Installer crash at partition selection - tip
  • cheeneycheeney
    PMPosts: 1
    When installing, if you experience an error message at the partition selection stage (4th task I think) or you simply don't get any choices about the partitioning, it may help to remove the dmraid package. 
    I had freshly deleted all windows partitions on my HDD and created new ext4 and swap partitions using GParted, but the installer couldn't see them, presenting no options. A bit of googling suggested it could be a RAID problem. Strange when I wasn't using RAID but still....
    So this is what I did
    Start a ROXterm session and enter
      sudo apt-get purge dmraid

    Then I re-ran the installer. Success :-)

    I think the underlying issue may have been because the disk was previously part of a RAID system and all I had done was delete the partitions without blanking anything. I don't know enough about MBR and RAID signatures or the install script to know whether this is the case - maybe someone else could advise further.
  • boruncoborunco
    PMPosts: 229
    It is very important to prep your disk prier to doing the install with gparted, it makes it a lot easier if you have your partitions set out before you start the install. That way you just go to something else on the partitioning section of the install and tell LXLE where is going to go.
    This is a good habit to have in my opinion.
    Thank you
    NEVER STOP LEARNING
    Acer Aspire One N270 130Gig ssd 2Gig ram
    LXLE 32bit
  • TrinidadTrinidad
    PMPosts: 4
    Most information you read on the internet concerning partitioning is flawed in one way or another, not up to date, not case specific, not method specific. One of the most fundamental fallacies is concerning swap, another is UEFI in windows, and certain BIOS configurations. If windows7 thru10 is already installed on your one disk system you will need to resize the C partition with the windows application first, leaving the space created as empty. Then shutdown the computer. Restart from a live DVD of Redo Backup, not a linux live disk other than Jessie, and format the empty partition as cleared and not owned. There is no need to make a swap partition. Reboot from the LXLE live disc, and click installation, then click something else in the installer menu, and the installer will format the partition you select for you. Make sure you install the bootloader to sda, not sda1. Install without swap. Boot up your installation and create a swap file, not a swap partition from the terminal. The only advantage of having a swap partition rather than a swapfile anymore is if you have multiple disks one slower than the other.

    If you have a linux system already on your disk, zero write new partitions that you create from the terminal. Depending on your CPU this goes more quickly than from a live DVD especially if your DVD is IDE and not SATA on your board. Do not take ownership of the zeroed partition. Debian wiki has all the information and the few commands you need to make swap files, and zero write partitions.

    Finally, currently, partitioning errors in praxis are the most common cause of installer I/O errors, and crashes, not badly burned DVDs as is often suggested. Distros like Jessie and Kali eliminate the issue by zero writing first during installation rather than overwrite which will not always work properly for UEFI. If you have Windows7 thru 10 on your disk do NOT format the newly created partition from resizing in windows using windows utilities. This eliminates many common UEFI problems. Many legacy and UEFI configuration problems are cause by partitioning errors in praxis. Many answers to those problems are over thought, over complicated, and over the top.
    Trinidad
    Thanked by 1mattnmag
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