Strange Installation Difficulty

[mdavidjohnson]

I have successfully installed Debian on various machines over the years. But my most recent attempt has been less than stellar. The machine is a refurbished HP desktop Product No. E4F35UC#ABA which came with Windows 10 pre-installed. The machine type itself may not be the problem because I have installed Debian without difficulty on such machines in the past.

I tried i386 and AMD64 10.7.0 three-DVD sets, i386 and AMD64 10.7.0 netinstall single DVDs, AMD64 10.0.0 three-DVD set, and i386 and AMD64 10.0.0 netinstall single DVDs. None of them would even boot.

I tried an i386 10.0.0 three-DVD set and it went through the entire install process but, upon reboot, it stalled at "Started Gnome".

I tried just the first DVD of that set and the base system was successfully installed and ran properly, but I don't know anywhere enough about Linux to try to construct a full Gnome system on top of the bare base.

I tried Live DVDs and USB sticks, all with similar failures. I even tried Clonezilla and even a straight dd from an existing working 10.7.0 system, but I really don't know enough about Linux to make them work either.

I finally got an i386 8.3.0 netinstall DVD to complete properly and Gnome is now running properly. 8.3.0 will be sufficient for what I want to do with this machine, so I'm tempted to just leave well-enough alone.

EXCEPT, the system rejects the root password I used during installation, AND, in my user account, sudo is not recognized as an existing command. PHOOEY !!!

I only paid $90 for this [paperweight] [doorstop] ahem, computer and drop-kicking it is becoming a more-and-more viable possibility.

Any final suggestions before I give up and start over [I HATE losing].

[arochester]

Never mind the Product Number. What MODEL of HP computer is it?

[stevepusser]

If you can get it to boot a live Session of MX Linux or Mint, both have a system information thingy preinstalled that you can copy the output and paste into a message here. Then us output-reader-guys have something to work with. Mx's is Quick System Info in the menu--it even copies it to the clipboard with the code tags preattached.

[Deb-fan]

Lol .. had to delete my post, what the hell good would it do to be snarky to this one person ? Still agree with what's already said, provide useful information OP, aka: help people to help you, the folks here are volunteering their time presumably trying to assist people.

[mdavidjohnson]

Never mind the Product Number. What MODEL of HP computer is it?

At /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id , cat product_name reports "HP Compaq Pro 6305 SFF".

[mdavidjohnson]

If you can get it to boot a live Session of MX Linux or Mint, both have a system information thingy preinstalled that you can copy the output and paste into a message here. Then us output-reader-guys have something to work with. Mx's is Quick System Info in the menu--it even copies it to the clipboard with the code tags preattached.

Thank you, I'll download live MX Linux and give it a try later this afternoon.

[arochester]

It's a 64-bit machine, so go for a 64-bit OS. It can take up to 32Gb of RAM! https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-compaq ... 5a78upaba/

It was often a practice to install a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit machine simply because it was cheaper.

in my user account, sudo is not recognized as an existing command.

Sudo can be added (or not added!) at installation. If it not added then, it can be added later.

Code: Select all

apt-get install sudo
usermod -a -G sudo <username>

Replace <username> with your username to which you want to grant sudo access. Now logout & login to get sudo access to those users.

[mdavidjohnson]

Okay, I've got MX Linux Live up and running on the machine. What should I do next?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

both have a system information thingy preinstalled that you can copy the output and paste into a message here. Then us output-reader-guys have something to work with. Mx's is Quick System Info in the menu--it even copies it to the clipboard with the code tags preattached.

[mdavidjohnson]

It's a 64-bit machine, so go for a 64-bit OS. It can take up to 32Gb of RAM! https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-compaq ... 5a78upaba/

It was often a practice to install a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit machine simply because it was cheaper.

in my user account, sudo is not recognized as an existing command.

Sudo can be added (or not added!) at installation. If it not added then, it can be added later.

Code: Select all

apt-get install sudo
usermod -a -G sudo <username>

Replace <username> with your username to which you want to grant sudo access. Now logout & login to get sudo access to those users.

Catch-22: I cannot "apt-get install sudo" because I have to be root to do that and the password I set for root during install does not work.

Also, there did not appear to be any chance to add sudo during the install --> is there some trick to that?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

password I set for root during install does not work

Is the keymap different? Pass init=/bin/bash as a kernel command line parameter from GRUB to boot to a passwordless root shell.

there did not appear to be any chance to add sudo during the install --> is there some trick to that?

If you do not set a root password (ie, just press enter when it asks for one) then sudo is installed and the first user is added to the sudo group automatically.

[mdavidjohnson]

both have a system information thingy preinstalled that you can copy the output and paste into a message here. Then us output-reader-guys have something to work with. Mx's is Quick System Info in the menu--it even copies it to the clipboard with the code tags preattached.

Okay, it took a bit of a search to find the "thingy", but here's what it reported:

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System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 4.19.0-12-686-pae i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0
           parameters: quiet splasht nosplash
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0
           Distro: MX-19.3_386 patito feo November 11  2020 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq Pro 6305 SFF v: N/A
           serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 4 serial: <filter>
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1850 serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard
           v: K06 v02.65 date: 06/12/2014
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: AMD A6-5400B APU with Radeon HD Graphics bits: 64
           type: MCP arch: Piledriver family: 15 (21) model-id: 10 (16) stepping: 1
           microcode: 6001119 L2 cache: 1024 KiB
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 14373
           Speed: 1397 MHz min/max: 1400/3600 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1396
           2: 1397
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected
           Type: mds status: Not affected
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected
           Type: spec_store_bypass
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling
           Type: srbds status: Not affected
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Trinity [Radeon HD 7540D] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:9991
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
           resolution: 1280x1024~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD ARUBA (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.19.0-12-686-pae LLVM 7.0.1)
           v: 4.3 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: AMD Trinity HDMI Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.1 chip ID: 1002:9902
           Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1022:780d
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-12-686-pae
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5761 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
           vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: tg3 v: 3.137 port: f100 bus ID: 03:00.0
           chip ID: 14e4:1681
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 262.18 GiB used: 163.4 MiB (0.1%)
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST250DM000-1BD141 size: 232.89 GiB block size:
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter>
           rev: KC45 scheme: MBR
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB model: N/A size: 29.30 GiB block size: physical: 512 B
           logical: 512 B serial: <filter> rev: 2.00 scheme: MBR
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: N/A size: 2.44 GiB used: 163.4 MiB (6.5%) fs: overlay
           source: ERR-102
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 6.40 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60)
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 4.9 C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list
Info:      Processes: 173 Uptime: 7m Memory: 3.08 GiB used: 415.0 MiB (13.1%) Init: SysVinit
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36


[Head_on_a_Stick]

Please read the Frequently Asked Questions thread in the HowTo section of the forum.

[mdavidjohnson]

password I set for root during install does not work

Is the keymap different? Pass init=/bin/bash as a kernel command line parameter from GRUB to boot to a passwordless root shell.

there did not appear to be any chance to add sudo during the install --> is there some trick to that?

If you do not set a root password (ie, just press enter when it asks for one) then sudo is installed and the first user is added to the sudo group automatically.

Thank you. That moved the process a little further along. After re-installing 8.3 with no root password, I was able to:

Code: Select all

cat /etc/debian_version
8.3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
cat /etc/debian_version
8.11
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list


and, after changing all instances of "jessie" to "buster" in /etc/apt/sources.list

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
cat /etc/debian_version
10.8
sudo shutdown -r now


But, during the reboot, I got (interspersed with other stuff) three instances of:

Code: Select all

[FAILED] Failed to start GNOME display manager.
See 'systemctl status gdm.service' for details.


at which point the screen was displaying a flashing underscore prompt but was otherwise frozen.

Just above the first GNOME failed line, I noticed this entry at the top of the screen:

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/dev/sda1: clean, 171211/14843904 files, 2400746/59371008 blocks
[       8.8723981] [drm:radeon_pci_probe] *ERROR* radeon kernel modesetting for R600 or later requires firmware-linux-nonfree.


What would you recommend?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

What would you recommend?

Please read the Frequently Asked Questions thread in the HowTo section of the forum.