Ubuntu MATE install grinds to a halt

Support & Help Requests
#1

Install copies files, that stalls immediately after starting to install system. Basically; the PC goes into CBA mode. The monitor announces; "no signal" and goes into energy saving. The HDD activity LED is pretty busy for a while, but pretty much inactive if I leave it overnight. DVD reads also diminish over time.

The try before installing selection has shown me that this distro does a fair bit of what I need - but running it from the install DVD is just too much hard work to be worth the effort - the DVD can't keep up with menu selections, which sometimes crashes and then just disappears (with an option to delete it).

Several time it failed to erase the target boot HDD and attempted to install alongside an earlier install of Ubuntu. So I fired up gparted and wiped the HDD - the next attempt to install still ground to a halt.

Applications like Gparted are typical of the functionality I need - but only being able to run anything from the try before installing selection is just too much effort.

The previous boot HDD is a 3Tb unit that Win XP wasn't very enthusiastic about, so I set it up as a Ubuntu boot disk to make that storage available to me. At some point; it went on strike, it was not accessible while running under try before and I found repair options that were able to untangle it - but not make it bootable.

This OS would be to my liking if running it from the DVD wasn't the only way of firing it up.

#2

Try installing from a usb stick instead. Could be damaged media and or drive incompatibility. Also download and install the daily build of 20.04 from cdimage. Its super stable and the next LTS. You dont need to use an older version as its official release is just around the corner.

#3

IMHO a check of target HDD health would not hurt either.

#4

Thanks - bootable USB FD is my favourite method, but last time Rufus wanted to download and add something else, I'm mostly working at a location with no internet. Optical media worked just fine when I did Ubuntu 16.04.6 - the USB FD didn't.

somehow I've ended up with too many M$ install sticks, and not enough Linux ones - re assigning a flash drive isn't a problem.

Any chance you could bung me the download link for the exact distro you recommend? - I'll deal with it as soon as I see it.

#5

the HDD was salvaged from a PVR, and they do tend to get a bit rattly - but that sort of capacity is likely to be fairly recent.

In any case, I'd found Gparted and tried erasing that drive - it didn't complain about dodgy surface. Also: there was no hesitancy while it was copying files - it just wandered off immediately after starting installing system.

#6

Have actually been getting a feel for what Linux will put up with - had a pile of HDDs that Windows didn't like, and scrapped all the ones Linux didn't like either.

#7

Your words make me think there is a hardware problem with your HDDs. May be lowlevel format could reveal something.

#8

My words make me think I scrapped all the dodgy HDDs.

#9

Not to mention Ubuntu 16.04.6 worked just fine - but didn't have the functionality I need.

#10

I agree with ugnvs. Also he sounds intelligent.

#11

Lets see now - he didn't notice that I'd scrapped all the dodgy HDDs, he missed the bit where I had Ubuntu 16.04.6 running just fine - did I miss anything...……..

most intelligent people I know don't just disregard the facts before offering an opinion.

#12

This is the 64bit image. I assume thats what you are using:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/daily-live/current/focal-desktop-amd64.iso

#13

Looks like the one I downloaded Saturday. Everything looked OK on try before, so I went for the install - it had eaten Grub on the flash drive - then I realised to my horror that I'd forgotten to unplug one of the NTFS drives. Spent most of Sunday & some of today digging out backups - but all the recent stuff is gone.

So at this point I still have no idea whether the release I downloaded Sat gets through install without falling over.

All the other relases I could've tried were among the recent stuff that was lost.

#14

I dont know how to respond to this information.

#15

Recommend a different flavour of Linux with similar functionality to MATE.

#16

The ubuntu mint guys would love you to go try their software and be on their forums, I am sure. Try ubuntu mint.

#17

Tried mint years ago - mostly to overwrite the mess W10 made when it imploded (PSU needed re capping). Can't remember why the install disk gathered dust ever since. probably because I discovered WD-DL, which is much easier and tests the HDD as well.

That DVD didn't look like what I want now - downloaded a more recent.

I keep thinking; "if it ain't broke - don't fix it" - was there EVER a stable release?

#18

Maybe ask on reddit and see if they can suggest something.