"Operation System not found" message on Dell Inspiron N7110 laptop

[osprey]

so the USB stick works to boot Kubuntu on my win11 computer, but not the Dell Inspiron. maybe it is salvageable if I can find why it isn't detecting Kubuntu on the flash drive. any ideas? the BIOS menu is pretty bleak when I glance through it.

I've gone through and disabled each option in turn before attempting to boot, and none of the options changed the result, aside from some of the USB port ones, which only made it not detect any stick in the first place.

Do you have the latest BIOS for that machine, as mentioned in post #32?

If your BIOS has a manufacturer's update, then the machine clearly has been thought of as better with such installed, no? I know from experience that BIOS updates can make a difference to it's operation, and that might be just what helps in this case. It may not of course, but if it's there and you do not install it, you will not know what it can do in your case.

 

[leftiealex]

Do you have the latest BIOS for that machine, as mentioned in post #32?

If your BIOS has a manufacturer's update, then the machine clearly has been thought of as better with such installed, no? I know from experience that BIOS updates can make a difference to it's operation, and that might be just what helps in this case. It may not of course, but if it's there and you do not install it, you will not know what it can do in your case.

okay, I know it's been a while, but I have a new USB stick and it has the BIOS update executable on it and I'm still getting the same message when I try to follow the official website's instructions, and when it switches to the DOS screen it is unresponsive to any key press. I've tried different ports, and intermediate versions, but it seems like something isn't letting the USB stick get read. I don't have a way to burn a disk either, so I think i may just be stuck. I asked the official tech support website, but I figured someone here would be faster.

 

[Brickwizard]

OK lets do a re-cap
My dell is about 18 months older than yours, over the years it's had about 30 different distro's on it for testing, Dell is about the easiest machine to install Linux on [my opinion]
Your machine [like mine] is UEFI and USB bootable, it is too old to have windows quick-start, but may have safe boot, if it does turn it off, there is no need to update the bios/EUFI unless yours has been corrupted,
I always use Etcher to burn [write] the ISO to pen-drive
check the bios [F2] on start up and make sure boot from USB is enabled [it should be by default] re-boot using F12 for the one rime boot option, select the usb and enter,
if it still fails , look back at my original post as to why it may have failed [and I will add another reason, the hard drive may be on the way out]

 

[leftiealex]

OK lets do a re-cap
My dell is about 18 months older than yours, over the years it's had about 30 different distro's on it for testing, Dell is about the easiest machine to install Linux on [my opinion]
Your machine [like mine] is UEFI and USB bootable, it is too old to have windows quick-start, but may have safe boot, if it does turn it off, there is no need to update the bios/EUFI unless yours has been corrupted,
I always use Etcher to burn [write] the ISO to pen-drive
check the bios [F2] on start up and make sure boot from USB is enabled [it should be by default] re-boot using F12 for the one rime boot option, select the usb and enter,
if it still fails , look back at my original post as to why it may have failed [and I will add another reason, the hard drive may be on the way out]

I have done these exact steps. the hard drive was working as of last week when I did a system checkup through BIOS. also, shouldn't the state of the hard drive not matter if I am just trying to run the environment off the stick?

I know it isn't the stick because it boots the now permanent burn of kubuntu on it on my win11 machine, unless there is some incompatibility between the two. there must be something missing, but I'm quite confident it isn't something on this list.

also, I messed up a little bit earlier, it never booted into DOS. the hard drive is completely blank right now.

 

[ML_113]

I don't trust any distro running on USB pendrive except the Puppy family.
I suggest EasyOS, the installation is easy with dd command.

 

[enluk]

I have the same problem, while I went a little further....
In my case, it helped to create a pendriva using rufus, using the recommended on the ubuntu site application etcher I was not able to run the installation. In addition, the fastest detected flash drive is in the eSATA port. After a successful installation on the disk, from the flash drive - the system asks to restrat and remove the flash drive after which I get the message:
'operation system not found'
If I run ubuntu version Try it, then run gparted, I see that on the drive (the drive is a new 512 GB SSD) I have these partitions:
dev/sda1 | grub2core.img | 1 MIB
dev/sda2 | fat32 | 513 MiB
dev/sda3 | linux swap | 2 Gib
dev/sda4 | zfs 2 | GIB
dev/sda | zfs 472 GIB

I want to install Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
on:
Dell Inspiron 7110, 8gb RAM, i7-2670QM.

 

[wizardfromoz]

I am going to leave this here for now, as the Dell is the same model. If it confuses helpers, I'll move it to its own Thread.

G'day @enluk and welcome to linux.org

If I run ubuntu version Try it, then run gparted, I see that on the drive (the drive is a new 512 GB SSD) I have these partitions:
dev/sda1 | grub2core.img | 1 MIB
dev/sda2 | fat32 | 513 MiB
dev/sda3 | linux swap | 2 Gib
dev/sda4 | zfs 2 | GIB
dev/sda | zfs 472 GIB

With

dev/sda2 | fat32 | 513 MiB

... 1. Under GParted from your pendrive, does that look like a UEFI system, using an EFI system partition? Similar to mine below.

2. Did you create these partitions or were they already on the SSD?

3. /dev/sda3 - with 8GB RAM and an SSD, I would not worry about Swap, you can always add later if needed, but it is not much use on an SSD.

4. /dev/sda4 and the last line /dev/sda - you don't want the zfs, so it may be better to format the SSD to EXT4.

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[osprey]

With a partition like: "dev/sda2 | fat32 | 513 MiB", looks like UEFI, but still worth being confirmed.

wizardfromfoz wrote:

4. /dev/sda4 and the last line /dev/sda - you don't want the zfs, so it may be better to format the SSD to EXT4.

zfs is quite a sophisticated filesystem, often compared to btrfs, but with more features again, very secure and a volume manager as well. It's arguably overkill for a home desktop, so maybe that's what occasioned your comment, but it may be on the OP's system for a reason we aren't apprised of yet.

 

[wizardfromoz]

...but still worth being confirmed.

Yes, partition name, mount point and flags from GParted would reveal.

 

[enluk]

Hi everyone, thank you for your responses so far and your support on the topic.

The drive was new, straight from the store. The partitions from the post above were created by the ubuntu installer. Today I ran the installation again, at the moment I only have one partition.

I did not select zfa, I will run the installation again and format ext4

Update:
Currently, the situation is as follows:

I don't understand why it formats it differently every time and what it depends on.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Thanks for that, @enluk

That /dev/sda1 is a concern, with the 1.00 MiB and the flag bios_grub

In that environment, can you open your file manager and check for an entry

/sys/firmware/efi

If it is not there, you are likely on BIOS-MBR, rather than UEFI-GPT

and will require a different approach.

If you go to your "BIOS" screen (usually launched with F2 on a Dell at startup) then under Boot Sequence, check to see if there is an option for both UEFI and Legacy, if it is on Legacy change it to UEFI and reboot.

Wizard

 

[enluk]

I have no such options in the BIOS [legacy/UEFII]

Update:
I did a bios update, but only jumped to a13. No new options to choose from..


Update 2:
I found modded bios soft here:

BIOS MOD FOR DELL N7110 UNLOCKED UEFI BOOT

BIOS MOD FOR DELL N7110 UNLOCKED UEFI BOOT - HIDDE

www.bios-mods.com

and try install ubuntu one more time (with enabled UEFI, and legacy disabled)

up3
after install:

and new partition structure on the disk...

 

[osprey]

enluk, A few questions:
Is this a dual booting machine?
Has the install media been verified with the checksum, or has it been shown to work elsewhere?

That partition arrangement in post #52 is for a UEFI installation, but has no swap partition, so, if you wish to have a swap partition, a new partitioning would be necessary.

Installing the latest BIOS/UEFI was likely the best thing to do, since presumably the manufacturer thinks so.

The problem with the install disk booting to initramfs is usually a problem with the install media, or a problem with the disk such as bad blocks.

Since I presume there is no linux installation yet on the laptop, my inclination would be to verify the media in the first instance, and start again.

Nevertheless, with the initramfs prompt, you can see what it says by typing: help, which should give you a list of commands that it will accept. Then you can run some and see if the output is helpful.

One of those commands is likely: exit. After typing this command, the output on screen may actually indicate some problems that it detects. If it has detected bad blocks on the disk to be installed on, then you can run something like: fsck -y /dev/sda2, and see what can be fixed. Then just run: reboot, and with the install disk still inserted, there may be a different result. Maybe not though.

I can't say whether any of this will be useful, but for success there must be certainty that the install disk is good.

It's worth noting about that UEFI partitioning shown in post #52 without the swap partition, that you may be better advised to choose manual partitioning in the installer if you wish to make the partitions according to your preferences, or use a live disk to partition the disk before using the installer and having the installation use that now pre-existing partitioning.

 

[enluk]

From the beginning, as a recap:
On the computer:
dell inspiron n7110
8 gb RAM
i7-2670QM
with windows7
wants to install Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS [Ubuntu only, on a new drive].
I bought a brand new 512 GB SSD

I swapped with the previous one on which win7 was running.

I tried to make using etcher app, a flash drive with ubuntu installation. Unfortunately, it did not work and only with the help of the RUFUS application I was able to fire up the Ubuntu installation.
After a successful installation (message from the installer), after restarting I received a message:

operation system not found

using the same flash drive, each time I ran the try it versions of ubuntu (I assume that since it succeeded, everything is ok with the flash drive) and verified how the installer formats the drive and sets partitions. It comes out differently each time (posts above) even though I chose to format the entire drive by default (no additional advanced options )

I have updated the BIOS twice. The first time, from a07 to a13 - nothing was frowned upon. Only after installing the modded version, I can access to UEFI and Legacy related settings.
BIOS update, led to the point where I am currently stuck:

"System no longer boots, gave up waiting for root file system device. Alert /dev/sda2 does not exist/ dropping to a shell".

in gparted I see the same message as before about EFI system Partition

 

[Brickwizard]

Why Linux fails to load, common reasons
1] Corrupt download [check SHA sum]
2] bad burn to installation medium [try again]
3] Wind 8.2 and higher quick start/fast boot or secure boot not disabled [doesn't normally apply to older versions]
4] defective pen-drive/dvd
5] hardware fault,
5A] If old style HDD run integrity check
5B]if SATA SSD check for hidden partition at the beginning of drive [this will stop Grub from loading] and delete it before re-installing Linux
If M2.NVMe check, your system is NVMe compatible [not all older kit is]

As I said before, I have never had a problem with Dell products, and it makes things difficult to for me /others to diagnose a more unusual fault via the net.

If you think it has installed but just not booting, you could always try

Boot-Repair - Community Help Wiki

 

[osprey]

enluk wrote:

using the same flash drive, each time I ran the try it versions of ubuntu (I assume that since it succeeded, everything is ok with the flash drive) and verified how the installer formats the drive and sets partitions.

This suggests that the ubuntu distro was successfully installed on the new ssd.
The problem is that the machine won't boot it, and outputs that it can't find the operating system.

I assume from post #52 that the ssd drive is partitioned into two with the info thus:

Partition Name                 File Sys  Size        Used        Unused     Flags
/dev/sda1 EFI System Partition fat32     512.00 MB                          boot, esp
/dev/sda2                      ext4      476.44 GiB  13.13 GiB   463.31GiB

It appears from this that there is indeed an installation on the ssd which is 13.13 GiB in size.

One could check exactly what that is by booting a live disk or a rescue disk (such as systemrescue, see here: https://www.system-rescue.org), mounting /dev/sda2 on say, /mnt, and navigating to the filesystem to see that the kernel is in /boot and that the grub.cfg file is in /boot/grub where it should be. If that checks out then you could consider re-installing the bootloader, since that's what appears to be failing.

Since grub is the bootloader, and it's not booting, and the machine is in EFI mode, you could consider reinstalling grub in EFI mode as outlined here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/831216/how-can-i-reinstall-grub-to-the-efi-partition.

 

[enluk]

I booted the computer using:

Boot-Repair - Community Help Wiki

below I paste the link to the report, perhaps there will be more information about what is going on there:

Ubuntu Pastebin

paste.ubuntu.com

 

[osprey]

It looks like the following is the case from the boot-repair:

• ubuntu is installed on /dev/sda2
• ESP exists on /dev/sda1
• Filesystem is zfs

The problem appears to me to be that boot-repair is reporting "nogrub", which means that it can't boot since grub is the default bootloader for this system. It looks like there is a partial grub install with the presence of the file: sda1/ubuntu/grubx64.efi, but there is no "grub.cfg" file which is needed for grub to know what to boot.

The options that come to mind are:

• try and reinstall grub as mentioned in post #56 with the link
• repartition the disk from a partitioner like Gparted on a live disk or rescue disk, and try to re-install hoping that the new partitioning will dispense with existing filesystem, but it's not always the case.
• clear and clean the whole disk using a live disk or rescue disk and start a new install from a "known good" install disk, for example zeroing the whole disk. This can take quite some time, but offers a clean start.
• there are likely other options that don't come to mind, and ones I'm not familiar with, in particular using all the facilities of the zfs file system, but a clean grub re-install seems like it's a prerequisite in that case anyway.

Personally, in a case similar to this in the past where grub would not reinstall, I took the nuclear option, cleaned the disk with a command like: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/zero, waited for some time til it finished, and started again.

 

[Condobloke]

Personally, in a case similar to this in the past where grub would not reinstall, I took the nuclear option, cleaned the disk with a command like: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/zero, waited for some time til it finished, and started again.

Amen to that !...Way to go !

 

[MikeRocor]

Amen to that !...Way to go !

When I use the nuclear option, I'm usually too impatient to dd the entire device so I just whack the first gigabyte or two, adding bs=1024 count=<some large-ish nuber> to the dd command line.