Installer crashes during installation

[LukeMorrison]

Have you tried using the mini.iso to install? This will pull the latest packages from the internet instead of the install media. This is how I do the majority of my installs.

I tried to input the links, but they were getting truncated. Search for ubuntu precise mini.iso and your architecture (32-bit or 64-bit)

You will need to download the mini.iso for your architecture and "burn" the .iso image to your USB stick.

[warjowuch]

Gaarne gedaan - You're welcome!

And what happens if at first you prepare the drives, run fsck (GUI via gparted and disk-utility) and then run the installer?

[Noor1101]

UPDATE

I just got my notebook back, with Debian7+Gnome3 installed.
It works! Hurrah!

The (Debian) expert found out that the problem was related to DMA, Direct Memory Access (or at least, it was solved by configuring the DMA settings). It did puzzle him though, and he's still not completely sure why the problems occurred. It might also have something to do with the combination of a not-so-new motherboard/SiSchipset and a new SATA300 hard-disk.

I don't know how to check it (and I don't know whether it is possible to check it on a broken disk), but the original hard-disk may have been a SATA150-disk, and it may be that the rest of the components in my notebook have problems connecting with a (newer) SATA300-disk.

I'll translate the e-mail the expert sent me, with information on what he found and how he fixed it. Please note I don't understand all it says - I'm just translating.

Like I told you, the file system becomes corrupt when DMA is enabled. DMA makes the hard-disk much faster, but apparently the Linux driver for the sis5513 chip has problems with this. I tested this, from a Live boot CD(/USB) with

e2fsck -f /dev/sda1

When DMA is enabled and there is a file system on it, I always got errors. If you press ctrl-c with the first error, nothing will be changed.

I disabled DMA with the kernel option

libata.dma=0

In Debian, you can do that -after booting- by going to your choice (of installation), pressing TAB, and then adding "libata.dma=0" after "-- quiet". Then return to the menu.
I noticed that after reboot this setting is not automatically put into GRUB, so first GRUB needs to be configured with "e" (edit), and putting "libata.dma=0" after "quiet". Once that has been done it's possible to boot with F10.
After booting it also needs to be changed in GRUB, so that it doesn't need to be configured again the next time you boot. You can do that in the file /etc/default/grub.

Remember this also needs to be done with live-CD's of live-USB's if you want to access the disk.

The consequence of disabling DMA is that the starting of applications is slower than it used to be. Once applications are running there is no (noticeable) difference. (When I want to start Iceweasel, my current internet browser, it takes about 10-15 seconds; a bit slow but not insurmountable.)


Right now I have my notebook back (and I'm very happy about it!), but it might be that the expert will think of something else, and will contact me to have another look and try some things.

Anyway, it was quite a struggle and it has got me to join a local Linux users' group and be even more eager to learn than I was before. (Especially having an expert not quite knowing why his solution worked, intrigues me! Plus he hasn't got a degree, but learnt it all by himself over the last 12 years by trying, reading and talking to other people.)

Thanks to everyone here!
Especially NikTh, who helped me on multiple threads. σας ευχαριστώ !!

I guess it's 'bye-bye', or am I, as a Debian user, still welcome?

A very helpful forum, and a nice community. I'm sorry to leave you (especially as I've just reached the number of posts that allows me to edit my profile )

All the best,
Noor

[NikTh]

σας ευχαριστώ !!

You're welcome !

I guess it's 'bye-bye', or am I, as a Debian user, still welcome?

Everyone is welcome here . Do not forget that Ubuntu is based in some way to Debian distro.

About the problem , I bet more in sis chip. Those chips either graphic cards or motherborads were always problematic with a lot of Linux distributions.

[Noor1101]

It seems the primary problem is that my chipset ([SiS] 671MX) cannot "communicate" properly with a SATA300 (=3Gb/s) hdd.

On this site Western Digital gives a description of the problem and a solution (setting the hdd to 1,5Gb/s): http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/.../130/p/227,194

After the weekend I will go to the store where I bought my hdd and ask what to do. I may be able to bring my current hdd back and get a WD 500Gb in return.
This phrase worries me though:

• To lock the drive at 150 MB/s data transfer rate install a jumper shunt on pins 5-6 (OPT1), shown in the picture below. (Only available on 3.5 inch (Desktop) size drives)

I have a 2,5 inch drive...


I'll let you know if and how it can be solved.

[Noor1101]

I returned the first new hdd and got a Western Digital SATA300 500Gb. Didn't solve much. DMA did not need to be disabled, Debian&Gnome sometimes worked, but it crashed (or wouldn't start up) regularly giving errors like

fsck died with exit code 4 (or 8)
ata3.00 revalidation failed
/dev/sda1 contains a file system with errors, check forced
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found
end_request: I/O errors, dev sda sector #

Also, the system kept configuring (changing) the udma speed: ranging from 33 (= very slow) to 133 (= (too) fast) (I'm not quite sure what it means, but I've been told it's strange)

The I/O errors and dev/sda errors could be fixed temporarily by running

 fsck /dev/sda1

(and typing y (yes) many times), but the problem kept coming back. I couldn't rely on my computer, couldn't be sure my work was saved.


I'm not completely sure, but I think I've found out what the cause of the problem is.

In my despair I decided to try to install Ubuntu onto an (eight-year-) old internal hdd with a capacity of only 60Gb. Someone told me it is possible that the BIOS has a maximum in terms of supported hdd-capacity. The 2 new hdd's I tried were 500Gb, and the (original) broken one 250Gb.

And it seems to work - or at least it has now been working perfectly for three hours. I successfully installed Ubuntu 12.04.1 from USB, the xfce desktop, and 227 updates, and copied my documents, pictures, and audio books onto the 60Gb disk.
I only have 18Gb left

I'm surprised the system didn't "tell" me the capacity of the hdd was problematic in an (even to the experts) understandable way, and I'm also surprised the guys at the computer store didn't mention it being possible that the disk was too big for my BIOS. I never knew that was possible, and I spent quite some time there, talking to them and asking for advice. But well.. it works now (fingers crossed) and for 10 euros extra I bought a casing for the new 500Gb disk.


Does anybody know how to find out the maximum supported disk capacity of BIOS?


Thank you very much

Regards,
Noor

[NikTh]

Hi ,
well first of all I'm glad you have installed Ubuntu successfully . Have a joy

Yes, the capacity of HDD sometimes is important combined with BIOS. Take a look if BIOS has an update (update BIOS through Linux is quite difficult) .
Open a terminal and give this command for more info

sudo dmidecode -t  0,1,2,3

or
give a link where your PC listed (specifications ..etc).
Thanks

[Noor1101]

Hi NikTh,

Thanks for your continued support

I have already looked into updating BIOS - there are updates available, and my BIOS (PE14A04) is upgradeable. But to be honest, I dare not try it. At least not now.

I need this -only- pc of mine for my studies, and I've had to go without it for three weeks. It was very annoying and cost me a lot of time; having to use shared (uni) computers that are not available most of the time.

So right now I won't try to update BIOS, I'm too scared something will go wrong. The 60Gb hd works well right now -- I just have to copy some stuff to and from the currently-external 500Gb hd every now and then. That's OK.
I might try upgrading the BIOS in the (Christmas) holidays or the end of January, when I'm a little less busy with my studies (I hope).

So thank you very much for your help! Have a nice evening.

Regards
Noor