[SOLVED] Issues installing onto new ASUS Notebook

[ghost4man]

Hi guys,

I hope someone can be of assistance.

I recently got a brand new notebook, an ASUS F401A X series. It comes without the DVD drive option. It came preshipped with Windows 8 and after a torturous couple of days I managed to install
Ubuntu 12.04 64 Bit onto it. I now want to play around with Mageia to see what that is like.

Alright I have downloaded both the live CD and the DVD iso's and have attempted to boot from these discs. I am using a portable DVD via usb to facilitate this. So far no luck on either option. I have done the same
by loading the iso's onto a USB thumb drive and again it keeps going to Ubuntu. I have gone into the BIOS and disable secure boot features to the problematic nature of UEFI which is what I had to do anyhow to get
rid of windows in the first instance. Unfortunately I dont seem to be getting to first base. Could someone provide assistance in this regard. I am wondering if I need to go into terminal whilst in Ubuntu and load from there???

Cheers for any help.

Thanks Ozzie

[roti]

Hi,

So if I understand correctly, you are not even seeing the Mageia startup screen, which gives you the installation options ("Boot Existing Hard Disk", "Install Mageia", "Run Hardware Dection Tool" and "Memory Diagnostics"). In other words you don't event get to start the installer.

How did you install ubuntu? Using USB stick or the portable DVD? More on how to set up a USB stick for mageia here: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installation_Media

I would focus on using the DVD (i.e. burn the Mageia ISO to a dvd and using the portable DVD reader). There are fewer things that can go wrong. Most likely the boot sequence is not properly set up in your BIOS. (You said that UEFI is already disabled.) Make sure HDD is the last one in the sequence.

Răzvan

[doktor5000]

Also please provide more detailed information which file you exactly downloaded or used for installation, at least the full filename and the md5sum.

[ghost4man]

Hi,

So if I understand correctly, you are not even seeing the Mageia startup screen, which gives you the installation options ("Boot Existing Hard Disk", "Install Mageia", "Run Hardware Dection Tool" and "Memory Diagnostics"). In other words you don't event get to start the installer.

How did you install ubuntu? Using USB stick or the portable DVD? More on how to set up a USB stick for mageia here: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installation_Media

I would focus on using the DVD (i.e. burn the Mageia ISO to a dvd and using the portable DVD reader). There are fewer things that can go wrong. Most likely the boot sequence is not properly set up in your BIOS. (You said that UEFI is already disabled.) Make sure HDD is the last one in the sequence.

Răzvan

Hi Razvan,

Okay to answer some questions.

When I first received the laptop it already came preshipped with Windows 8. Now I went through some major problems trying to get rid of it simply due to the fact that I was NOT aware of the issues that were taking place.

I should point out that I tried installing Ubuntu using WUBI. I followed a tutorial and when I selected Ubuntu from Windows boot loader, it would say wubildr.mbr is missing or corrupted.

Then Windows boot manager appears again. I try again. The same error. Then I go to Windows, and checked the wubildr.mbr which is in winboot.

I discovered that Wubi does not support UEFI BIOS which made it extremely problematic.

Okay so how did I get around this problem. Bear in mind that I had prepared 4 boot discs encompassing different versions of ubuntu and linux mint utilising the universal USB installer. All of this failed.

I resolved this problem by going back to Ubuntu and this time using their windows installer. So using this little program along with a dvd iso of 12.04 I got things working. When it loaded it took me to the BIOS whereupon I deleted all the boot options other than the one pertaining to the portable dvd. This worked and I got 12.04 up and running. In saying that I had always wanted to try out Mageia.

Now I spoke to a colleague of mine who suggested I format the hard drive. So after some angst I ran terminal and then ran the following script:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

which in fact has done what it has intended to.

Now I have two options, that is USB pen drive or the portable dvd for the ISO image.

In answer to doktor500 I have downloaded from here:

http://www.mageia.org/en/downloads/

Okay I downloaded the 64 bit dvd iso which I burnt to a dvd as well as transferring to a pen drive. I also downloaded the live CD but I just realised that this is for fresh installs only.

I would note that I have disabled the secure boot option in the bios.

I will go through this again tonight to see if I can get any success but every time I try and boot from the dvd it keeps going back to the bios so I dont even get to the front door for the install.

Sorry for the length of the reply but I am trying to include as much information as I possibly can.

cheers ozzie

[ghost4man]

Hi guys,

I am reading more into it and I get the feeling that I need to get some sort of usb creator program. At the moment I am running Ubuntu 12.04 on my desktop so I wonder if there is a program I can use in 12.04 to do this or whether I should be using another route. I will try and ascertain this tonight.

Ozzie

[roti]

I resolved this problem by going back to Ubuntu and this time using their windows installer. So using this little program along with a dvd iso of 12.04 I got things working. When it loaded it took me to the BIOS whereupon I deleted all the boot options other than the one pertaining to the portable dvd. This worked and I got 12.04 up and running.

Usually, you should have a boot sequence that puts the CD/DVD and Removable Drives before the HDD. Removing the HDD completely is wrong, because you will not be able to boot Mageia after installation has finished.

Now I spoke to a colleague of mine who suggested I format the hard drive. So after some angst I ran terminal and then ran the following script:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

which in fact has done what it has intended to.

This was not necessary because you will have the option to format your HDD during installation. But it does not hurt either...

I would note that I have disabled the secure boot option in the bios.

I don't know exactly what this means, I never heard of secure boot before, but you may want to try once with it enabled and once with it disabled. Just be sure that this is not the cause.

To summarize:
- make sure UEFI is disabled (I think it's called something like Legacy Mode)
- make sure you have the correct boot sequence (Removables and DVD Drives first, HDD last)
- use the DVD if you have one, even if its an external one that connects through USB (this way you eliminate mistakes that could occur with the preparation of the USB stick)
- most modern BIOSes allow choosing the boot drive manually by some key (F12 or F11); if you pressed it at the correct moment you get a menu with available boot drives and are allowed to choose one. You should see your DVD drive in this menus, but make sure the Removables Drives are enabled in the boot sequence in BIOS.
- If you have the possibility, you may want to try the DVD on another computer, just to make sure it has no problems (who knows, maybe something went wrong while burning the DVD).

Hope this helps,
Răzvan

[wintpe]

you might want to look at my thread on the asus zenbook prime.

very similar setup and i went through similar problems setting that up.

mageia needs a hybrid gpt setup , which gets installed when you choose use all available space in mageias partitioner.

you also need to enable the backwards compatible boot (Launch CSM) which is disabled by default.

ive documented it here

hopefully some of it may be of help.

http://www.linuxpc.co.uk/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=54

regards peter

[ghost4man]

Hi guys,

I am going to re download both the dvd and live cd options. Once that has been completed I will go into the BIOS and re set to default settings to resurrect the initial boot sequence and as was said nominate the order.

Razvan I will do as you said and try to install on another computer to see if there could be a burning issue.

I will post again once I have gone through the process. Has been a good learning experience! At least I am trying.

Cheers Ozzie

[ghost4man]

Hi Guys,

Well I made several attempts to utilise the live CD and found I was not getting anywhere so I went back into the bios and set it to the default settings.

Now I followed wintpe advice and enabled LAUNCH CSM and voila success! I now have Magiea 2 up and running. Finally. Clearly this feature in the BIOS is what

was holding me back I would suggest all along.

A big big thankyou to all you guys for your help!!! Muchly appreciated. I can now at least have a play around with the system to see if it suits me.

On initial observations I have already discovered an issue as I do NOT have any functionality with right click on the touchpad.

I will post about this problem in another thread.

Cheers Ozzie

[ghost4man]

Hi Guys,

Can I just say as a quick summation that the issue of installing is PROBLEM SOLVED at my end.

Cheers Ozzie

[isadora]

Please mark topic accordingly.

[ghost4man]

Hi guys,

Sorry I am looking everywhere but how do I assign as PROBLEM SOLVED to this thread.

Cheers Ozzie

[isadora]

Just edit the the subject of your first post in this topic.
Place [SOLVED] in front of that title/subject.

Good luck, and thanks!!! ;}

[ghost4man]

Hi Isadora,

Done mate and thank you.

Now onto the next issue which is the touchpad.

I have been playing around with system and I have to say I am quite impressed with the little features which make it so elegant. Well done to the developers.

Cheers Ozzie