"Unknown error" with attempts to install various Linux distros

edp

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I've got a number of second-hand laptops, each with a different Linux distro installed. Recently I picked up an HP Stream 11 2 GB RAM (I know, they're rubbish, but I've got another and it's perfectly fine for lightweight duty). Sold as 'no OS' so somehow Windows was wiped off. I can use Linux distros as 'live' from the USB, but when I try to install I get 'An Unknown error has occurred." Under 'More details' the error message starts with 'anaconda 36.16.5 exception report...' which strikes me as odd...could a previous owner have tried to install Anaconda? I only know I haven't, not on this machine.
This happens regardless of the distro--Fedora, Lubuntu, PopOS, Solus, etc.

Can any one explain to me what's going on, and how I can complete installation?

When I put fdisk -l into the terminal, here's the output:
fdisk: cannot open /dev/mmcblk0: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/mmcblk0boot0: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/mmcblk0boot1: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/loop0: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/loop1: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/loop2: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/mapper/live-rw: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/mapper/live-base: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/zram0: Permission denied

and lsblk gives this:
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 7:0 0 1.8G 1 loop
loop1 7:1 0 7.6G 1 loop
├─live-rw 253:0 0 7.6G 0 dm /
└─live-base 253:1 0 7.6G 1 dm
loop2 7:2 0 32G 0 loop
└─live-rw 253:0 0 7.6G 0 dm /
sda 8:0 1 28.7G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 1 1.9G 0 part /run/initramfs/live
├─sda2 8:2 1 9.9M 0 part
└─sda3 8:3 1 20.8M 0 part
mmcblk0 179:0 0 29.1G 0 disk
mmcblk0boot0 179:8 0 4M 1 disk
mmcblk0boot1 179:16 0 4M 1 disk
zram0 252:0 0 1.8G 0 disk [SWAP]

and ls -la /dev/sda gives me this:
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 0 Mar 3 01:48 /dev/sda

Is the hard drive salvageable (and if so, any suggestions on how)? Thanks for any advice!
 


(I know, they're rubbish, but I've got another and it's perfectly fine for lightweight duty).
Careful! I've got 3.
Could Windows have been removed by formatting?
Have any of your LiveCDs got Gparted? Can you see anything with that?
 
Options,
1]can you use another machine to piggy back the hard drive to and re-format it to X-Fats [or use g-parted in a Live ISO pendrive]
2[ which windows? if W8/10/11 it may have windows quick-start [fast boot] check the UEFI/BIOS and if there disable
3] if you can run any distribution "Live" from the pen drive, set up your internet connection, install inxi from the repository and run from a terminal inxi -Fnxxz and paste the results back here.
 
oh and if the report starts "anaconda 36.16.5 exception report.." then it probably has had RHEL installed at some point.

the HP Stream 11 is a fairly basic machine, max ram is only 2gb, so a mid or lightweight distro would be best, try Mint LMDE, Kubuntu,Lubuntu, linux-lite, MX-linux, or even Puppy linux, [Puppy is a marmite distribution, you will either love it or hate it but it does work on low power machines]

addition
to install Linux onto any HP laptop. go to the BIOS, by entering the F10 key when booting up. In there, disable secure boot and [depending on distribution] switching from UEFI to Legacy BIOS then save your changes and exit and switch off. Insert your USB bootable iso in your computer and switch on pressing the F9 key to enter short boot menu, select your boot device and enter.
 
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I don't know the history but Windows is gone, I believe, which I'm fine with.
Here's what GParted shows:
GParted.png

and here's what Disks shows:
Disks.png
 
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I personally would re-format the complete SD card back to 1 partition as X-Fats before trying to install anything
 
Options,
1]can you use another machine to piggy back the hard drive to and re-format it to X-Fats [or use g-parted in a Live ISO pendrive]
2[ which windows? if W8/10/11 it may have windows quick-start [fast boot] check the UEFI/BIOS and if there disable
3] if you can run any distribution "Live" from the pen drive, set up your internet connection, install inxi from the repository and run from a terminal inxi -Fnxxz and paste the results back here.
I disabled secure boot; I've pretty much always had to to do that when installling Linux, if I recall correctly.
I wondered about reformatting with GParted but as you can see in my other response, GParted only seems to show the actual live USB, not the hard drive (although very likely I'm misinterpreting something.)

Here's the inxi -Fnxxz output:
live@solus ~ $ inxi
CPU: Dual Core Intel Celeron N3060 (-MCP-) speed/min/max: 513/480/2480 MHz
Kernel: 5.13.1-187.current x86_64 Up: 3h 17m Mem: 1235.4/1890.4 MiB (65.4%)
Storage: 57.77 GiB (0.1% used) Procs: 167 Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.01
live@solus ~ $ inxi -Fnxxz
System:
Kernel: 5.13.1-187.current x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: MATE 1.24.3 wm: marco dm: LightDM Distro: Solus 4.3
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Stream Laptop 11-y0XX
v: Type1ProductConfigId serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10
serial: <filter>
Mobo: HP model: 82A9 v: 04.20 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: F.12
date: 04/26/2017
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: N/A condition: N/A volts: 3.1/7.6
model: Hewlett-Packard Primary serial: N/A status: Unknown
CPU:
Info: Dual Core model: Intel Celeron N3060 bits: 64 type: MCP
arch: Airmont rev: 4 L2 cache: 1024 KiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 bogomips: 6400
Speed: 586 MHz min/max: 480/2480 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 586 2: 604
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx
Integrated Graphics
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:22b1
Device-2: Chicony HP Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 1-3:2
chip ID: 04f2:b52d
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.12 compositor: marco driver:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
s-dpi: 96
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 400 (BSW) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.1.3
compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series
High Definition Audio
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0
chip ID: 8086:2284
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.13.1-187.current
Network:
Device-1: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 1040
bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 8086:095a
IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb
v: 0.8 bus ID: 1-4:3 chip ID: 8087:0a2a
Message: Required tool hciconfig not installed. Check --recommends
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 57.77 GiB used: 55.4 MiB (0.1%)
ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 vendor: HP model: DF4032 size: 29.12 GiB
serial: <filter>
ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: USB 3.2Gen1
size: 28.65 GiB serial: <filter>
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 378.1 MiB used: 55.4 MiB (14.7%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102
Swap:
Alert: No Swap data was found.
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 28.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 166 Uptime: 3h 18m Memory: 1.85 GiB used: 1.2 GiB (65.2%)
Init: systemd v: 247 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: N/A Packages: eopkg: 711
Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.3.01
 
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Thanks, I can see nothing there that may be causing you a problem apart from the minimal amount of ram available, so back to my suggestion try one of the lighter builds of Linux, and when you install, if given the option choose to let the installer use the complete disc instead of doing it yourself [use my how do I install guide to make sure you don't miss any steps]
 
Thanks, I can see nothing there that may be causing you a problem apart from the minimal amount of ram available, so back to my suggestion try one of the lighter builds of Linux, and when you install, if given the option choose to let the installer use the complete disc instead of doing it yourself [use my how do I install guide to make sure you don't miss any steps]
Thanks...actually, I've tried a number of distros (including some relatively lightweight ones) and let the installer choose how to format the disk. In every case an install error popped up fairly quickly. I'm no expert but I've got the impression that something is wrong with the hard-drive itself. Whether it's something I can fix (eg, by re-formatting) or whether it's irreparably damaged...that's what I'd like to find out.

The 'Disks' output confuses me. I can see the live USB easily enough (it happens to be Solus MATE), but the hard drive seems to be split up into several pieces--as if there are multiple devices (instead of one disk with multiple partitions). But I'm way over my head here so I can't pretend to interpret it with any real understanding.
 
My Gparted shows /dev/mmcblk0
Yours shows /dev/sda. That's your USB stick. On the top right of Gparted can you pull down any other menu?
Is there a partition there?
 
My Gparted shows /dev/mmcblk0
Yours shows /dev/sda. That's your USB stick. On the top right of Gparted can you pull down any other menu?
Is there a partition there?
That's the thing--I can't! It should be a drop-down menu but /dev/sda is the only option. Makes me wonder if I'd find no hard drive inside, if I opened the laptop up!
On the other hand, Disks shows both the USB stick and some other bits, which altogether add up to something that approaches the size of the 32GB hard drive (3 X 8.8 GB + 1.8 GB), if that means anything. Notice too there's a 4.2 MB called /dev/mmcblk0boot0(Read-Only). Note too that in my initial post I mentioned that when I put fdisk -l into the terminal, I get (among other things)
'fdisk: cannot open /dev/mmcblk0: Permission denied'. So it seems there's some sort of mmcblk0 there, somewhere...
 
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This comment may be out o fplace/too late/of no consequence...maybe even all of them.......but

I note on one of your screenshots the term:iso 9660 ....which I believe relates to filesystems via cd's

Try formatting the stick, recreating the partition table to ms-dos and then creating a FAT32 partition....that should hopefully work for you

or....I am talking out my ear, and in that case, ignore the above
 
Not necessarily - Anaconda is also a data science app for working with Python, and can be hard to remove all traces of, from linux.

https://www.anaconda.com/

also a long Thread here

https://www.linux.org/threads/problem-opening-jupyter-notebook-on-debian-10.30847/

Cheers

Wiz
Yes, I use Anaconda, Spyder, Jupyter myself--but never on this laptop. The bloke I bought it from (£20) doesn't know the history so someone very well may have used Anaconda on it (with Windows or Linux)--but personally I wouldn't recommend that on a machine with only 2GB RAM & 32GB hard drive!
 
This comment may be out o fplace/too late/of no consequence...maybe even all of them.......but

I note on one of your screenshots the term:iso 9660 ....which I believe relates to filesystems via cd's

Try formatting the stick, recreating the partition table to ms-dos and then creating a FAT32 partition....that should hopefully work for you

or....I am talking out my ear, and in that case, ignore the above
OK, I'm a little confused--when you say 'reformat the stick' you're not talking about the USB with the live ISO, are you?
I'm willing to try anything...what tool would you recommend for re-formatting? As you can see above, GParted doesn't seem to detect the hard drive at all, just the USB, which is kind of weird.
 
Yes, I am talking about the hdd.

If it is not detected, then that leads to all sorts of problems. Among them, an inability to Install to that drive
 
There is one oddity I have come across with the HP Stream Laptop's [age dependent] if it has both USB2 and USB3 ports then use the USB2, for some reason the USB3 does not work.
 
Local Storage: total: 57.77 GiB used: 55.4 MiB (0.1%)
ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 vendor: HP model: DF4032 size: 29.12 GiB
I think this is the issue - but as @arochester said click the dropdown arrow on gparted and see if mmcblk0 is listed

Also when running fdisk it should be
Code:
sudo fdisk -l
 
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I note on one of your screenshots the term:iso 9660 ....which I believe relates to filesystems via cd's

Yes and No - some distros with their live iso list as iso9660 for both DVD image and USB stick. The OP here is using Solus which may be one of those.

Solus uses a package manager called eopkg instead of apt but I am not fluent in it.

It sounds to me like the previous owner was using Anaconda the app (beats me why), and that the drive has not been totally cleaned, may require a dd operation reading zeroes or random characters to clear the drive, but if the drive cannot be recognised, that could be tricky.

Regrets I haven't any further ideas.

Wiz
 

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