installer freeze

[jyoung]

I'm trying to do a fresh install of Debian 10 on a surface pro 4 currently running Debian 9. I've put the DVD iso on a flash drive, and booted into the installer. But, after I make my choice (like graphical install, or expert install), the installer freezes. This happens regardless of which choice I make. It also happens even if I use the install CD iso. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on?

For reference, I mostly followed these instruction to get the current Debian 9 running. It's not a dual boot system.
github.com/jimdigriz/debian-mssp4

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I've put the DVD iso on a flash drive

How? Please post the exact command(s) used.

Did you verify the image? Are you sure that the USB stick isn't broken?

[jyoung]

To put the iso on the flashdrive:

Code: Select all

dd if=debian-live-10.0.0-amd64-xfce.iso of=/dev/sdd

I tried to verify the image with:

Code: Select all

md5sum debian-live-10.0.0-amd64-xfce.iso

It checks.

However, I'm not sure that the flashdrive is okay. I just tried to write another image to it, same as before, and dd complained that the drive was full. Normally, it would just overwrite the previous image. That sounds like a broken drive to me. I'll try a new flash drive and get back.

[jyoung]

I just tried a different flashdrive, and it has the same issue. I'm going to try a third, but it looks like the issue is in software.

Earlier, when dd was complaining about the drive being full, I'd done something silly. I plugged in the flashdrive and tried dd immediately, before the drive showed up in /dev/. The drive I was originally using doesn't seem to actually have any problems.

[nononsense]

I have quite a similar problem too but with a non-live XFCE Buster installation. I'm glad that it isn't just me having this problem.
Do you change your boot priority or choose from boot manager? I had to resort to the latter as just changing boot priority
wouldn't work in my case. I've yet to find any solution. In case you're interested, you can find my post here: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=143422

[jyoung]

From what you describe in your post, I *think* my issue is coming up at a latter stage. I'm able to get to the USB's boot menu, but no further.

I am using dd to make the image; perhaps trying a different means would help? That's seems weird; I use dd a lot without issues.

[nononsense]

From what you describe in your post, I *think* my issue is coming up at a latter stage. I'm able to get to the USB's boot menu, but no further.

I am using dd to make the image; perhaps trying a different means would help? That's seems weird; I use dd a lot without issues.

If you read carefully enough towards the end of my post in that thread, you'll see that I actually am able to get to the installer with one of my setup but froze on the
other. The tools that I use (Win32DiskImager and Etcher) are endorsed by Linux distros (Debian and openSUSE respectively) as they write image byte by byte and
make no modification whatsoever. I have this problem with Buster installation media but not with Jessie 9.9.

[jyoung]

Okay, it does sound like we're having the same issue.

In your post you speculated that it might be an incompatibility with one of your graphics cards. I'm trying to install on a surface pro 4, which has an intel graphics chip. What's your onboard chip?

[nononsense]

Okay, it does sound like we're having the same issue.

In your post you speculated that it might be an incompatibility with one of your graphics cards. I'm trying to install on a surface pro 4, which has an intel graphics chip. What's your onboard chip?

I have 2 setups that I've tested on; an Acer Aspire E14 with skylake processor and hybrid Intel-Nvidia graphic while the other is a custom desktop with AMD ryzen onboard graphic + discrete AMD gpu. I reached the debian installer with the former but not on the latter.