[SOLVED] Installation error

[GerardV]

I have bought a new PC, first new one ever, a HP Pavilion TP01 2000I and have been trying to install Kubuntu. The installation proceeds as normal until the end with a fatal error message that it can't install grub on either the M.2 ssd it came with, with win11, or on my added ssd at the second try.
I have disabled secure boot and changed from raid to ahci. I had to add the "acpi=off" parameter to the startup, will not load without.
I have ordered a new M.2 ssd as i don't really want to wipe win11 at this stage. The same thing happened with trying to install Ubuntu and Deepin. So i am wondering if i have to disable TPM as well. Anyone got any idea? I am just about to reset the BIOS which will be my last resort

[jlittle]

You don't mention it, so make sure you boot the installer in UEFI mode. It's too easy to boot in BIOS legacy mode.

Can you get to "Try Kubuntu", and use the partition manager to partition the second SSD?

You've posted in the 21.10 forum. This goes end-of-life in July, so you could save some effort by installing the 22.04 beta; we've had no problems reported in this forum recently.

[GerardV]

Bios mode was not available in the boot options so i assume it was in the UEFI mode. Unfortunately "Try Kubuntu" would not work, only installation. Yes i know it goes end-of-life but at this stage i am trying everything, including 22.04, to get something installed, so far without any luck.
I have tried Manjaro, being Arch based as well and would not run at all.

[claydoh]

Check for any bios updates, as these sometimes fix compatibility issues even if they are not listed in the changelogs.

Another option to try when getting grub install issues may be to NOT connect to the internet when installing (assuming that you are doing so).
I have seen in the past where it downloads some updates to install (assuming for grub) even if the option to download updates is un-checked. This has worked when the grub install part crashed the installer on me, in the past. been a while since I have seen that, but the *buntu installer is quite old.

I am sure there is some boot flag that may be needed for booting Linux distros that are not loading, but that will be heavily dependent on your specific hardware, though I don't think this itself would cause the grub installation part of the crusty installer to go south.

[GerardV]

I tried it again without connecting to the internet and getting the same error unfortunately. I do let the installer take over the whole drive so can.t really see what it has done regarding the boot flags. There are no updates available for the BIOS.

[claydoh]

There may be some grub boot flag, similar to the acpi one you tried, that might be useful for your specific hardware.
Don't know what you have, as there seem to be a rather large number of variants for your PC model, as seems the norm for HP (and not just mine!)

[GerardV]

I installed 21.10 on my old Lenovo and works perfect. I then installed that ssd on my new HP. The boot screen comes up but after selecting the first entry the screen goes blank. I did expect to get a bunch of errors but all i got was a blank screen. I just have wait for my new m,2 ssd to arrive and replace the one that's in there with win11 on it and see how we go.

[GreyGeek]

I recently acquired an HP-17cn1xxx.
I deleted the Win10 that it came with and overwrote it with KDE Neon.
I found that I had to disable SecureBoot and set TPM to "Hidden" so it won't be seen by the OS. Every time you make a change in the BIOS settings the computer asked about security. I ignored the question and continued the boot up. The question never comes back unless I change the BIOS again.
I replaced the 1TB spinner with a 500Gb SSD and gave the EFI partition 300Mb (some say less than 100, others recommend the maximum 550Mb) and set the recommended flag. I created a second partition for swap equal to my RAM + 2GB. I gave sd3, about 465Gb, entirely to / as BTRFS, which is what I use for my filesystem and recommend.
My HP has the Intel IRIS Xe graphics system. When I run Universe Sandbox^2 it starts out saying I have only 512Mb of RAM and it may run slow, but the Xe steals from RAM to make as much graphics RAM as it needs and Sandbox runs smooth as silk. So does Minecraft at around 125-150 fps. My other Steam apps run equally well.
In the BIOS I set my keyboard backlights to remain on for 3 minutes. Pressing the F4 keys turns on the lights and toggles them through 3 or 4 levels of brightness.
My WiFI chip is the rtl8821ce. It's the fly in the ointment. I have an Intel replacement that Amazon says will be here tomorrow
I have a 500Mbps fiber optic connection and the most the chip will do in a stable mode is 200 Mbps with the 5Ghz connection. The 2.4Ghz gives 72Mbps. I have another thread describing what I had to do to get that chip working half-way decent.
I have a Hurricane Electric IPv6 setup and it worked great as "native IPv6" installation on my old 2012 Acer. The wifi chip in this HP can't see my old Buffalo 600N DD-WRT wifi so I had to resort to using the cable modem's internal wifi and setting up a Mirado IPv6 tunnel. I used a wifi router in front of my cable modem because the cable modem firewall blocks everything I try to do and any settings I make on it are ignored. The tech people are at a loss and can't explain it or fix it. If my hunch is right and it is the 8821ce blocking my Buffalo then I'll be restoring it to service and getting my "native IPv6" back.

[GerardV]

Well i got my new M2 ssd, installed it and still no luck with Kubuntu. I managed to get Mint installed, initially with same error but thanks to the excellent included boot repair tool in the live version got it started. The tool reported a partial failure as well because of locked NVRAM Still had to use the modprobe.blacklist and acpi=off parameters to get the installed system going because the Nouvea driver doesn't work. Installed the Nvidia driver but that fails to load because of locked NVRAM and cannot find a way to unlock it. So unfortunately back to windows.

[GreyGeek]

That model of computer seems particularly unfriendly towards Linux, as are most HP help forums. That's why I never seek solutions there.
Installing Kubuntu, or any other distro using a LiveUSB is child's play. Doing nothing more than accepting defaults all through the process will usually get you a working desktop 99.999999% of the time.

I sense that there is something about how you are trying to install Kubuntu that you are not telling us.
Regardless, enjoy your Win11 experience. I suspect that sooner or later you will be back.

[claydoh]

locked NVRAM

Resetting the cmos? Probably involves removing the cmos battery, and maybe fiddling with a jumper, holding the power button for an extended time while unplugged from mains, or some special button, or proper offerings and blood sacrifices

pastebin the logs from boot-repair, it might be useful to view.
As well as some hardware specs (hint, nudge)

[GerardV]

Resetting the cmos? Probably involves removing the cmos battery, and maybe fiddling with a jumper

Did that but only partially successful i think as it did not reset time and date and could not find any jumpers. I did find two display ports, VGA and HDMI hidden behind covers on the back of the box, presumably for the Intel graphic processor. I used the HDMI to install Mint in compatibility mode and that proceeded without any errors. But would not start after the install, it just hangs half way through without any error reporting, The only errors i noticed it could not assign IRQ 0 and some issues with the Realtek wifi card

That model of computer seems particularly unfriendly towards Linux, as are most HP help forums

Which is ironic as i would recommend a HP printer because of their Linux support.
Running Jammy in a VB for now and do some more researching.

[GerardV]

Finally managed to install 22.04 but one issue remains. I have to add "acpi=off" during startup to get it going.I have tried to make it permanently by editing GRUB as follows but it doesn't work.

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" acpi=off
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xe fefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

I did run grub-update, so this may not be the right place to put. Anyone knows? ( i am so close now )

[rab0171610]

It needs to be in the parenthesis...

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" acpi=off

needs to be :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=off"
Then run update-grub again. Check /boot/grub/grub.cfg to make sure the parameters were added to the end of the vmlinuz line. If not and it only says vmlinuz . . . . . quiet splash
just add acpi=off to the end
so it reads vmlinuz . . . . . quiet splash acpi=off
You can edit using kate, which will ask for a password, or nano from the command line.

[rab0171610]

I sense that there is something about how you are trying to install Kubuntu that you are not telling us

That sounds accusatory and frankly, in my opinion, not helpful. Conspiracy much?