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[Solved] Strange Installation Difficulty

Ask for help with issues regarding the Installations of the Debian O/S.
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mdavidjohnson
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[Solved] Strange Installation Difficulty

#1 Post by 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 .
Last edited by mdavidjohnson on 2023-06-29 03:00, edited 1 time in total.

arochester
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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#2 Post by arochester »

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

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#3 Post by 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.
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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#4 Post by 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. :)
Most powerful FREE tech-support tool on the planet * HERE. *

mdavidjohnson
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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#5 Post by mdavidjohnson »

arochester wrote: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".

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#6 Post by mdavidjohnson »

stevepusser wrote: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.

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#7 Post by 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
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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#8 Post by mdavidjohnson »

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

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#9 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

stevepusser wrote: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.
deadbang

mdavidjohnson
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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#10 Post by mdavidjohnson »

arochester wrote: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?

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#11 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

mdavidjohnson wrote: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.
mdavidjohnson wrote: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.
deadbang

mdavidjohnson
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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#12 Post by mdavidjohnson »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
stevepusser wrote: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:

Code: Select all

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 

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#13 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

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

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#14 Post by mdavidjohnson »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
mdavidjohnson wrote: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.
mdavidjohnson wrote: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:

Code: Select all

/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?

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#15 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

mdavidjohnson wrote:What would you recommend?
I wrote:Please read the Frequently Asked Questions thread in the HowTo section of the forum.
deadbang

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#16 Post by mdavidjohnson »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
mdavidjohnson wrote:What would you recommend?
I wrote:Please read the Frequently Asked Questions thread in the HowTo section of the forum.
Thank you. Did you mean the:

"Graphical desktop doesn't work"

section of that FAQ?

(I'm not trying to be snotty - If I run into this or a similar problem in the future, having noted the section in this post will help me to find my way faster then. It might also help somebody else sometime too.)

And, before giving me tooooo hard a time, please note that you're corresponding with someone who sadly looked in the "New system won't boot" section first. :(

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Re: Strange Installation Difficulty

#17 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

mdavidjohnson wrote:Did you mean the:

"Graphical desktop doesn't work"

section of that FAQ?
Yes.
deadbang

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