[SOLVED] can't install Mageia 9 at all

[reltek]

I recently download the latest Mageia 9. Then, created a bootable USB stick.

I first booted into it on my fairly old system and it brought the screen asking me to choose a language. After, it said installing usb driver. Then, I got an error, Can't call method "first_usable_sector" on unblessed reference from which I could NEVER recover from. So, I rebooted my system again and try to boot into my bootable USB. Now, when I click on install Mageia 9, after about few seconds it puts up a very MESSED UP screen GRAPHICALLY; fonts are too big, color pattern is all over the screen and of course the screen is completely frozen. From this point on, that is all I am able to do. I don't get any menu to start the installation.

Just so you know I don't have any video card on my PCI slots. My system only uses on board video.

From what I am reading about Mageia 9 so far, I believe this has to do with VIDEO output. If I have to purchase a video card just to use Mageia 9, then I will have to move to another Linux distribution.

Any idea how to fix this?

[morgano]

Which ISO - Installer or Live USB?
Did you verify the ISO download and the stick content? (I.e by using isodumper)
What GPU is onboard?

[reltek]

Which ISO - Installer or Live USB?
Did you verify the ISO download and the stick content? (I.e by using isodumper)
What GPU is onboard?

Which ISO - Installer or Live USB??????
Well... Classical Installation > 64Bit > Direct Link
If that what you mean. I didn't specifically download Live USB.
So, I downloaded the ISO file and used DD terminal command to create the bootable USB stick.
It worked and booted into the USB starting Mageia 9 Installation NO LIVE boot.

Did you verify the ISO download and the stick content?
Yes, I did and it verified the ISO and the content.

What GPU is onboard?
Whatever your motherboard comes with for VIDEO support. That's called ONBOARD video.

[sturmvogel]

What GPU is onboard?
Whatever your motherboard comes with for VIDEO support. That's called ONBOARD video.

You expect that others know what you are using? You should provide at least some basic informations...make and model and so on...

[benmc]

Then, I got an error, Can't call method "first_usable_sector" on unblessed reference from which I could NEVER recover from

this means that the installer cannot find a storage medium to install to. The only media it discovered was the Install media USB and that is already in use, as a Read Only device, so cannot install to itself.

Please check your HDD/SDD connections. If you are using a PCIe adapter card to connect your SSD/HDD, this may be an issue.

Does your BIOS / UEFI report any internal storage devices?

TIA

[reltek]

You expect that others know what you are using? You should provide at least some basic informations...make and model and so on...

Sorry... My Motherboard is ASUS B85M-E

Thank you for your replies.

Edited quote. ~Germ

[reltek]

Then, I got an error, Can't call method "first_usable_sector" on unblessed reference from which I could NEVER recover from

this means that the installer cannot find a storage medium to install to. The only media it discovered was the Install media USB and that is already in use, as a Read Only device, so cannot install to itself.

Please check your HDD/SDD connections. If you are using a PCIe adapter card to connect your SSD/HDD, this may be an issue.

Does your BIOS / UEFI report any internal storage devices?

TIA

Hello,

Yes, it does and I do have a hardrive connected to the motherboard using SATA cable.

When I click ENTER button while Install Mageia 9 selected, it starts of asking what language to use and keyboard. That's it. Then, just puts out this error message about first usable sector.

My hardrive already has other linux OS installed and I wanted to dual boot Mageia 9 along with that OS. At some point, I was expecting to make changes to the hardrive partitions, but it never gave me that chance.

So, you are telling me Mageia 9 can't be dual booted and unless it erases the whole hardrive and installs?

Thank you for your reply.

[doktor5000]

So, you are telling me Mageia 9 can't be dual booted and unless it erases the whole hardrive and installs?

Yes it totally can, but seems it has problems reading the geometry and partitioning or MBR of your disk.

Can you tell what other linux or other operating systems you have installed and what tool you used to partition your disk initially ?
Would also be helpful if you could post the output as root of

Code: Select all

lsblk -f
fdisk -l

for that SATA disk.

Also in your BIOS check what mode is configured for the SATA controller (should be set to AHCI and softRAID or similar should be disabled - although you need to check if your other OS still boots).
There are several similar reports for this issue, see e.g.
https://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.p ... c=152822.0
https://www.mageialinux-online.org/foru ... erence.php
https://lxer.com/module/newswire/lf/view/294659/

[reltek]

okay. Nevermind.

Even though I was able to install other Linux Operating systems by live booting from USB stick, for some reason latest Mageia 9 won't and it seems like it has a bug related to this.

So, I had enough of this nonsense and I burned Mageia 9 ISO into DVD. Then, I try to install it and it went very SUCCESSFULLY I might add.

Thank you for all your help. Cheers!!!

[benmc]

hi,

great that you have managed to install the system.

I was wondering if you would consider the following:

Mageia is a community distribution, by the community, for the community.
The installation.isos were tested by a small number of the community prior to release. The testing included USB and DVD media installations on a variety of hardware. Your hardware seems different, in that you were unable to install via USB.

Would you consider trying the Mageia 10 .isos when they come up for testing, to try on your hardware, so that the issue you discovered can be resolved?

best regards