[SOLVED] Can't Install Mint 20.3 - SSD Problem?

[TheDarkNop]

I am trying to install Mint 20.3 on a custom desktop system. The system is a few years old and is running a Ryzen 1700x on a GA-AX370-Gaming K5 motherboard with the F50d bios. I am able to boot into the installer from a USB drive however, when I double click on "Install Mint" I get a spinner and then nothing happens. No installer ever starts. Does anyone have any ideas on this? I'm loving Linux on my laptop and want to wipe out W10 on the desktop and install Mint on there.

[Cosmo.]

Did you verify the integrity of the downloaded ISO-file after downloading?

[TheDarkNop]

I did and I even used this same flash drive to install Mint on my laptop. Everything with the laptop, which is newer and running Intel, went extremely smoothly. There was not one issue.

[pbear]

Please post your system information.

[Bluegrassman]

Hello, i had the same problem yesterday.
After seeing it was not solved yet i had the idea about TPM.
How to activate/deactivate is dependent to the UEFI of your mainboard.
If this is not enough you will have to start gparted, delete all partitions of the drive where linux has to be installed, create a new one and format it gpt.
After that it worked for me.
Best regards
Bluegrassman

[TheDarkNop]

Bluegrassman:

I tried your solution and it sort of worked. Let me explain. I have a Samsung 960 Evo inside my machine. Not wanting to have my PC in an unusable state, I pulled out a spare drive (WD SN520) and tried your solution on that. It worked! So then I swapped the drives out and did the same to my Samsung drive. Unfortunately, it didn't work on that drive and now, ironically, I'm left with my PC in an unusable state.

Here is my system's information:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-91-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 
           wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: AX370-Gaming K5 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: AX370-Gaming K5-CF v: x.x serial: <filter> 
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: F50a date: 11/27/2019 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Marathon Mouse/Performance Plus M705 
           serial: <filter> charge: Normal status: Discharging 
           Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech K350 serial: <filter> charge: High 
           status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen rev: 1 
           L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 108792 
           Speed: 1844 MHz min/max: 2200/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1714 2: 1711 3: 2996 
           4: 1999 5: 1886 6: 1896 7: 2024 8: 1940 9: 2544 10: 1999 11: 1887 12: 1998 13: 1918 
           14: 1889 15: 1722 16: 1863 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070 Ti] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nouveau 
           v: kernel bus ID: 08:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1b82 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: NV134 v: 4.3 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 08:00.1 chip ID: 10de:10f0 
           Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 0a:00.3 chip ID: 1022:1457 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-91-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: Gigabyte driver: igb v: 5.6.0-k port: f000 
           bus ID: 05:00.0 chip ID: 8086:1539 
           IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.07 TiB used: 79.5 MiB (0.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 960 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB 
           speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD1003FZEX-00K3CA0 size: 931.51 GiB 
           speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 31 C 
           ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD1003FZEX-00K3CA0 size: 931.51 GiB 
           speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 32 C 
           ID-4: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Ultra USB 3.0 size: 28.64 GiB 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 7.82 GiB used: 69.1 MiB (0.9%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
           ID-2: /var/log size: 25.96 GiB used: 6.5 MiB (0.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc3 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 14 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 1-8:2 info: Realtek RTL 8153 USB 3.0 hub with gigabit ethernet ports: 4 rev: 2.0 
           chip ID: 0bda:5401 
           Device-1: 1-8.2:3 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID 
           driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:c52b 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 8 rev: 3.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
           Device-2: 2-4:2 info: SanDisk Ultra Flair type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage 
           rev: 3.0 chip ID: 0781:5591 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
           Hub: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 30.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 52 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 0 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 20.3 _Una_ - Release amd64 20220104]/ focal contrib main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:      Processes: 330 Uptime: 7m Memory: 15.65 GiB used: 1.31 GiB (8.4%) Init: systemd v: 245 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client inxi: 3.0.38 

[Bluegrassman]

In this case thr Samsung-drive seems to cause the problem.
For a fast solution you might us the WD until someon finds out how to work with the Samsung SSD.
I might test it myself soon, but for now i don't have the time because i need the setup for SDN tests.
( i own a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB for windows backup, and might see what it would do with an older Intel i5 processor on an Asrock board... )
so long..
Bluegrassman

[pbear]

Have you tried with secure boot disabled?

[TheDarkNop]

I never run with SecureBoot nor TPM enabled.

[pbear]

Sounds like a hardware issue, then. All the more puzzling, as the system sees the Samsung SSD and was able to format it (that's what you did, right?).

I suggest you edit the thread title to something like Can't Install Mint 20.3 - SSD problem? More likely to be noticed by someone with expertise on the subject. You edit the thread title by editing the first post (click the little pencil icon), not your next one.

[TheDarkNop]

Correct, I was able to format it via gparted.

I have edited the title. Thanks for telling me how to do that as I didn't know.

[Bluegrassman]

Remember, linux should be for everyone.
So we share our experience with everyone who needs...

P.S. You might test secure boot enabled, works on older boards as mine is ( asrockFM2A85X Extrmr4-M )

[TheDarkNop]

GOT IT WORKING!!!

I noticed that Mint has a new version that they offer, Linux Mint Edge. Edge comes with, as of this writing, the 5.13 kernel vs the 5.4 kernel in the 'regular' LM version. Made a bootable USB drive from that and all is well. The installer was able to detect my drive and I was able to get LM installed.

Thank you, everyone, for all the help!

[deepakdeshp]

From 5.4 kernel version also your drive was detected. I wonder what's extra in 5.15