Newbie: Mint Crashed While Installing alongside Win XP on D:\. Now Can't Access D in Windows

On a related note, the program Unetbootin (similar to Universal USB Installer) was first used to create my live USB with persistence. It showed everything worked fine, but it would not boot up on two BIOS/MBR computers. I didn't try it on a UEFI machine.
 


Wow, nice work guys. I was observing some of your fast paced exchanges, but too many beers (and martinis) rightly kept me from butting in at the time. So I'll butt in now! :D

I used Universal USB Installer to make a Mint 18.3 live USB to follow along. And I wanted to test if "upgrading" the USB stick would carry over to a full install. Like Steve, I had many permission errors with the upgrade process. It finally boiled down to the big list, and I de-selected everything except Firefox and Thunderbird email and let those upgrade. Firefox also threw a permission error like the system files, but Thunderbird did not. In the final installation Firefox did not get an upgraded version, but Thunderbird did... which kind of surprised me. But in what was still a failure (to me) was that I had copied all my settings (Firefox bookmarks, and email setups for numerous accounts) over to the pen drive... and none of that survived the installation (though they worked fine in persistence on the USB). That's not a surprise if you think about it.... those settings are stored in hidden folders in the home folder (.mozilla and .thunderbird)..... but the pen drive was /home/mint and on my hard drive install it was my own user account, /home/stan. Because of the many permission errors, it seems pointless to try to upgrade a live Linux USB, even if it were in use as a primary carry-it-in-your-pocket system.

OK, on the extended steps to create partitions and install to Steve's WD hard drive. I followed along today and performed the same steps, but I thought I saw an "oops" moment last night that I can confirm now that I'm sober. :eek::D

After using Gparted to create /dev/sda1 as ext4 and /dev/sda2 as swap, Wizard said you could "Use entire disk" when you began the installation. The wording varies from distro to distro, and "Use entire disk" is, I think, accurate sometimes. With the Mint 18.3 that I just installed, it was "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" instead (with encryption and LVM options). If that is what Steve chose (as I did)... then the installer popped up a window with a warning of the changes that were going to be written to disk.... and it showed "partition #5" going to swap (not #2). This is the default way that Mint sets up a hard drive, with the swap (/dev/sda5) inside of an extended (/dev/sda2), at the end of the hard drive. I saw it on the warning, but Steve likely missed that. And I've now installed Gparted to the new hard drive install and confirmed that the installer started over from scratch and changed what you guys had set up. Of course, to preserve the partitioning you set up, you would have needed to choose the "Something else" option instead of the "Erase disk" option. So, Steve, am I correct that your install went the same?

Whether you want a do-over is up to you. The more times you do this, the more familiar you get, and the faster you get at setting it all up. If you decide to do it over, the "Something else" will need to set a "mount point" manually... something that Mint did automatically when you give it the freedom. And, as Wizard cautioned, that is also the screen where you will need to make the correct choice for where to put the bootloader... /dev/sda and not /dev/sda1.

Oh, one more thing about Gparted.... you can save yourself the trouble of subtracting 4096 from the big number when creating your new partitions. Just TAB (forward) past the big number (or click on the next box for how much free space to leave) and type in 4096 directly. Then you can SHIFT-TAB (backward) or TAB (forward) or click elsewhere in the options and you will see the big number do the subtraction itself.

Cheers

Great detective work again, Stan. I love it. :cool:

I had to take the dogs for a walk, and think about this, and now my brain hurts. :p

I looked back at my screen shots of before and after the install, and I think you are spot on, Senator. :D

Do you remember that I questioned the very first install to the WD HDD, from the pen drive, because it installed to /sda1 instead of /sda? As a side note, I remember selecting "something else" at that time, but don't remember what else I may have selected once I got there. But I didn't have all the pieces of this "Drive" puzzle then, but I think I do now, and after reading your synopsis, here's what I believe I have learned from all this. Please correct me if I'm wrong;

Even in a Linux system, if it's running in BIOS/MBR mode, you are limited to 4 Primary Partitions per physical HDD, and only one Extended Partition, but as many Logical Partitions under that Extended Partition, as usable space allows.

So it looks to me like Linux sets up /sda (which I have always believed is the "entire" physical WD HDD), and logically then, /sdb would be another physical HDD, or bootable drive anyway, and /sdc another physical, bootable drive. These are not partitions. Partitions always have a number assigned to them, under the physical HDD they are a Partition of. Such as /sda1, /sdb1, being Primary Partitions on HDD /sda, and HDD /sdb, respectively, etc.

A BIOS/MBR system only allows up to 4 Primary Partitions; /sda1 through /sda4 respectively in Linux. and since Linux needs a Swap File, Linux goes ahead and creates one for you as a Logical Partition under an Extended Partition, and the first Logical Partition is numbered sda5.

Which is great under normal conditions, but Chris and I went ahead and graciously set up an entire Partition (/sda2) thinking Linux would use it as a Swap File. And yes, Stan, you are correct that when I did "this"install, I unwittingly "told" it to format the "entire" disk, which it did, and because of it's instructions to do so, hijacked /sda2 (the Partition which Chris and I had so painstakingly created for it) and arrogantly turned our magnificent and magical work into an Extended Partition /sda2 so that it could create a Logical Partition under that Extended Partition to use as a Swap File. Harrumph! I may need a safe space and a therapy puppy. :eek:

How am I doing? o_O
 
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I had some install issues, that I probably should discuss here.

Everything went great until I updated that pesky nVidia 304 Driver. It prompted me to reboot after the change, but hung on the reboot. I cursed a bit, (I'm sure Wiz will agree sometimes curses are necessary) so I powered off and back up, and tried the reboot again. I should note here that when it seems to have trouble booting, with this Driver installed, I don't see the normal green LM logo with the dots under it, but instead a gray scale LM 18.3 logo, with the dots underneath, and then it usually hangs with a black screen after a few seconds, or a blinking cursor in the top left corner, but sometimes it boots all the way to the Desktop and everything seems to be working just swell, until screen goes nuts with multi-color rectangles, or scrolling multicolored lines, then says to heck with it and shuts down the entire system. I was rather enjoying the light show last night, after my beer and a glass of wine, (thought about putting on some Pink Floyd) but after only a minute or so of that stuff, it shut itself down. :(

So with the NVIDIA 304 Driver, sometimes it boots, sometimes it balks, and sometimes it just seems to have a mind of its own. The first time that it booted to the log in screen, after updating the nVidia driver, I looked around and in Menu/Administration there are NVIDIA X Server Settings. I opened that, looked around, didn't change anything, closed that and looked at Driver Manager, which reported that I was indeed running with the 304 proprietary driver. So I decided to kick the tires and reboot, and it booted to the log in screen, but it started flashing like a 1980's John Travolta Disco light, different colored scrolling bars. So I had to power down, and when I powered back up and rebooted, it wouldn't boot all the way, but hung with a blinking cursor. This scenario seems to repeat itself, so I managed to catch it in a good mood, and when it finally booted normally again, I quickly opened Driver Manager and reinstalled the generic video driver, and rebooted, which it did normally, and then rebooted normally again, and again, and Voila! Here I am running from the Linux install on the WD with the generic (Nouvou) Video driver. Note: the NVIDIA X app is still visible under Menu/Administration, but when I open it, all but a few of the categories that were there when the Driver was installed, are not there anymore. Just basic settings.

Update Manager says my system is up to date, and everything works that I can tell, so my next chore is to get the USB Seagate running and Timeshift taking snapshots of my system for backups. I think I have enough learnin' to try that myself. But maybe I'll need some help fixin' the Samsung, maybe? :D
 
A BIOS/MBR system only allows up to 4 Primary Partitions; /sda1 through /sda4 respectively in Linux. and since Linux needs a Swap File, Linux goes ahead and creates one for you as a Logical Partition under an Extended Partition, and the first Logical Partition is numbered sda5.

How am I doing? o_O

You're still doing great! And I think your analysis above is correct... as to why the swap gets numbered #5. I'm not totally positive you are correct, but it sure makes sense. Wizard may enlighten us more about that.

And you're correct also that /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc, are references to physical devices (but they do not need to be bootable). And there can be many of these, including CD/DVD-ROM drives, SD card readers, and USB hard drives or pen drives. By the time I plug a USB pen drive into my desktop, it becomes /dev/sdf. As you've seen in Gparted, any unallocated space can only be referenced to the drive where it is... because it has not yet been partitioned and formatted with a filesystem. You can't write data to unallocated space. An exception that has been mentioned though is where the bootloader goes... it goes to the MBR (Master Boot Record). This is a special space and you don't see it in Gparted.... but when you run the Linux installer and tell it to put the bootloader into /dev/sda... it knows to go to the MBR. And when your BIOS finishes the POST and passes control to the bootloader, it knows to find it on the MBR (if another boot device does not take priority, like a boot floppy/DVD/USB).

When you set up your Seagate (assuming for storage only), it will not be bootable, and if it is the only other device to be plugged in, it will become /dev/sdb and it will probably only have one partition, /dev/sdb1 where all your data will reside. But it can certainly be set up differently too. It just depends on what you want. But these assignments are not written in stone. If you unplug the Seagate, and then plug in the Samsung... then it will become /dev/sdb when you boot up. If you want to have storage for Windows, you will need an NTFS partition (which Linux can use too). It its going to be Linux only, you might choose your only partition to be ext4 (but remember that other systems can't use that, so it will be pretty limited to Linux only).

About nVidia... wasn't the 340 driver the recommended one? I think you had both 340 and 304, and I'm easily confused. :confused:
 
Hi all, before I get down to business, I've just gotta set Steve straight on this Reply business, it's driving me crackers :confused: (oops, already there.

See the partial screenshot of Stan's Post above

I0zekXo.png

Screenshot 1 - Reply Protocol

Steve what you are doing at the moment, is hitting the Reply button beside Like, which then prefaces Reply with the entire quote of the Post before yours. It's not necessary, and you don't see us doing it, and it just adds to Real Estate on the Servers.

What you want to be doing is going down below that post, to where (currently greyed out) your avatar sits at the left, click "Write your reply..." and go from there. This is as much for the benefit of new Members as for you, and I am not being critical, Mate :D When you have completed your reply just press Post Reply and away she goes.

Mind you, in a thread as long as this one, or if you are referencing a Post from the page before, you might want to quote someone and address that issue. This can be done in two (or more) ways:

1. Highlight or block the text you want to address and you will see a small "Reply" come up. Click that, and that text will be inserted in your reply, along with who said it. So if I take a sentence or two from Stan's Post above, I can do this

When you set up your Seagate (assuming for storage only), it will not be bootable, and if it is the only other device to be plugged in, it will become /dev/sdb and it will probably only have one partition, /dev/sdb1 where all your data will reside. But it can certainly be set up differently too. It just depends on what you want.

And hey presto, it appears, and I can say

"Quite so, my good chap :p".

On the Menu/Toolbar in your Reply Pane towards the right is a plus sign, and clicking it drops down options including Quote, so

2. If you are not worried about your readers knowing whom the quote came from, you can just block the relevant text and copy, hit the plus button and choose Quote. A couple of fields will appear, with the insertion point between them, just paste there, so

When you set up your Seagate (assuming for storage only), it will not be bootable, and if it is the only other device to be plugged in, it will become /dev/sdb and it will probably only have one partition, /dev/sdb1 where all your data will reside. But it can certainly be set up differently too. It just depends on what you want.

Before you know it, you'll be doing annoying crap advanced, helpful stuff like me. :cool:

Wiz
 
Hi all, before I get down to business, I've just gotta set Steve straight on this Reply business, it's driving me crackers :confused: (oops, already there.

See the partial screenshot of Stan's Post above

I0zekXo.png

Screenshot 1 - Reply Protocol

Steve what you are doing at the moment, is hitting the Reply button beside Like, which then prefaces Reply with the entire quote of the Post before yours. It's not necessary, and you don't see us doing it, and it just adds to Real Estate on the Servers.

What you want to be doing is going down below that post, to where (currently greyed out) your avatar sits at the left, click "Write your reply..." and go from there. This is as much for the benefit of new Members as for you, and I am not being critical, Mate :D When you have completed your reply just press Post Reply and away she goes.

Mind you, in a thread as long as this one, or if you are referencing a Post from the page before, you might want to quote someone and address that issue. This can be done in two (or more) ways:

1. Highlight or block the text you want to address and you will see a small "Reply" come up. Click that, and that text will be inserted in your reply, along with who said it. So if I take a sentence or two from Stan's Post above, I can do this



And hey presto, it appears, and I can say

"Quite so, my good chap :p".

On the Menu/Toolbar in your Reply Pane towards the right is a plus sign, and clicking it drops down options including Quote, so

2. If you are not worried about your readers knowing whom the quote came from, you can just block the relevant text and copy, hit the plus button and choose Quote. A couple of fields will appear, with the insertion point between them, just paste there, so



Before you know it, you'll be doing annoying crap advanced, helpful stuff like me. :cool:

Wiz

Chris, please, next time make this a private conversation, rather than standing me up in front of everyone and then dressing me down, while at the same time hijacking my thread. That's a bit crass, if you ask me. And I don't mean to disrespect you, because you've been very generous with your help, but I think this post was completely unnecessary.

But since you've made it a public discussion, I am compelled to reply publicly.

First let me say that I certainly don't intend to annoy you. I think you're a good guy and you've helped me a lot. But I think it's beneficial to the discussion to have ALL of the conversation easily at hand, not just your parsed comments.

And I'm not the "only" one doing this, as you imply. Look back through this thread and you will see that Stan sometimes just hits reply too. I don't know why you find this annoying, I think it's great that all of the discussion is easily at hand. I think just hitting reply is a convenient and efficient tool to keep the discussion flowing without expending anymore resources than necessary, either bandwidth or personal effort. At my age, I look for that mechanical advantage. :D

And I'm not new at this. I've owned a copy of VBulletin and two discussion Forums for over 15 years (Christian Theology) and I've participated on a dozen or more other Forums, and I've never had anyone complain because I left ALL of their comments intact in a reply, rather than just replying to that part of their post that "I" felt was relevant to the discussion. In fact, this is highly frowned on, and people in literally every Forum I've participated in call people out for doing this, because there are people who are intellectually dishonest and intentionally leave out the relevant points in your reply while offering a reply that has nothing to do with the original comments. The intent is to lead you down rabbit trails because the intent is to deceive. (pride is our worst enemy).

And I'm not saying you do this to deceive anyone, by any means, but having all of your comments right there handy if I need them is extremely beneficial for people like me who are trying to learn from people like you who have all this locked into memory. I don't have to go searching around for what has been said in its entirety, it's right there at the top of the post if I need it.

I don't know how your browser handles replies, but when someone replies to the entire post, it compresses the post you are replying to, at the top, and I am able to "expand" it if I have a question about what exactly has been said. And I find this extremely useful rather than annoying. One might argue that your method of replying is redundant, in that I have to spend the time reading what I had just written, when I can figure out what you are replying to by your reply, and if I get confused, all of your comments are available if I need them. Not just the ones you think I need.

And if it's all about bandwidth, I'm not sure either way has an edge on the other in that regard. Personal time is important too, and I find it more efficient in that regard if I don't have to read what I have already written, unless I want to, and I don't have to do a lot of copying and pasting (jumping through hoops, as I see it) when a simple reply with all of your original comments compressed at the top for reference are there if need them. Like I said, I'm a "full picture" kind of guy, in that I need to see the whole puzzle before I can tell you what it looks like, and I'm sure there are others like me. If everything that has been said in a post is right there, compressed at the top and easily expandable if I need to see it, that is a plus for me.

So with that said, I don't mean to annoy or insult you, because I still need your help, and I appreciate all the time and effort you've given to me, but I just want you to know that I find the "reply" tool a valuable asset, and I really don't "want" to stop using it, and in fact will continue to use it as long as it's an option. I certainly hope it doesn't come down to this, but if it bothers you that much, then don't read my posts. :p
 
I tried to install to the USB Seagate using "something else" but it failed looking for a file system and prompted me to correct this problem. But I'm at a loss as to how to do that. I can take some screen shots if necessary. Let me know what you want to see.
 
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* Edited to clarify, after a little more learnin'

Here's the latest. I went back through the steps that Wiz laid out for me for setting up the WD, and ended up with the Seagate looking very similar to the WD in Gparted, except for the sizes of the partitions. (Seagate screen shot below, taken after the install) Then I attempted to install to the Seagate from the pen drive, but this time I opted to let Linux have its way with the Drive, selecting the first choice, (which is also the default): "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" I also got the warning that you mentioned earlier when describing your install experience on page 7, Stan.

The install went normal, except upon reboot, I got the following:

Error: file ' /boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

I tried rebooting again and got the same response.

I'm thinking the mount point is somewhere it doesn't recognize? doesn't /media/mint point to a USB drive, or such? But I don't understand why the mount point is the UUID of the Seagate Drive. It's a USB Drive, but shouldn't /sdb1 be mounted at the root of the drive, or ( / ) as I believe the WD is set up? (second screen shot below)

Screenshot at 2018-01-29 13-16-43.png


Screenshot at 2018-01-29 14-36-56.png
 
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Morning all :)

On #146, Steve you are quite right, and my regrets.:(

Better would have been for me to place something in General, for the benefit of all.

My Asperger's Syndrome, whilst managed and medicated, still rears its ugly head from time to time and prompts me to behave in a socially inappropriate fashion. My psychiatrist has told me not to apologise for the way I am, but that does not really sit well with me, so my compromise is to say "I regret if my comments or actions have caused you discomfort".

So, my regrets. I also live by a credo of "No offence should be taken where none was meant", and so I hope we are good :D. My experience with other Forums has differed to yours. Where Brian (@Condobloke ), and @nuna and I came from before we joined here, Staff used to admonish us for putting in full quotes of another's Posts, even edit them out. This site has a far more liberal approach and it is one of many reasons I have loved being here for the last 9 months.

I have "business" comments next Post, but as you are online, just a question and that is, can you please provide for us the content of your file

/etc/fstab ?

You could use your File Manager and open it via Text Editor, or if you wish the Terminal practice

Code:
cat /etc/fstab

I will digest the content a little more, of your above (excellent) screenshots, and be back as soon as I can.

Thanks and cheers

Wizard
 
Chris, we are more than good, and especially after such a gracious reply. No harm, no foul, and thank you. You're a good man, and easily my friend, and everything you said is well noted.

Data as requested by the Wizard (while running from the WD HDD with the Linux MATE install, with USB Seagate plugged in):

gomad@gomad-System-Product-Name ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=a2c12aa9-545a-4628-81a0-101137b19abf / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=3373152b-1866-41a5-adb4-b44ed3a436f5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
 
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and easily my friend, and everything you said is well noted.

I am glad of that, and feel likewise :p

Code:
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=3373152b-1866-41a5-adb4-b44ed3a436f5 none swap sw 0 0

These two lines, one a comment that Linux generated, the other instructions to your system, are worth elaborating a little on.

The Universal Unique IDentifier , UUID is a number that is guaranteed to be unique from any other UUID in the world until 3,400AD (how are we going to challenge that?;)).

If you choose to run more than one Linux on a hard drive, there is no need to set up a new Swap Partition (cf Windows uses swap files)*, as your additional Linuxes will hunt out and find the original swap file, and share it. This is not actually sharing, per se, as only one Linux will be running at any one time, so the one in session will have exclusive use.

With Steve's (@Gomad 's) circumstances, he has set up his Western Digital to run Linux, and is doing likewise with a separate physical HDD, the Seagate. Under this scenario, it is a good idea to have a Swap partition on each. One drive can rely on the other's swap, as long as it is "pointed to" in your fstab file, but if the other drive is unplugged, removed, or crashes, you would have to recreate a swap (if you want swap).

Also, if you have started with Swap in place, and on, and you then remove it with adjusting for that occurrence, your computer startup will be slowed by as much as 1 minute 30 seconds, whilst Linux is searching for a Swap indicated by fstab, that no longer exists.

That being the case, because under Steve's BIOS-MBR setup, Linux has of its own volition set up an Extended Partition /dev/sda2, with, beneath it, one Logical Partition /dev/sda5, the Swap partition, consuming the whole 4 gigs, he will need to make adjustments if he wishes to put more than 2 more Linux on the WD (of course, that may be enough). This is because the Extended Partition, as Steve has already researched, is where you can put a large number of Linuxes as Logical Partitions, as space permits.

Confused? Wouldn't blame you :rolleyes:. If you have more questions on Swap, perhaps start a new thread, with "Swap" featuring prominently as a keyword in the title, and we can look further at the issues.

(* Under special circumstances, we can generate a Swap File, and we can even generate Swap On The Fly, but I will discuss that elsewhere, perhaps alongside multi-booting a number of Linux)

Have to go for now, back in a couple of hours

Cheers

Wizard
 
Wiz, thanks for your instructions. Not confused. If I understand correctly, different Distros running on different HDD's from different Primary Partitions can use the same Swap File, but it's best if they each have their own.

Only one question that hopefully requires only a simple answer: Where would Linux have created the Swap File if we had not created /sda2 prior to attempting the install?
 
I simply couldn't get Linux to install to the Seagate USB HDD from the pen drive, using the "Something else" parameter. It couldn't find a file system and wanted me to correct that using a partition tool. I don't have a clue how to address that. The Seagate is set up exactly the same as the WD, (partition wise) and MATE installed flawlessly to the WD, other than it did it's own thing with the Swap File we created.

However, the install will appear to complete to the Seagate, using the "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" parameter, but it won't boot up after that. I keep getting the same error:

Error: file ' /boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

Soooo, I plugged in my brand new WD 1.0 TB HDD, set it up exactly the same as the old WD 1.5 TB, and I got the same error trying to install using the "Something else" parameter, but it installed flawlessly to this HDD when I selected the "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" parameter. I'm now running on the new WD 1.0 TB with MATE installed.

And for grins and giggles, here's a screen shot of my fstab query from the new WD MATE installation:

newwd@NewWD-System-Product-Name ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=c2451e3a-2f58-4adf-9113-1531ee5e306d / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=37d52917-b7b2-45f9-af5e-5bb7def361cf none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
 
My GOODNESS ... you do have the curliest problems, so early in your Linux "career" :D:D

My comments between yours, highlighted

Wiz, thanks for your instructions. Not confused. If I understand correctly, different Distros running on different HDD's from different Primary Partitions can use the same Swap File, but it's best if they each have their own.

Yes, to an extent. Some of it depends on whether you wish to make the separate or additional HDD bootable in its own right, and that also applies to external HDDs, whether powered or unpowered.

Only one question that hopefully requires only a simple answer: Where would Linux have created the Swap File if we had not created /sda2 prior to attempting the install?

It would simply have performed the division in partitions itself, instead of just overwriting/overriding what we did. Bear in mind that I have been working almost exclusively within a UEFI-GPT environment for the last 3 and a half years, so if I am mistaken, I welcome the correction.

With the "Something else" approach, we have more control over customising the partitions to our perceived needs. With this approach, we can create partitions as we wish, for what purpose we wish. I will flesh this out a little more while you are catching zzz's (you may be already), with a practical example you may find interesting, but for now, I have to fire up Ubuntu 16.04 to help out Peter Rake with a Libre Office spellcheck problem.

Back soon

Wiz
 
I tried to install to the USB Seagate using "something else" but it failed looking for a file system and prompted me to correct this problem. But I'm at a loss as to how to do that. I can take some screen shots if necessary. Let me know what you want to see.

Hi Steve. Of course, Wizard is an expert at this stuff right here... and I just muddle along the best I can. I'm surprised the "automatic install" to the Seagate did not work correctly. It may be because it is recognizing that the drive is a USB instead of SATA or IDE. The clue to this is the "mount point" (/media/mint/etc,etc). The mount point should typically just be "/" as it shows on your WD drive.... and this can be set in the "Something else" section of the Mint installer (by double-clicking on the /dev/sdb1 partition to control its parameters). If you get into this section again, this is also where you would set the bootloader to be on /dev/sdb (not /dev/sdb1, as was also covered when discussing sda earlier). The bootloader selector is at the bottom of the screen, somewhat detached from the partition setup area. ### This was written last night but not posted. Still seems relevant, so I'll venture repeating the above (from work on my phone).

I think the step you're missing with the Seagate is during the "Something else" setup, in the partitioning section, that you need to double click on /dev/sdb1 and set the mount point to "/". I'm guessing this is the file system it wants. Also important to put the bootloader on /dev/sdb as stated earlier.

Looking at your brand new WD install with Gparted, I'm guessing that you see "/" as the mount point, right? And, of course, that install is working.

If you successfully get each drive set up, it seems they are capable of stand alone booting and use. If so, with all plugged in at once, you should be able to select which one from the BIOS boot menu. The Seagate could also be booted on someone else's computer once you get this set up correctly.
 
Hi Steve. Of course, Wizard is an expert at this stuff right here... and I just muddle along the best I can. I'm surprised the "automatic install" to the Seagate did not work correctly. It may be because it is recognizing that the drive is a USB instead of SATA or IDE. The clue to this is the "mount point" (/media/mint/etc,etc). The mount point should typically just be "/" as it shows on your WD drive.... and this can be set in the "Something else" section of the Mint installer (by double-clicking on the /dev/sdb1 partition to control its parameters). If you get into this section again, this is also where you would set the bootloader to be on /dev/sdb (not /dev/sdb1, as was also covered when discussing sda earlier). The bootloader selector is at the bottom of the screen, somewhat detached from the partition setup area. ### This was written last night but not posted. Still seems relevant, so I'll venture repeating the above (from work on my phone).

I think the step you're missing with the Seagate is during the "Something else" setup, in the partitioning section, that you need to double click on /dev/sdb1 and set the mount point to "/". I'm guessing this is the file system it wants. Also important to put the bootloader on /dev/sdb as stated earlier.

Looking at your brand new WD install with Gparted, I'm guessing that you see "/" as the mount point, right? And, of course, that install is working.

If you successfully get each drive set up, it seems they are capable of stand alone booting and use. If so, with all plugged in at once, you should be able to select which one from the BIOS boot menu. The Seagate could also be booted on someone else's computer once you get this set up correctly.

Thanks Stan. I fully concur with you that the mount point should be ( / ), but it has mounted to the UUID of the Seagate. I suspect as you do that this is because the Seagate is a USB Drive, or perhaps because I'm trying to install from a USB drive to a USB drive. Either way it's a no go.

Yes, the new WD is mounted at ( / ) the same as the old WD.

I tried all 4 possibilities in the "something else" parameter with the same results. And, it wouldn't even install using the automatic install, so obviously this has something to do with the fact that the Seagate is a USB HDD.

I went ahead and setup Timeshift with the Seagate and that went great. It took a snapshot of my system and put it on the Seagate and it's doing weekly incrementals, so I know the drive works and is accessible. I'm not concerned about installing Linux on the Seagate at all, I'm completely happy to use it for backups and storage.

So with that said, I think we're done in this thread. I'll add "RESOLVED" to the OP if that's appropriate.

Thanks Stan, Condobloke and Wiz very much for all your help. :cool:
 
Quite right... I must have missed something somewhere, because I'm sure this is possible. I'm still working my 12-hr day shifts, but I gave a quick pen drive install to a USB SSD that I have tonight, trying to set it up as I described to you. It all seemed to go okay (with "something else" install) and all the expected files and folders are there on the SSD. But it would not boot on the computer that I used to create it... showing the UUID mount point like yours.

However, it did boot on another computer, so that is promising. It was clearly the SSD that booted (as /dev/sdb)... needing WiFi to be configured and Gparted to be installed, after which Gparted confirmed the mount point as (/). One extra thing I did when I initially installed it (after it failed to boot) was I used Gparted to set the "legacy_boot" flag. I don't think that is the solution in your case though... mine may have needed that because I did not check it first and it may have been set up as GPT instead of MBR before I began.

At any rate, I realize you've moved on to using the Seagate as storage only, for now at least. Let us know if you want to try again to make it a bootable Linux system and we can try to figure out where my instructions went wrong regarding that.

This forum software, to my knowledge, doesn't have an option to mark the thread as "resolved".... so we can just let it fizzle out. Eight pages may be a new record for us! :eek::D But it's been very enjoyable, and I am continuing to learn as well. Looking forward to your next round of questions, Steve, and again welcome to the wonderful world of Linux!

Cheers
 
Thanks Stan. It's been a pleasure working with everyone here.

If you want me to troubleshoot the Seagate problem with you, I'm willing to do that. I I'm probably in like 5th grade now. :confused: So there's plenty for me to learn too.

I also would like to try and see if I can get any data back from the Samsung HDD with Windows 7, which runs fine, but I had a lot of stuff on there before the crash. Where should I start a thread about that?

I also would like help getting my Netgear A6200 wireless USB stick working with my Linux install. It has a utility in Windows to get the router and the stick to do a handshake, by pressing the WPS button on the stick, and then the WPS button on the modem. Linux doesn't recognize the stick when I plug it in, (as far as I can tell anyway) and I don't see any generic pkg for this type of setup. Which Section should I post that in? I'm thinking the newbie section so the pros don't start tossing lingo at me that I don't understand.
 
Stan, I have just discovered that I can access all my stuff on the Samsung, from Linux File Viewer. That's really good news because it's all still there. Whew!

And one less problem we have to worry about. Good job, Linux developers.
 
More good news than bad, my friend? :p

Just a postscript as this baby fizzles - Seagates apparently have had some dramas with Linux from the year dot, mostly with external expansion drives but perhaps not limited to that. "Linux seagate problem" generates heaps of references, and one included (back in 2007 admittedly "Seagate snubs Linux".

But I won't say it is a lost cause ... where there is a will, there is a way :D:D

Wiz
PS Good move on the Timeshift too - it has saved my bacon numerous times, and that of Brian (@Condobloke ) too, since I put him on to it early in his Linux travels. ;)
 

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