[SOLVED] Failed LM XFCE Install

[jglen490]

After trying to deal with the Meltdown cluster on my laptop and ending up with (LM 18.2) Cinnamon crashes, I decided to try LM 18.2 XFCE. Another DVD of disappointment.

I downloaded and burned the iso to a DVD (yes I did check the SHA256 sum). It ran through the installer as if it was installing. At the login after installing, it prompted me for my userid, which was not right, but I entered it and the password. It failed. I tried to install 3 more times, same result - it did not save my install user info and no user record was created, apparently. So I tossed the DVD and installed Lubuntu, which seems to be running well. I may give Mate a try some day, but not yet.

See you later!

[Mute Ant]

The Lubuntu installer is the same program that Mint uses. It works. Which step did you miss out?
Download ISO file.
Verify ISO file sha256sum.
Write the ISO direct to the DVD or USB stick.
Verify the written data matches the ISO file.
Boot the stick.
Test memory.
Boot the stick.
Test boot-medium integrity.
Boot the stick
Install.

[jglen490]

I downloaded, verified, wrote to DVD, verified, inserted the DVD and cold booted. The DVD booted successfully and presented the same interface all three times, and (without a stop watch) in approximately the same time. I am very familiar with the *buntu style installer, and everything presented as it should including the personal identification/user name/password page.

Upon booting into XFCE, it did not prefill my user name, but did prompt me for the input. Upon input of both user name and password, it gave me a login failure - all three times. It was in no way otherwise inconsistent in presentation.

The Lubuntu installer acted in exactly the same way at every step, except it prefilled my user name and asked for the password, which resulted in a good login.

You tell me what I missed, because I sure don't know.

[MrEen]

Is there any chance that was the lock screen, not the login screen?

[Sir Charles]

At the login after installing, it prompted me for my userid, which was not right, but I entered it and the password. It failed. I tried to install 3 more times, same result - it did not save my install user info and no user record was created, apparently.

It sure sounds very odd to me. Never ever has this happened when I have installed Mint. It sounds almost mysterious.

[Sir Charles]

You might consider to change the the title of your post to "Failed LM install" or maybe "Partially Faied LM install" to draw the attention of the cavalry!

[jglen490]

O.K., done!

Thanks all for looking so far. I originally had 18.2 Cinnamon on the laptop, but there were issues with the graphics card during various Meltdown/Spectre efforts that were annoying, but didn't completely destroy the user interface. Thus, I went to XFCE which failed even with a spot-on SHA256 sum from the XFCE download. So I am downloading Mate, which I will try later.

In the meantime (knock on wood) Lubuntu seems to work. Kind of a plain-jane interface, but O.K.

[Mute Ant]

I just ran through a download-verify-burn-verify-install-reboot sequence with a fresh linuxmint-18.2-xfce-64bit.iso and it installed and logged in just like it always does -----> Not a bug.

You can check a DVD burn like this... sudo bash -c 'head -c $(isosize /dev/sr0) /dev/sr0 | sha256sum'

"It ran through the installer as if it was installing." There should not be any doubt about this, you get to a dialog box that tells you the install is complete.

"18.2 Cinnamon on the laptop, but there were issues with the graphics card" The XFCE screen-locker can provoke a graphic-chip into stalling the machine. With a default Live Session boot I get stuck in the middle of an install with an inert "Log In" screen. Rebooting the Live Session in Compatibility Mode, or switching off the screen-locker in the GUI Power Management accessory, works for me.

[jglen490]

O.K., thanks!

When I get some time, I will give 18.2 Mate try. Hoping the installer doesn't misbehave

[jglen490]

I just ran through a download-verify-burn-verify-install-reboot sequence with a fresh linuxmint-18.2-xfce-64bit.iso and it installed and logged in just like it always does -----> Not a bug.

You can check a DVD burn like this... sudo bash -c 'head -c $(isosize /dev/sr0) /dev/sr0 | sha256sum'

"It ran through the installer as if it was installing." There should not be any doubt about this, you get to a dialog box that tells you the install is complete.

"18.2 Cinnamon on the laptop, but there were issues with the graphics card" The XFCE screen-locker can provoke a graphic-chip into stalling the machine. With a default Live Session boot I get stuck in the middle of an install with an inert "Log In" screen. Rebooting the Live Session in Compatibility Mode, or switching off the screen-locker in the GUI Power Management accessory, works for me.

I'm sorry, I didn't make my point clear. While the XFCE installer appeared to do everything it was supposed to do, in the end it did not install XFCE on my laptop. That last part is the point, the install did NOT work.

I have no doubt that it should work. I have no doubt that it worked for you. I also have no doubt that it did NOT work for me, and there is no reason that I can see for that to happen. I don't have any doubts about what you are saying, because I too understand the *buntu installer and I have never seen it fail before. So something is wrong. It could be anything from K3B (suddenly) not working, or it could be my DVD writer is going bad. I just don't know.

I just ran "sudo bash -c 'head -c $(isosize /dev/sr0) /dev/sr0 | sha256sum'" on the Mate DVD and the number did not match the sha256sum on the Mate ISO. I tried two different brands of DVD and the result of running the isosize bash string was exactly the same for both DVD media. So it's either a hardware problem or K3B has done something it's never done in all my years of using it. Time for a different approach.

[michael louwe]

@ jglen490, .......

...

.
Most likely, the problem lies with Linux DVD-burning tools like K3B, Xfburn, Brasero, etc. For the fix, please refer to ... viewtopic.php?t=207848

[Sir Charles]

fwiw,

Though it should be perfectly feasible to install from a DVD unless there is something else going on, I thought maybe you could try to install from a USB stick and see if you have better luck with it. For burning the .iso onto the stick, I use Rufus usually but you can of course choose the imagewriter of you choice.

[jglen490]

Thank you for your help.

Here's what I did. I added Brandon Snider's cdrtools PPA (found at https://launchpad.net/~brandonsnider/+a ... u/cdrtools), updated, and then downloaded the cdrecord and mkisofs packages. Then I ran K3b and burned the XFCE and Mate ISOs again. I installed Mate on my laptop - successfully. I'm going to play with that for a while, because updates are running right now. Once I've seen what Mate will do, then I may re-try XFCE. My Toshiba laptop is a playground/laboratory ...

But I'm entirely certain that my problem has been solved at least for now and that K3B was the culprit with the old cdrkit software, which is now updated with cdrtools replacements.

I will be marking this one "Solved".

Thanks again.