added for special configurations - like LVM or RAID setups.

[majpooper]

I jad this problem a long time ago - it turned out it was the boot order in the bios.
After the install on the HD. First it looked to the CD drive then USB then the HD. turned out I left a non-bootable USB thumb drive plugged in. It also happened if I left an iPod shuffel plugged in. Change the boot order in the BIOS or just ensure no USB devices are plugged in.

[Acmer]

Boot order is so trivial it has never been a problem for me.

Found a solution!
Everything seemed to be fine: laptop started normally, packet md5 was good, usb stick was good, 'burn' went well, install was normal, then at boot it had 'OS not found'. After checking grub and other essential stuff, there was nothing wrong anywhere. Laptop just didn't find it. While reading dozens of tricks to fix it, there were a few side mentions about partitions. Thought I'd try it, AND THAT FIXED IT!

Here's how!
Had a slightly older laptop. Even BIOS is very simple and there's nothing I can do through that. No visible problems anywhere, except the 'OS not found'. So, I partitioned my HDD like this:
sda1 100gb /boot
sda5 10gb swap
sda6 (the rest) /

Could be that boot and swap are too big, but at least things work now.The idea was to put /boot first with no more than 100gb (size unconfirmed). And then put the lower part boot something selection to that partition (when installing and partitioning along the way).

I think the problem started when I put the 100gb /boot as last partition (don't ask). If you accidentally partition your HD wrong and your OS disappears, try my trick. Also, full moon and mystical chants might help.

[fabien85]

Oh it reminds me of something : I read some old BIOSes couldnt boot files if they were too far away on the disk. That's probably what's happening here.
What would have probably worked also is not to put a separate /boot partition, just / and swap, with the swap partition at the end of the disk.
That way you dont waste disk space on /boot (especially 100Gb).
You can also most probably resize /boot now to regain the disk space. To do so, boot from the live USB, launch gparted, select the parttion then menu Partition > Resize/Move. Instructions should be self-explanatory. Operations are not applied until you click the arrow button 'apply all operations', so you can review everything before applying.

[Acmer]

Yeah, planning to resize before installing anything major. The / and swap didn't work for some reason.