[solved] Install trouble

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi Roland,
you have a very interesting (notorious) device, some searching suggests:
First reinstall windoze 10 which should fix the EMMC unless it is hardware defective, if win finds the drive ok and runs
Then please take a look at https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=163126, then if mint installs you can adapt to antix.
If windoze reports the drive defective you know USB stick boot is only way left to go.

The install windows to recover the drive is to best of my knowledge because linux can not reset some drive parameter.

ADD you must boot and install in EFI Mode or you will later get black screen..

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member roland]

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I downloaded Mint 19.2 64/bit Iso, removed all partitions from the HD, the Iso will not boot but produces the diagnostics below.

TPM error 378 occurred get TPM pcr allocation
couldn’t get size 0xB0000000000000000e
Modsign Couldn’t get UEFI dg list
Busybox v1.27.2 ubuntu 1.27.2ubuntu3.2 built/in shell ash
intramfs Unable to find a medium containing a live file system

It offers a table of commands available but none looked useful to me.

One of the reasons I abandoned Mint quite some years ago was difficulty I had booting and installing it, but antiX never fails.

I have no Windows of any release or version available to try, unless I can scrounge one from my daughter’s university. I have my doubts that Windows can offer a way out of this impasse.

There remains to try the suggestion to try to format root as ext3 and not ext4, which I shall try now.

I do not know of any utility that can run a sanity check on a hard drive on a block by block basis. Is there one available to antiX? When such block I O errors occur there are usually explicit diagnostics which would confirm a faulty drive or clear it?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by roland.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by roland.

[Moderator caprea]

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Have you tried the cli-installer anticapitalista suggested?

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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do not know of any utility that can run a sanity check on a hard drive on a block by block basis. Is there one available to antiX? When such block I O errors occur there are usually explicit diagnostics which would confirm a faulty drive or clear it?

Dont know and aint sure but takes just a a couple steps. After you make your ext 3 partitions using Gparted. Right click and unmount partition.
Then right click again and pick check.

If anything is wrong. The log generated from running this step will tell you. If nothing shows wrong. You are golden. The check also fixes things in that partition if any bad blocks are present. It will mention what it fixed also.

Stated just in case no joy using the cli installer .

Good luck.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by rokytnji.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
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I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.

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[Member roland]

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I wrote a new partition table type MS-dos, created esp fat32, swap, /root ext3, unmounted, ran the install on existing partitions – failed formatting /root.

Wrote new partition table type gtp, created esp fat32, swap, /root ext4, /home ext4, unmounted, ran check on each in turn, esp check fails, root check fails, home check fails. Then ran same checks in reverse order, home check ok, root check ok, esp check fails. I will repeat this tonight just to confirm what I have just written.

I am not sure how to invoke the cli-installer. When I select the installer icon it does not offer me a keyboard install, only the graphics install. Should I run cli-install as a bash from a terminal?

I now feel as if this laptop is in perfect working order as the check routines I ran which completed ok, ran for long enough to suggest that the HD was being processed at block level, 64g is not large. The esp partition check which fails did so immediately, although 256mb is not many blocks to read.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by roland.

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   install_esp_swap_roothome_ext3.jpg
   

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   ext3_attempt_fail.jpg
   

[Member marcelocripe]

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I now feel as if this laptop is in perfect working order as the check routines I ran which completed ok, ran for long enough to suggest that the HD was being processed at block level, 64g is not large. The esp partition check which fails did so immediately, although 256mb is not many blocks to read.

Hello Roland.

I’ve been following your thread for some time now and I haven’t found any low-level formatting suggestions. I would refer you to the “Zero Fill” tool that is available in “Hiren’s BootCD”, with this tool I managed to solve some problems similar to what you are experiencing, which apparently are not solved with the high-level formatting that is performed by GParted. I know that antiX has this type of tool through the Terminal, because I found here on the forum a command that performs the same process as “Zero Fill”. I needed to format a hard drive recently and used the command, as I still don’t master Terminal commands, I was surprised when the screen went blank during the process. Then I tried restarting the “Live USB”, to my surprise even the “Live USB” had been formatted.
I’m sure other people will be able to tell you the correct command for you to format the MBR and perform the low-level format of your hard drive and possibly this action can somehow help you in the installation process.

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese)

– – – – –

I now feel as if this laptop is in perfect working order as the check routines I ran which completed ok, ran for long enough to suggest that the HD was being processed at block level, 64g is not large. The esp partition check which fails did so immediately, although 256mb is not many blocks to read.

Olá Roland.

Eu estou acompanhando o seu tópico há algum tempo e eu não encontrei nenhuma sugestão de formatação de baixo nível. Eu iria te indicar a ferramenta “Zero Fill” que está disponível no “Hiren’s BootCD”, com esta ferramenta eu consegui resolver alguns problemas semelhantes ao que estão ocorrendo com você, ao que parece não são resolvidos com a formatação de alto nível que é realizada pelo GParted. Eu sei que o antiX possui este tipo de ferramenta por meio do Terminal, porque eu encontrei aqui no fórum um comando que realiza o mesmo processo do “Zero Fill”. Eu precisei formatar um disco rígido recentemente e utilizei o comando, como eu não domino ainda os comandos do Terminal, eu fiquei supreso quando a tela apagou que durante o processo. Em seguida, eu tentei iniciar novamente o “Live USB”, para a minha supresa até o “Live USB” havia sido formatado.
Eu tenho certeza que as outras pessoas saberão te informar o comando correto para você formatar a MBR e realizar a formatação de baixo nível do seu disco rígido e possivelmente esta ação poderá de alguma forma te ajudar no processo de instalação.

marcelocripe
(Texto original em Português do Brasil)

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Well. Ext3 failed. I am out of ideas guys.
https://antixlinux.com/forum-archive/install-using-the-cli-installer-t3041.html

https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/docs-antiX-19/Boot_Menu/antiX-gfxboot.html

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Make sure you update the gui installer before trying to install.
Latest version in repos is 1.6.8

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member roland]

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I may now have something more positive to offer after running partition checks.

Partition table type is gtp.

esp partition is formatted fat32, boot and esp flags set. I swapped off, unmounted all 3 partitions, esp, /root, /home. Submitted checks for esp, /root, /home. Ran these checks. The esp check fails with ‘grow file system to fill the partition 00:00:00 ( ERROR )’ ‘GNU Parted cannot resize this partition to this size. We’re working on it!’ (see Gparted diag 1). Gparted has only just created this partition a few minutes ago.

Formatted esp partition to fat16, reran check, check finished ok. I have read that the esp partition must be fat32 format. Gparted seems to think it must be fat16.

/root partition is formatted ext4. Ran /root partition check. Root check fails with ‘partition already mounted’, (see Gparted diag 2). Root partition was NOT mounted when I ran the check. The check option is greyed out if the partition is mounted and cannot be selected. Something mounted it after I set the check going. Nothing else was running.

I’m not sure where all this is leading but I smell a possible problem with either Gparted, or with the install routine, or with the information I have regarding their use, or perhaps my shortage of it.

Please disregard the remark I made earlier about serial checks failing then succeeding when repeated, I am going round in circles in a maze of screenshots and partition creations formats and deletions!

Attachments:

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   esp_fat32_check_fail.jpg
   

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   gparted_details_esp.pdf
   

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   esp_fat16_check_ok.jpg
   

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   gparted_details_root.pdf
   

[Member roland]

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I tried to download Hiren’s BootCD but it would not come down for some reason, but I located an elderly boot and rescue CD in my junk box which I think has many HD utilities on, so I’ll give the disk a check. However at this stage I feel it will prove to be sane.

I am still not sure how to invoke the cli-install option.

Update:- There is no point looking for emergency boot CDs as there is no dvd drive on this laptop! It is very basic with just 3 USB ports, one SD port and another which I do not recognise.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by roland.

[Moderator christophe]

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I am still not sure how to invoke the cli-install option.

From terminal run:
sudo cli-installer

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Anonymous]

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Hi Roland,

About it being fat16.
I would make the esp partition up to 512mb in size as some of the new hard drives can’t have a fat32 under ~260 mb in size.
That maybe why gparted is failing to format Here is a link to read on the esp and uefi partition sizes.

esp partition size

[Anonymous]

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If you boot the live iso of of antiX and from a terminal run

sudo e2fsck -c /dev/sda1

it will check linux partitions for bad blocks. Change sda1 to which partition
name your drive has to check for example…. mmcblk0p3

If the drive is not mounted you can run this to check the entire drive for bad blocks.
Warning if a drive has a filesystem on it … add -n as well. On a blank drive you can add -w
for a more thorough but data destructive read-write test.
Change sda to your drives name ….. mmcblk0

sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda

[Member ModdIt]

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I have my doubts that Windows can offer a way out of this impasse.

No garantee, anyway
You can download and install windows official, it comes in a 30 day test version.

On several occasions windoze has fixed problems on stubborn devices, that has included USB sticks from transcend which needed repair due controller software fault, defective SSD, updating the internal controller software. And fixing otherwise non bootable devices which were no matter what I did non fix with any Linux tools I could find, a lot as I do not give up easily. Unfortunately manufactureres still only give important code blobs to DRM loaded systems, means a doze copy is mandatory for me. I do have a licence, actualy several. The device you have, if it came with win will probably have a hidden key in BIOS rather than the stickers seen on many devices.

[Moderator BobC]

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Roland, I’ve hesitated to reply, since I don’t have an Acer, but looked over on their community site for your model, and it leads me to question what BIOS version you have. Since the people in those threads have the same machine as you, maybe there are hints there that might help you. I saw one person who had installed something that altered the original UEFI files, and he fixed it by copying them from a 2nd machine he had because having the original one missing affected how it booted to the point where he couldn’t even get into the BIOS.

I don’t expect they could give antiX advise, but at this point, if you could get another distro like lbuntu to load and leave enough space to install antiX also, you might be able to install antiX

Anyway, its just an idea, so be careful to listen to others that are more familiar.

https://community.acer.com/en/search?query=Aspire%20A114-31%20linux%20install&scope=site&search=linux%20peppermint&cat=1&subcats=1&discussion_idea=1&article_article=1&discussion_discussion=1&comment_comment=1&discussion_poll=1&discussion_question=1&comment_answer=1&within=1%20day

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