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Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

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Zen997
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Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#1 Post by Zen997 »

Unable to install Linux on Asus BR1100CKA laptop. This laptop has an eMMC drive shown as “Generic G1J38E”. The Windows 10 NTFS partition was resized and around 29 GB of unallocated space was available for installing Linux. The installer crashes during formatting this partition to EXT4. I have tried Debian 11, Debian-testing, Q4OS, Ubuntu Server, Xubuntu, GPARTED Live, etc. multiple times and the installation fails at formatting every single time. I also tried to format the partition as EXT4 from Windows using Disk-Genius and AOMEI-Partition-Assistant. The formatting was successful, but the installer keeps crashing. I really like the laptop, but Windows 10 OS is unacceptable for me. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#2 Post by p.H »

Which installer are you using ? Live Calamares, classic text, classic graphical ?
What do you mean exactly by "crashes" ?

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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#3 Post by Segfault »

https://superuser.com/questions/1688659 ... at-to-ext4
Here is the quote in case superuser.com goes down.
It seems the laptop has eMMC controller with buggy CQE implementation.

Since linux kernel version 5.5 it is possible to make system avoid using CQE by specifying debug_quirks=0x20000 option to sdhci module. (0x20000 is the value for SDHCI_QUIRK_BROKEN_CQE flag in sdhci.h). After properly propagating the option I was able to install and use Ubuntu 20.04 with ext4 rootfs on the eMMC drive of this laptop.

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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#4 Post by Fossy »

Zen997 wrote: 2022-09-21 09:40 Unable to install Linux on Asus BR1100CKA laptop. This laptop has an eMMC drive shown as “Generic G1J38E”. The Windows 10 NTFS partition was resized and around 29 GB of unallocated space was available for installing Linux. The installer crashes during formatting this partition to EXT4. I have tried Debian 11, Debian-testing, Q4OS, Ubuntu Server, Xubuntu, GPARTED Live, etc. multiple times and the installation fails at formatting every single time. I also tried to format the partition as EXT4 from Windows using Disk-Genius and AOMEI-Partition-Assistant. The formatting was successful, but the installer keeps crashing. I really like the laptop, but Windows 10 OS is unacceptable for me. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
it would be “ Zen “ if you could give some feedback ...
ASUS GL753VD / X550LD / K54HR / X751LAB ( x2 )
Bookworm12.5_Cinnamon / Calamares Single Boot installations
Firefox ESR / DuckDuckGo / Thunderbird / LibreOffice / GIMP / eID Software

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so-hybrid/

Zen997
Posts: 7
Joined: 2021-10-07 04:50

Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#5 Post by Zen997 »

The problem is in ASUS BR1100 firmware, BIOS or eMMC controller (buggy CQE implementation). It was detected by many users during Linux installation to eMMC drive.

https://superuser.com/questions/1688659 ... at-to-ext4

https://lkml.org/lkml/2022/9/13/117

The CQE implementation for the eMMC in the ASUS 1100FK family of devices is broken. This causes installations to fail and thus we are disabling CQE for this family of devices. In these cases the issue is suspected to be BIOS. Best solution is to disable CQE.

Zen997
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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#6 Post by Zen997 »

p.H wrote: 2022-09-21 10:29 Which installer are you using ? Live Calamares, classic text, classic graphical ?
What do you mean exactly by "crashes" ?
I used Graphical Debian 11 installer, Q4OS installer and text installer of Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 LTS. Debian installer stops responding (freezes) at root partition formatting, which requires hard reset of the laptop and Ubuntu installer outputs fatal error with the option to restart the installer. This happens every single time on the same step (formatting) of the installation. I even tried Q4OS Windows installer (two times), which outputs no errors during installation and adds the second UEFI boot option, but the Linux is unable to boot (freezes at boot).

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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#7 Post by Fossy »

Considering the OP's intention is primarily of using Debian , wouldn't it then be an option to add an M.2 NVMe and install Debian on it and leave the eMMC drive for what it is ( OP states that “ Windows 10 OS is unacceptable for me “ ) .
Is this technically / software-matched achievable ? … the laptop has a M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x4 expansion slot ?
Silly suggestion ?
ASUS GL753VD / X550LD / K54HR / X751LAB ( x2 )
Bookworm12.5_Cinnamon / Calamares Single Boot installations
Firefox ESR / DuckDuckGo / Thunderbird / LibreOffice / GIMP / eID Software

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so-hybrid/

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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#8 Post by p.H »

Zen997 wrote: 2022-09-30 01:17 I used Graphical Debian 11 installer (...)
@Segfault already found the probable cause of the issue which is related to the kernel and hardware, so my question was pointless and you did not have to answer it.
I guess @Fossy expected feedback about the suggested workaround (debug_quirks=0x20000 option to sdhci module).

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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#9 Post by Fossy »

p.H wrote: 2022-10-02 09:15
Zen997 wrote: 2022-09-30 01:17 I used Graphical Debian 11 installer (...)
@Segfault already found the probable cause of the issue which is related to the kernel and hardware, so my question was pointless and you did not have to answer it.
I guess @Fossy expected feedback about the suggested workaround (debug_quirks=0x20000 option to sdhci module).
No , my alternative train of thought is :
Installation of Debian on an external ssd disk : viewtopic.php?t=148166 :
“ Is it possible to install Debian on an externel disk? … yes . “
and “ there is no such distinction internal vs external, that's a human thing. There are devices which are recognized as bootable, or not. “
some research work provided :
My favorite retailer sells actually :
KINGSTON 250GB M.2 NV1 NVMe SSD : 36,90 euro !
SAMSUNG 250GB 980 M.2 NVMe MLC : 49,95 euro
Asus BR1100CKA NVMe Upgrade : https://yewtu.be/watch?v=AKmDYbg_3xQ
Asus BR1100CKA Boot drive prep video : https://yewtu.be/watch?v=jgOrmscwM9E&listen=false
Direct disk cloning : https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
is to be considered , right ?

Off topic : this will be of no use to the topic starter , but wouldn't it have been better of e.g. buy an ASUS X515KA-EJ054W-BE 15.6 FHD N6000 8GB 256GB W11 , also a budget friendly laptop without the disadvantages of a Windows laptop chasing Chromebook ...

Edit :
Regarding the installation ISO , I should go for :
debian-live-11.5.0-amd64- … DE of your choise +nonfree.iso :
still indicated as unofficial but these are long gone times :
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... so-hybrid/

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Last edited by Fossy on 2022-10-06 20:00, edited 1 time in total.
ASUS GL753VD / X550LD / K54HR / X751LAB ( x2 )
Bookworm12.5_Cinnamon / Calamares Single Boot installations
Firefox ESR / DuckDuckGo / Thunderbird / LibreOffice / GIMP / eID Software

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so-hybrid/

p.H
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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#10 Post by p.H »

How is that bullshit related with the OP ?

Fossy
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Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#11 Post by Fossy »

p.H wrote: 2022-10-06 18:25 How is that bullshit related with the OP ?
This is not a reproach toward Zen997 , and certainly not intended to ( wrongly expressed / translated ? have rephrased it as You can see : this will be of no use to the topic starter ) .
I sincerely hope Zen997 gets the problem solved , whatever approach he takes … and provides feedback .
ASUS GL753VD / X550LD / K54HR / X751LAB ( x2 )
Bookworm12.5_Cinnamon / Calamares Single Boot installations
Firefox ESR / DuckDuckGo / Thunderbird / LibreOffice / GIMP / eID Software

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so-hybrid/

Zen997
Posts: 7
Joined: 2021-10-07 04:50

Re: Debian installer crashes on formatting eMMC drive

#12 Post by Zen997 »

I'd like to thank everyone for help. I installed the NVMe M.2 PCIe 2280 Solid State Drive into available slot on this Asus laptop and was able to install Debian on this NVMe SSD with no errors. Even simpler solution is now available with Linux Kernel 6.1 release. I hope this helps everyone having this kind of problem with installing Linux on eMMC drive. The root of the problem is lack of hardware drivers in older Linux kernels. The solution comes with the latest Linux kernel. I successfully installed debian-bookworm-DI-alpha2 (Linux Kernel 6.1), released on 2023-02-19, which can be downloaded here: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/book ... 64/iso-cd/ The installation went smooth with no errors and everything works. Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21.1, Debian 11 and Devuan 4 with Kernel 5.xx all failed to install with fatal error on eMMC drive. Any Linux distro with Kernel 6.1 or newer should also work.

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