Solved!!! I am having some issues getting Linux installed.

grr8d8

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Solved!!! Hello again to KGill and to kc1di.
My new computer is a Qotom
Onboard CPU: Intel Celeron J1900 Processor, quad core 2.0 GHz, up to 2.42 GHz
• HD Video + VGA, dual display.
• Dual Gigabit LAN:
• DDR3L SO-DIMM & mSATA SSD. Q190S-S02 support 2.5" SATA SSD/ HDD.
It has 8 GB of ram

There is a boot error. When I put in the USB for Peppermint 11, it automatically detects this error and opens Recovery Utilities. This is the problem. I am NOT proficient at grub commands.

I found several tutorials - all pretty much identical but missing "one" essential element to get this to install.

Here is what I do. When the screen opens to Recovery Utilities I type `e': and then f2 to get to grub>

Then I follow the instructions:
ls
{I find what I need}
ls (hd0)
{Filesystem info shows up here}
set prefix=(hd0)/boot/grub
set root= (hd0)
insmod normal
normal

I have tried all of these with and without spaces etc. to no avail.

Then a second screen opens telling me "you need to install the boot first". That's what is says today. Every other day it has said "You need to install the boot into the MBR". Maybe I managed to fix the MBR problem - don't know. I need maybe one more command or 2. Maybe one of them needs to be altered to enter the boot image. I know I am so close to getting this installed.
 
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I'm going to split that off to it's own topic, as this is the welcome section. Gimme a minute.
 
Thank you for flying KGIII-air. We hope your travel was uneventful. The local time is 17:32 and the temperature is a brisk 9° F.
 
grr8d8 wrote:
There is a boot error. When I put in the USB for Peppermint 11, it automatically detects this error and opens Recovery Utilities. This is the problem. I am NOT proficient at grub commands.
<snip>
Then a second screen opens telling me "you need to install the boot first". That's what is says today. Every other day it has said "You need to install the boot into the MBR". Maybe I managed to fix the MBR problem - don't know. I need maybe one more command or 2. Maybe one of them needs to be altered to enter the boot image. I know I am so close to getting this installed.

I may not quite get your situation, but these observations come to mind.

Normally when installing from a usb, it's from an .iso image that's been copied to that usb which has it's own installer within that .iso. Usually before installing, the user ensures that the computer can boot from the usb instead of the hard drive or elsewhere first. Booting up with the usb in the socket usually involves the computer running from the kernel from the .iso file without any other bootloader such as grub on the computer. Otherwise, new computers without any distribution software installed wouldn't install at all.

If you are getting into the grub shell, which is what you seem to be describing with the commands that you mention, then it seems either there's a grub installed on your computer asking for a bootable file, or grub on the usb which would boot from that medium.

The MBR messages, from an installation point of view, look like they could be a red herring because the installation .iso will eventually alter or overwrite it, or ignore it, and if you are installing in UEFI mode, not be concerned with it since it uses it's own partition for booting and partition information.

The user needs to be sure that the .iso file is free of errors. The peppermint website will have a verification option such as a sha512sum command. There is no room for error ... one bit out of place faults the whole file.

If by chance you are using a usb with it's own grub installed and want to use that to install to the computer, you'll need to research how to do that since grub will be on "removable media".

If grub on the computer is preventing the installation of the .iso, it can be cleared in a few different ways so that's it's deleted and unable to interfere any more until the new installed linux system is installed which will write a new boot sector and boot files.
 
Thanks for your response. I am hoping to get the help I need as I finally just sent a message to the ONLY guy in the entire lower mainland who works on Linux computers. If I have to pay for it, I will have Windows installed. I have 2 different iso files. They both pass the sum. They have both been written with 3 different types of software. First, I used Etcher as suggested on this site. Never use Etcher to install Peppermint. That is what the Peppermint developers told me. I used the software the came with Peppermint 10 and also the gnome disks software to create the disks. All 3 methods ended with the same result.

I did plenty of research and attempted a factory reset which I think was successful. I used the command in the grub menu. Then I removed the battery from the computer, waited 10 minutes, plugged it in, hit the on button, replaced the battery and voila, I was presented with grub when I turned on the computer. It still won't work, however. LOL
Pic link:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoAevK2iUdrfmlFegDR1N3v8ZCyd?e=Cx5Eec

I took pics today. I tried again. I failed again. These pics might give some insight. I don't think I should hit enter when the first screen shows up (pic1). the second pic shows what opens when I enter `e': I get grub>
That is where I am sure I should be. I went ahead and hit enter, opened Gparted, partitioned, clicked on install, repartitioned to Peppermint specs. Here are links to the instructions 1. P8_Pre_Install_Tips - Imgur 2.P8_Pictorial_Install_Guide - Imgur 3. P8_Pictorial_Install_Guide - Imgur . I never got to 3. I get one of 2 errors. The squash error pictures or the error that (Systemd id something or other, Sorry, I have 50 pieces of paper on my desk)

Boot-repair tells me it was not able to generate an image. Sometimes, it tells me to enable a repository. I have zero idea of what that means. Some other software tells me there is no bootloader installed in the MBR of /dev/sda. Anyhow, I am still at ground zero. Any true help would be appreciated. Thanks so much.
 
Thanks for the images. They show that peppermint is installing, up until the rsync error 11. That error refers to disk space being full, which means that the installer cannot find enough space to install in the root partition. The partition table that I saw in the images you provided has a root partition /, of only 2.3 Gig, and I would hypothesise that to be the problem. There was also a partition for /var, which was 87.9 Gig. This size allocation of 87 Gig is not necessary at all since /var can live quite happyily within the root partition /. Given this situation, I would suggest that you re-install from the usb (and it looks like that works), but re-partition the disk so that the root partition /, includes the allocation of the /var partition by deleting the /var partition and adding its size into /. That would be the simplest approach and would leave the other partitions such as /boot/efi and swap and /home at their current allocations. However, making the root partition /, nearly 90 Gig, is probably a bit large unless you plan on using a lot of space for installing heaps of applications or creating a lot of virtual machines. If you are just at the beginning of your linux journey, you could almost certainly be well enough equipped by having a root partition of about 20 Gig, and allocating the other 70 Gig to enlarge your /home partition which would leave you more room for user data. That sort of change would involve altering the partitions in the partitioning tool of the installer, but you could do that without touching /boot/efi and swap which look fine.
 
Actually, I have run some experiments and I believe the problem lies with the iso for the new Peppermint release not being properly supportive of UEFI.

@grr8d8 can you confirm for me that the Qotom supports UEFI?

You also mentioned

I used the software the came with Peppermint 10 and also the gnome disks software to create the disks. All 3 methods ended with the same result.

What is the current status on the Peppermint 10, is it still available?

Just to let you and @NorthWest know, I run 70 Linux or so on this Dell rig, and I have had considerable experience in installing, both under UEFI-GPT and BIOS-MBR conditions.

I burned the Peppermint iso 3 times (SHA512 sum confirmed), to 3 different USB sticks, all usable, using as burning solutions -

Etcher
dd
openSUSE ImageWriter

None of them would allow me to boot to other than Legacy mode for an install.

I can show more detail tomorrow my time (Australia) tomorrow, and if someone meantime wants to try this (to install, or to a VM) I believe you will find the same.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

BTW iso can be downloaded from Distrowatch, or peppermint. 1.4 GB.
 
OK boys, Just done a test install
kit.. HP pro desk [7 yrs old] I5 4th edition 4mb ddr3 , hard wired to the router.
I followed my own instructions for a beginner on Linux tips,
I decided to install it to one of my multi test drives connected by USB3/satta cable
I downloaded from peppermint and installed alongside, the partition manager seemed slow but it eventually worked, no issues no problems on the basic install, I used my 16gb Toshiba pen-drive for the ISO and the Mint iso burning program as you can see from the screen shots its fine
Screenshot_2022-02-18_10-14-28.png
 

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Now done a test installation to my old Dell [about 11 yrs old] 1540 laptop [4mb ddr2 Intel Core 2 duo]
as I didn't have enough space on my test HDD I decided to go for the clean install, just to make things a bit harder I used my TPLink Wi-Fi dongle with the Realtek RTL8192CU chip set,
using the same Toshiba USB with the ISO as before, and it installed as smooth as silk including the Wi-Fi dongle which was a bit of a surprise as it's usually a minor problem,

Bwiz
now on the HP I chose legacy mode but it installed as UEFI, the dell installed as legacy
 
I think you can close this thread. Nobody is "getting" where my computer is. The pictures have been taken down as they are NOT what the issue is. The pictures were an example of the "uselessness" of attempting to install on a broken boot. It can't happen.

There is no installation problem - nothing to do with a 2.3 GB space. That was a mistake and was changed to 23.8 GB. This is not about installing or partitioning.

It is about the fact that there is no boot file on my computer. I need commands like

ls
ls (hd0)
set prefix(Hd0)/boo/grub
set root=s (hd0)
linux /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-10-amd64

etc.
I am the ONLY person here who understands where my computer is at and I seem to be completely unable to get anybody to understand the there is no "boot' on my computer. No system will install. It is not about installing or partitioning so please close this thread. Thanks.
 
I live in Washington state, but it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive to get to B.C.

Normally... when Linux is being installed. It installs the kernel first.
It installs the initRamFs second. It can't install the initRam unless it knows what kernel version you are using.
Almost all your drivers are kernel version specific. Things like your network interface, video card,
audio chipset, wifi chipset, etc... live in the initRam space to get loaded into... ummm... RAM.
Only after those two things are done.... the file paths get mapped to the grub menu.
Most distro's use something called dracut that does this for you automatically.

But think about it, how can the grub commands above, tell me where the initramfs.img and the kernel.img are
if they aren't already installed? I can't tell you how to get to something that doesn't exist.
On old MS-DOS systems, when you format the disk, you had to set a "boot-flag" to make it bootable.
Now most systems use a "mapper" (written during the dracut process, which actually calls another process)




The last two articles above are slightly outdated. The second one explains the old sysV init.d process.
The third one, explains the newer systemd process.

Another wrinkle is... most of these articles assume you are using the MBR partition table.
All of my computers except 1, have GPT partition tables.

Now it is possible that you do have the kernel and intramfs already installed, the mapper/grub menu
can't find them. Here is a quick way to fix grub.

 
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And, now the user would like the thread unlocked.

Consider it done.
 
Hello again grr8d8. I'm sorry I didn't get the problem. But I'll try and have another go, without any promises!

Firstly you wrote in post #13:
There is no installation problem
<snip>
No system will install
I'm afraid I can't quite understand that. If there is no installation problem, then I assume that you have an installation in place, but that the problem is that you can't boot it.

If you can't actually install a linux system on your disk because of code that is already on it, then clear the disk with a command like dd or some other clearing program from a live disk. Then re-installation should be possible. That alone may solve your problem. There's a learning curve involved, but it's not prohibitive.

However, if there is "no installation problem", that is, an installation is in place, then I shall assume that to be the case for the following, and I have other observations to make which may be useful to you. I realise that the following may be irrelevant, but I'm taking a chance at assistance.

Your text of grub shell commands indicates that grub can't find a kernel to boot. I shall assume that is the case because it's based on the evidence of the code you have provided. I proceed assuming you have an installation of peppermint on the disk.

You wrote:
ls
ls (hd0)
set prefix(Hd0)/boo/grub
set root=s (hd0)
linux /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-10-amd64

Unfortunately, this has been transcribed and in its present form would not be able to be used by the grub shell (which it is in) because the syntax is awry - you can't expect the system to understand "boot" when you enter "boo" and you can't omit "=" following "prefix" and expect the grub shell to get it and insert it for you. I guess that you have simply made typos here. In any case, it seems your problem is that you are unable to locate a bootable kernel on the disk.

I've had a look online at the peppermint root filesystem so that what I propose should result in something if it's installed.

This ls command lists all the devices and partitions on the system, but yours only shows:
Code:
grub> ls
(hd0)
Normally you would get a result like:
Code:
(hd0) (hd0,msdos4) (hd0,msdos3) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1)

which shows not just the device, but the partitions on that device in the output. In your case, so far as your code shows, no partitions are shown, so grub will not be able to find a bootable kernel.

If you can't get any further than this point, but know that you have an installation on disk, then a likely problem is with grub. The answer to that is to re-install grub. If grub re-installs properly, and your installation is okay, then the booting problem may be resolved. You can re-install grub from a live disk.

The peppermint root filesystem includes links for the kernel and initramfs from / directory to the /boot directory where the kernels are actually located. That means that in the grub shell you could set something like the following to boot, but you would need to know the correct partition for root in grub shell syntax, and the device name. Note that you would use the link names for the kernel and initramfs image:
Code:
set root=(hd0,msdos1)
linux /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sda2
initrd /initrd.img
boot
 
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Hello Northwest. I truly appreciate hearing back from you. I thought I was leaving this forum. I will try to get to all of your questions.

There is no installation problem - meaning that I know how to install an os. (installation instructions don't fix the boot is the only point)
Operating system won't install is an issue that depends on the distro. It makes no difference which one I use, the boot is still broken. The reason I am working exclusively with MX linux and Peppermint is that they will NOT install with a broken boot. Distros like Ubuntu will install but will never run properly and won't shut down. I "can" even install Peppermint if I use the "erase and install" method which I NEVER do..........but when you check Calamares for the install results, it is nothing but mistakes - line after line of mistakes. The system will run but very badly and will NEVER shut down.

Yes, all of those are typing errors. Believe me, I tried so many times that I got the typing right many times but was never able to get the image to load or initrd to work. I always end up with "you need to load the kernel first" but I can't get the image for love nor money.
This will be a bit of typing but hopefully will be worth it. These are 3 different methods I tried. I don't know what I am missing. I have tried mixing them up and using this site and others for assistance.

Here we go:
1
set
ls
ls (hd0)
set root=(hd0)
insmod normal
normal
linux /boot/linux-image-5.10.0-10-amd64
{you need to load the kernel first{
2. ls
ls (Hd0)
set prefix=(hd0)/boot/grub
set root=(hd0)
insmod normal
normal
{you need to load the kernel first}
3.
ls
ls(hd1,gpt3)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-10-amd64
initrd /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-10-amd64
{you need to load the kernel first}

I have tried these commands in every way I can think of but the image is never found despite it being on the Peppermint stick and also having an internet connection...................but what I have just done makes me wonder as this file is just "stuck" on my computer and I am sure that is where the Peppermint and MX are looking to load the boot. I have no idea at this point. I have never been here before.


I reformatted the drive, reset bios, unplugged the battery, waited 20, plugged it back in, hit the on button, plugged the battery back in, restarted to find nothing. I put in the boot-repair USB stick and guess what I found - this: This is still on the disk. It is a broken bootloader. You can see on the right file is missing or corrupt. There is no installing a system properly until this is gone. Any ideas?
20220221_204621.jpg
 
Possibly a bad disk. But instead of just re-formatting. Have you tried re-creating the partition table?
You can do this with gparted.
 
Hello Yes, I have tried that in several different ways. This time I did it immediately prior to formatting the disk. I removed all partitions. This thing here apparently won't go away. I have a new disk coming in a week but this one is only 2 months old so is probably good just has a broken boot best as I can figure. It worked when it arrived. It broke trying to mount my external hard drive which I am not going to attempt again.
 

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