Failed to format disc- solved, and thank you.

[Member Nifty542]

Hi all
I have an old Dell laptop that I use to distro hop. I tend to stick with the same distro for around a year or more.
I’ve tried, but failed, to install Antix and MX Linux (not at the same time).
In both cases, the installation fails. It starts to format the hard drive and stops at 12% with the message in this title.
For now, I’m using Xubuntu, although I’d really like to try Antix, which I’ve used in the past.

inxi -Fxzd gives me the following:

System:
Kernel: 5.15.0-52-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E6440 v: 00
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 0YX2X3 v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
v: A21 date: 02/01/2018
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 51.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 51.6/57.7 Wh (89.4%)
volts: 12.4 min: 11.1 model: Sanyo DELL 96JC941 status: Full
CPU:
Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-4300M bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Haswell rev: 3 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2238 high: 2594 min/max: 800/3300 cores: 1: 1189
2: 2590 3: 2579 4: 2594 bogomips: 20752
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell
driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0
Device-2: ARC Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
bus-ID: 3-2:2
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1366×768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2)
v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio
vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Dell
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Device-3: ARC Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
bus-ID: 3-2:2
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-52-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I217-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel
port: f080 bus-ID: 00:19.0
IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Broadcom BCM20702A0 Bluetooth 4.0 type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus-ID: 3-3:3
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 3 state: up address: <filter>
bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci
v: 3.0 bus-ID: 00:1f.2
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 33.93 GiB (3.6%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS721010A9E630
size: 931.51 GiB
Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: HL-DT-ST model: DVD+-RW GU90N rev: A100
dev-links: cdrom
Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 915.53 GiB used: 33.93 GiB (3.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 5.2 MiB (1.7%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: 47.0 C sodimm: SODIMM C
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2607
Info:
Processes: 210 Uptime: 15m Memory: 7.67 GiB used: 1.47 GiB (19.1%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 Packages: 2049 Shell: Bash
v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13
david@david-Latitude:~$

Thanks in advance for anyone who tried to help.

Regards

D

• This topic was modified 6 months ago by Nifty542.

[Member madibi]

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Nifty542 wrote:

It starts to format the hard drive and stops at 12%

Dear Nifty542,
usually the above message appears to me when I try a legacy install on an HD formatted GPT.

To avoid the issue, using GParted with the live I format the HD according to my needs, then instead of choosing the automatic partitioning, I choose the manual choice of the partitions already prepared.
I hope this may help you.

m

[Member Nifty542]

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Hi
Thank you very much for your prompt reply.
I’m afraid your reply doesn’t mean much to me. I assume Gpt means Gparted? I’m not very experienced with the terminal or much beyond install now.
I’ll try Gparted and see if I can make sense of it.
Thanks again
D

[Member Nifty542]

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Hi, again

I ran Gparted and deleted all partitions.
It worked!
Thanks very much for your help.
Regards
D

[Member marcelocripe]

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Hello Nifty542.

I don’t know how to write in English and I send my texts translated by the internet translator. I hope you can understand everything, if your native language is not English, please translate my original Brazilian Portuguese text directly into your language with the help of internet translators.

As I only saw your post from November 25, 2017 and this one from November 10, 2022, I imagine you are returning to antiX, so I recommend you to read below.

Regardless of your level of knowledge about GNU/Linux, I recommend you read these excellent tutorials created by @PPC:

What is antiX and how to try it out or install it.
Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie.
How-to install applications – 2020 version.
How to: correctly use antiX forum.

When I first started using antiX, I read the tutorials that PPC created, these readings saved me a lot of time and I think it saves time for any new antiX user. Your time will not be wasted with these readings, everything will seem to be much easier than you could imagine. You won’t waste your time searching the internet or even creating new topics, on the contrary, you will gain a lot of time with these readings.

I recommend you try out desktops that have “zzz” in their name. I usually use zzz-IceWM or zzz-JWM or zzz-Fluxbox (each of these desktops has its own characteristics and consumes more or less resources), zzzFM will be the default file manager for your desktop, it it is very similar to the other file managers of other GNU/Linux distributions and Windows XP. To access other antiX workspaces, click on Menu, Desktop, Other Desktops and click on the workspace name, instantly the workspace will be loaded.

Whenever you need to ask for help or technical support in this forum, please explain in detail what is happening, don’t mince words, be thorough when writing, tell your computer characteristics such as make and model. If possible, post the result of the command $ inxi -Fxz from the terminal, copy and paste here in the message of the topic that you are going to create in this forum.

When you start a topic or participate with a post, remember to check the option “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”, by checking this option, you will receive a message in your email box whenever there are replies from topic in question.

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese language)

– – – – –

Olá Nifty542.

Eu não sei escrever em idioma Inglês e envio os meus textos traduzidos pelo tradutor da internet. Eu espero que você consiga compreender tudo, caso o seu idioma nativo não seja o Inglês, por favor, traduza o meu texto original em idioma Português do Brasil diretamente para o seu idioma com a ajuda dos tradutores da internet.

Como eu vi apenas postagem sua de 25 de novembro de 2017 e esta de 10 de novembro de 2022, eu imagino que você esteja retornando ao antiX, por isso, eu recomendo que você faça a leitura abaixo.

Independentemente do seu nível de conhecimento sobre GNU/Linux, eu recomendo você ler estes excelentes tutoriais criados pelo @PPC:

What is antiX and how to try it out or install it.
Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie.
How-to install applications – 2020 version.
How to: correctly use antiX forum.

Quando eu comecei a utilizar o antiX, eu li os tutoriais que o PPC criou, estas leituras me pouparam muito do meu tempo e acho que poupa o tempo de qualquer novo usuário do antiX. O seu tempo não será perdido com estas leituras, tudo parecerá ser muito mais fácil do que você poderia imaginar. Você não perderá o seu tempo com pesquisas na internet ou até mesmo em criar novos tópicos, ao contrário, você ganhará muito tempo com estas leituras.

Eu recomendo você experimentar as áreas de trabalho que possuem “zzz” em seu nome. Eu costumo utilizar o zzz-IceWM ou zzz-JWM ou zzz-Fluxbox (cada uma destas áreas de trabalho possuem características próprias e consomem mais ou menos recursos), o zzzFM será o gerenciador de arquivos padrão da sua área de trabalho, ele é muito semelhante aos outros gerenciadores de arquivos das outras distribuições GNU/Linux e do Windows XP. Para acessar as outras áreas de trabalho do antiX, clique no Menu, Área de Trabalho, Alternar Entre as Áreas de Trabalho e clique sobre o nome da área de trabalho, instantaneamente a área de trabalho será carregada.

Sempre que você precisar solicitar ajuda ou suporte técnico neste fórum, explique com detalhes o que está acontecendo, não economize as palavras, seja minucioso ao escrever, informe as características do seu computador, como a marca e o modelo. Se for possível, poste o resultado do comando $ inxi -Fxz do terminal, copie e cole aqui na mensagem do tópico que você for criar neste fórum.

Quando você iniciar algum tópico ou participar com alguma postagem, lembre-se de marcar a opção “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”, marcando esta opção, você receberá uma mensagem na sua caixa de e-mail sempre que houver respostas do tópico em questão.

marcelocripe
(Texto original em idioma Português do Brasil)

[Member Nifty542]

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Hi Marcelo and Madibi

Many thanks for your detailed help.
I really appreciate it.

Regards
D

[Member Rantanplan]

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Yep, The Antix team is really strong.

Vive antiX !
Vive le Groland !

[Member punranger]

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Nifty542 wrote:

Hi
Thank you very much for your prompt reply.
I’m afraid your reply doesn’t mean much to me. I assume Gpt means Gparted? I’m not very experienced with the terminal or much beyond install now.
I’ll try Gparted and see if I can make sense of it.
Thanks again
D

GPT stands for “GUID Partition Table”. Technically, this is “a standard for the layout of partition tables of a physical computer storage device”. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense to you, I don’t really understand it either. Gparted is a program for managing disk partitions. So, GPT is not the same as Gparted, but they both relate to the issue of disk partitions, and you were lucky, as using Gparted solved your problem with installing antiX on a GPT formatted hard disk!

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by punranger.

antiX linux: The best way to revive an old computer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTaUAP6sSg

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