Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
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Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
Hello, first post so please bare with me.
I've successfully installed Mint xfce (Ulyana) on a HP laptop and an Asus laptop, both of which are about 10 years old, without issues. I installed it from the live session on the USB.
I got a Lenovo Thinkcentre M81 from work, they were going to throw it out. It had Windows 8 on it originally, I formatted it and put Windows 7 on it and used it for several months but then realised that Mint was much better so I tried installing it.
First install went smoothly, but upon rebooting I got the "1962: no operating system" error. After scouring the internet, reading this forum, ubuntu forums etc. I did all suggestions. I tried booting in legacy mode (it just goes to a black screen), I tried setting AHCI to IDE, I turned off Quick boot. I have no secure boot option in my BIOS. I tried bringing up the boot menu by pressing F12 and specifically choosing the HDD, still 1962 error. etc. etc.
Things I've tried:
Changing BIOS settings - every combination.
Specifically reinstalling only using UEFI mode and booting live in UEFI mode from the boot menu (F12).
Using Gparted to reformat and partition disks then do a clean install.
Using the linuxmint live installation program to reformat and partition disks and do a clean install.
Using Boot Repair to reinstall GRUB.
Tried mounting /dev/sdb3 (which is my /) and it says it doesn't exist, but it shows on fdisk -l
Tried flashing my BIOS to the latest version but it won't load the bootable USB in UEFI or legacy, so it hasn't updated. (This is why I think it might be a BIOS/UEFI issue, which is common with Lenovo regarding Linux from what I have researched, I thought if I updated the BIOS it might add a CSM option?)
Interestingly, mintlive from USB runs perfectly. Also, the last two installations that I did came up with the error "Cannot install GRUB to /dev/sdb1" (sdb1 being my EFI boot partition). Same error occurs when using Boot Repair. Boot repair mentions that I'm using GPT and I should add an EFI partition (which I have) unless I tick "separate /boot/efi" - all that does (from what I can tell) is put grub in every single partition, which didn't work either.
For the life of me I don't understand what is going wrong. I'm no expert with computers, but I know my way around, I'm relatively new to Linux commands and such. I've read that Lenovo have these issues because of their UEFI, but my BIOS doesn't even have a CSM option, so I don't know what else to do.
I did read somewhere that I should be using grub-efi instead of grub-pc, but I would have thought that the installer would have picked up on that? I haven't tried changing them, I'm not sure if I should (or how to).
If there are any terminal commands anyone would like me to post in order to help me I'd be happy to comply, I just don't know what they are off the top of my head. Thank you in advance and sorry if this was hard to follow. Although this is very frustrating, I enjoy the problem solving side of things, plus, being locked down in Melbourne, there's not a whole lot more I can actually do with my time lol.
I've successfully installed Mint xfce (Ulyana) on a HP laptop and an Asus laptop, both of which are about 10 years old, without issues. I installed it from the live session on the USB.
I got a Lenovo Thinkcentre M81 from work, they were going to throw it out. It had Windows 8 on it originally, I formatted it and put Windows 7 on it and used it for several months but then realised that Mint was much better so I tried installing it.
First install went smoothly, but upon rebooting I got the "1962: no operating system" error. After scouring the internet, reading this forum, ubuntu forums etc. I did all suggestions. I tried booting in legacy mode (it just goes to a black screen), I tried setting AHCI to IDE, I turned off Quick boot. I have no secure boot option in my BIOS. I tried bringing up the boot menu by pressing F12 and specifically choosing the HDD, still 1962 error. etc. etc.
Things I've tried:
Changing BIOS settings - every combination.
Specifically reinstalling only using UEFI mode and booting live in UEFI mode from the boot menu (F12).
Using Gparted to reformat and partition disks then do a clean install.
Using the linuxmint live installation program to reformat and partition disks and do a clean install.
Using Boot Repair to reinstall GRUB.
Tried mounting /dev/sdb3 (which is my /) and it says it doesn't exist, but it shows on fdisk -l
Tried flashing my BIOS to the latest version but it won't load the bootable USB in UEFI or legacy, so it hasn't updated. (This is why I think it might be a BIOS/UEFI issue, which is common with Lenovo regarding Linux from what I have researched, I thought if I updated the BIOS it might add a CSM option?)
Interestingly, mintlive from USB runs perfectly. Also, the last two installations that I did came up with the error "Cannot install GRUB to /dev/sdb1" (sdb1 being my EFI boot partition). Same error occurs when using Boot Repair. Boot repair mentions that I'm using GPT and I should add an EFI partition (which I have) unless I tick "separate /boot/efi" - all that does (from what I can tell) is put grub in every single partition, which didn't work either.
For the life of me I don't understand what is going wrong. I'm no expert with computers, but I know my way around, I'm relatively new to Linux commands and such. I've read that Lenovo have these issues because of their UEFI, but my BIOS doesn't even have a CSM option, so I don't know what else to do.
I did read somewhere that I should be using grub-efi instead of grub-pc, but I would have thought that the installer would have picked up on that? I haven't tried changing them, I'm not sure if I should (or how to).
If there are any terminal commands anyone would like me to post in order to help me I'd be happy to comply, I just don't know what they are off the top of my head. Thank you in advance and sorry if this was hard to follow. Although this is very frustrating, I enjoy the problem solving side of things, plus, being locked down in Melbourne, there's not a whole lot more I can actually do with my time lol.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
Boot into your bios and ensure you have done the following.. Ensure you have bootable usb inserted.
Sata mode = AHCI
Enable UEFI (if it's available)
Disable fast boot.
In the BOOT section select usb as first and hit F10 to save and exit and reboot.
It should then boot into your LM and then start terminal and copy & paste the following command and post the results back here in between the code display brackets </> the 5th icon above the text box area.
inxi -Fxz
Sata mode = AHCI
Enable UEFI (if it's available)
Disable fast boot.
In the BOOT section select usb as first and hit F10 to save and exit and reboot.
It should then boot into your LM and then start terminal and copy & paste the following command and post the results back here in between the code display brackets </> the 5th icon above the text box area.
inxi -Fxz
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
Thank you for your reply, here are the results of "inxi -Fxz":
Code: Select all
System:
Kernel: 5.4.0-58-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa
base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 0385AU9 v: ThinkCentre M81
serial: <filter>
Mobo: LENOVO model: N/A serial: <filter> UEFI: LENOVO v: 9HKT47AUS
date: 01/10/2012
CPU:
Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-2400 bits: 64 type: MCP
arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 6144 KiB
flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 24749
Speed: 1597 MHz min/max: 1600/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1597 2: 1597
3: 1597 4: 1597
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 2000 (SNB GT1)
v: 3.3 Mesa 20.0.8 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-58-generic
Network:
Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e
v: 3.2.6-k port: f080 bus ID: 00:19.0
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 938.74 GiB used: 8.10 GiB (0.9%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST31000340NS size: 931.51 GiB
temp: 36 C
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: TransMemory size: 7.23 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 7.73 GiB used: 131.5 MiB (1.7%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102
ID-2: swap-1 size: 29.30 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 205 Uptime: 4m Memory: 15.47 GiB used: 931.1 MiB (5.9%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17
inxi: 3.0.38
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
I just realised that I mentioned that I was trying to install "Ulyana", I meant "Ulyssa". I've installed Ulyssa on 2 laptops and updated without issues.
I read somewhere (I think it was the Ubuntu forums) that I should rename boot config files. I didn't attempt it and am not keen on it because it'll cause issues later when updating.
I read somewhere (I think it was the Ubuntu forums) that I should rename boot config files. I didn't attempt it and am not keen on it because it'll cause issues later when updating.
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
Here are the results of "sudo fdisk -l" if that also helps:
Code: Select all
mint@mint:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1.73 GiB, 1835061248 bytes, 3584104 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 /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST31000340NS
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 4C73E78D-F456-47A4-89C4-DFD485F370B9
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1026047 1024000 500M EFI System
/dev/sda2 1026048 62466047 61440000 29.3G Linux swap
/dev/sda3 62466048 1953524641 1891058594 901.7G Linux filesystem
Disk /dev/sdb: 7.23 GiB, 7759462400 bytes, 15155200 sectors
Disk model: TransMemory
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: C9E64BF8-1992-40C8-9ADA-7740A56D0430
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 15155166 15153119 7.2G Microsoft basic data
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
Ok...Looked up that error code 1962 and this is what I found on the Lenovo website. It maybe a faulty drive, and you may have selected the wrong drive as the boot drive.
The 1962 error code can occur for a number of reasons. In some cases, it has to do with a faulty HDD or SATA cable connection. Other times error 1962 can be due to a corrupt startup or the wrong BIOS settings. ... The first thing you should do is make sure the drive is showing up in BIOS with the appropriate capacity.
Also the following links....
https://windowsreport.com/fix-pc-error-1962/
https://www.partitionwizard.com/disk-re ... -1962.html
The 1962 error code can occur for a number of reasons. In some cases, it has to do with a faulty HDD or SATA cable connection. Other times error 1962 can be due to a corrupt startup or the wrong BIOS settings. ... The first thing you should do is make sure the drive is showing up in BIOS with the appropriate capacity.
Also the following links....
https://windowsreport.com/fix-pc-error-1962/
https://www.partitionwizard.com/disk-re ... -1962.html
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
I have all the right BIOS settings:kato181 wrote: ⤴Mon Sep 20, 2021 6:07 am Ok...Looked up that error code 1962 and this is what I found on the Lenovo website. It maybe a faulty drive, and you may have selected the wrong drive as the boot drive.
The 1962 error code can occur for a number of reasons. In some cases, it has to do with a faulty HDD or SATA cable connection. Other times error 1962 can be due to a corrupt startup or the wrong BIOS settings. ... The first thing you should do is make sure the drive is showing up in BIOS with the appropriate capacity.
Also the following links....
https://windowsreport.com/fix-pc-error-1962/
https://www.partitionwizard.com/disk-re ... -1962.html
Boot: UEFI only
Secureboot: off/non existant
Fastboot/Quickboot: Disabled
ATA Drive: AHCI
Boot Order: HDD > CDROM > USB
I have tried this on 3 different SATA drives, all end up with the same error, 1962. They were each working fine previously with Win7. I've also tried different SATA cables as also suggested in several forums, but again, if it's working fine with Win7, then it should be fine for Mint. This is why I think it's a boot issue, it's not booting properly, no GRUB menu.
Boot Repair tells me that I should create a >1MB partition unallocated/unformatted at the beginning of the drive and flag it as "bios_grub" because it detected GPT. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
jessicaherron9 wrote: ⤴Mon Sep 20, 2021 6:10 am Follows these steps.
1. Enter Boot menu.
2. Select the USB stick
3. Start Mint 20 Xfce as Live; running from the USB
4. I started WiFi (password can be tricky due to not yet configured correct keyboard - there is an option to make the password visible, which is useful)
5. Start the "Install Linux Mint" button on the desktop
6. Select Language (for me that is Svenska, Swedish)
7. Select keyboard
8. Select Install multi media add-ons
9. Select Erase the drive and Install Mint.
Advanced option: Selected Encrypt the new Linux Mint installation. Observe I made mistake, read about it below.
Strangely the installation did not detect any OS. Now I'm guessing, if that could be because the disc is encrypted?
10. Select Time zone
11. Input Who am I, password etc.
I did not mark Encrypt home folder (it should be covered by encryption above. But not clear in the installation how I should do, it would be an improvement if help text in the installation gave some guidance about encryption of home folder if you have opted for encryption of the full disc).
12. Next step installation starts (12:18). In meantime, screens telling about the Linux Mint; included software and more.
13. Installation ready (12:31); and I restart the laptop now.
Remove installation medium and Enter.
Linux Mint 20 Xfce 64-bit starts and I logon 12:34! It is remarkable how fast it is to install a Linux operating system. After login to Linux Mint 20:
14. Welcome screen starts and I do the first housekeeping tasks now and wait with other:
Go to the Update manager and proceed with updates.
15. Restart after updates.
Check Drivers
Turn on Firewall
I've followed the installation guide on both this forum and several others, and the official site. I'm connected via Ethernet, encryption doesn't effect boot order as far as I know (maybe LVM does? As you need to select that in order to encrypt the entire disk), I always just encrypt the home folder.
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
It means that in spite of setting boot mode to UEFI you are actually booting in legacy mode (and/or installed mint in legacy mode) and your drive has a gpt partition table. If you have a CSM (compatability support mode) setting in BIOS make sure it is disabled and re-install mint.
UEFI boot is normally associated with a GPT partition table on a drive and to boot you need an EFI partition (100MB, fat32, flags esp & boot). Your bootloader(s) live in the EFI partition. In BIOS you select the bootloader, e.g. 'windows boot loader' or 'ubuntu'.
Legacy boot is normally associated a legacy/msdos/mbr partition table on a drive. The bootloader lives in the first sector on the drive. In BIOS you select the drive to boot from, e.g. HDD0.
You can boot in legacy mode from a gpt drive, but as you have found you need a special bios_grub partition for linux, and windows won't boot legacy off a gpt drive. Unless you specifically planned for this, not what you want.
You can boot UEFI from a legacy format drive, it just needs an EFI partition.
BTW as a newbie, I would stay away from either full disk encryption or home encryption. You have just added an additional layer of complexity so when things go wrong, more difficult to fix. There are other ways of protecting sensitive info, e.g. veracrypt containers.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
I'll try adding the bios_grub partition and let you know how it goes. I'm thinking of doing this:
Use Gparted to format the drive
Create a >1mb unallocated partition and flag it "bios_grub"
Create a 500mb fat32 EFI system partition and flag it "boot, esp"
Create a 30g swap partition (I have 15g and everywhere I've read said to double the physical RAM, seems excessive?)
Create a 900g ext4 partition and flag it "/"
Then install linux using the "Install Linux Mint" icon on desktop
Use the "Something else" option and select the appropriate partitions for install
Reboot after install if no error.
Am I correct in doing the above or am I missing something/have something wrong?
Use Gparted to format the drive
Create a >1mb unallocated partition and flag it "bios_grub"
Create a 500mb fat32 EFI system partition and flag it "boot, esp"
Create a 30g swap partition (I have 15g and everywhere I've read said to double the physical RAM, seems excessive?)
Create a 900g ext4 partition and flag it "/"
Then install linux using the "Install Linux Mint" icon on desktop
Use the "Something else" option and select the appropriate partitions for install
Reboot after install if no error.
Am I correct in doing the above or am I missing something/have something wrong?
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
If you are starting again and booting in legacy mode, which you seem to be doing, then I would:
As you are going to use 'something else', if you want you can also have a separate
* There are limitations with a legacy partition table. You are limited to a max of 4 primary partitions. To overcome this you can have 3 primary partitions and an 'extended' partition. You can put as many 'logical' partitions as you want inside the extended partition. Max drive size is 2TB and max partition size is 2TB. GPT partition tables overcome these limitations, but to boot in legacy mode needs a bios_grub partition = 1MB.
- put a new msdos* partition table on the drive, this will wipe it.
- create a primary ext4 partition for
/
.
- install with something else and point the installer at your
/
partition and tell it to use it for/
.
As you are going to use 'something else', if you want you can also have a separate
/home
partition, also primary and also ext4. I have one, it makes life easier doing a reinstall on a major version change, e.g. LM20 to LM21. If you go down this route make the /
partition 30-35GB and /home
as big as you want. I would also create another ext4 partition to use for timeshift snapshots, make this 60GB (unless you have plans to backup to another drive). The default for timeshift is to save snapshots in /
, with a small /
partition it can fill up quickly = no boot.* There are limitations with a legacy partition table. You are limited to a max of 4 primary partitions. To overcome this you can have 3 primary partitions and an 'extended' partition. You can put as many 'logical' partitions as you want inside the extended partition. Max drive size is 2TB and max partition size is 2TB. GPT partition tables overcome these limitations, but to boot in legacy mode needs a bios_grub partition = 1MB.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
As far as I know Grub should be installed on the device and not on the partition, for instance on the
/dev/sda
and not on the /dev/sda1
. According to the output of sudo fdisk -l
you provided, there is no partition sdb3, but there is partition sda3 with Linux file system and size 901.7 GiB and EFI partition sda1.Regards, Jože
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
I did what I said in my previous post and it still didn't work. Same 1962 error. Even if I try and run from the boot menu in BIOS and select the HDD.
I don't understand what's going on. It's booting in UEFI mode when I select the USB, for live mode which is what I'm using now.
I had another HDD connected at that time, now I've only got the one connected. Here are the latest results of fdisk -l after reinstalling as per my previous comment:senjoz wrote: ⤴Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:21 pm As far as I know Grub should be installed on the device and not on the partition, for instance on the /dev/sda and not on the /dev/sda1. According to the output of sudo fdisk -l you provided, there is no partition sdb3, but there is partition sda3 with Linux file system and size 901.7 GiB and EFI partition sda1.
Code: Select all
mint@mint:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1.73 GiB, 1835061248 bytes, 3584104 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 /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST31000340NS
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 4C73E78D-F456-47A4-89C4-DFD485F370B9
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 4095 2048 1M BIOS boot
/dev/sda2 4096 1028095 1024000 500M EFI System
/dev/sda3 1028096 62468095 61440000 29.3G Linux swap
/dev/sda4 62468096 1953523711 1891055616 901.7G Linux filesystem
Disk /dev/sdb: 7.23 GiB, 7759462400 bytes, 15155200 sectors
Disk model: TransMemory
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: C9E64BF8-1992-40C8-9ADA-7740A56D0430
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 15155166 15153119 7.2G Microsoft basic data
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
To confirm that, boot your mint install stick and post the output from
efibootmgr
, if you get this you are booting in legacy mode:
Code: Select all
andy@T432 ~ $ efibootmgr
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Trying to install Mint 20 xfce on Lenovo Thinkcentre M81
I wasn't booting in legacy mode. I don't know what the issue was, I tried literally everything I found and reinstalled over 30 times, quite frustrating. I imagine that it has something to do with UEFI or the BIOS, however I can't even update the BIOS because it refuses to boot off the bootable USB update ISO. I ended up getting rid of the thinkcentre and using an old rig I used for architectural drafting and rendering. The PSU blew in it a few years ago, so I bought a new one. I haven't installed it yet, just using an old laptop with Mint at the moment. The thinkcentre would be good as a boat anchor or cannon fodder. I'll explore that option also.
If anyone has the answer to the original issue then please let me know, otherwise I'll leave this post here for a week and delete it or mark it solved?
If anyone has the answer to the original issue then please let me know, otherwise I'll leave this post here for a week and delete it or mark it solved?