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[SOLVED] Installer crash?!?

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    #1

    [SOLVED] Installer crash?!?

    Hi all,

    I am trying a fresh install from 10.04.

    The installer crashes towards the end of the installarion (after update-grub).

    No additional information is provided to the user.

    /var/log/syslog only shows some complaints about networkmanager.

    Now I am left with a system which is unusable. At first boot, after kdm login, I got errors about kstartup4 (or something similar) failing.

    I found that .kde was not owned by the user and chowned it. Now after login I have the usual kde4 splashscreen withappearing icons. At the third icon, I hear a sound (I guess it is corresponding to some error), and then nothing else happens.

    Any help is much appreciated...

    Andrea.
    Tags: None
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    #2
    Re: Installer crash?!?

    First suspicion falls on the CD -- if you made it from an ISO image, please review #1 in the FAQs link in my signature. Also, the "Alternate" CD, which has a character-mode installer rather than Ubiquity, sometimes gives better results.

    If you're sure it's not the CD, or if you try another one with the same results, then we'll need details on the hardware and error messages -- WUBI? Dual boot? Got enough RAM and disk space? How/what did you partition the hard drive, etc. etc.
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      #3
      Re: Installer crash?!?

      Hi dibl,

      thanks for your answer.

      Unfortunately, the installer crashed well after it formatted my old system, so burning a new cd is out of question at the moment (I am sending these messages from an old desktop with no cd burner). An md5 sum of the image before burning it didn't show any particular error.

      I am using an asus laptop (I can give you the exact specs if it turns out that they are relevant). Dual boot with Vista.
      I specified the partitions myself (an ext4 on /, to be formatted, another ext4 on /home, no formatting of course). /var/log/parted didn't show any errors.
      The same setup worked smoothly with 10.04.

      My impression is that the system after the crash is actually *almost* usable. If only there was a way to know what goes wrong during kde startup, I could probably fix it.

      Do you happen to have some suggestions as to which log files to inspect?

      Thanks for your help,

      Andrea.
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        #4
        Re: Installer crash?!?

        Originally posted by barlowrm

        the installer crashed well after it formatted my old system
        Hmmmmmmmmmm. This raises a question in my mind -- did it really do a proper job of partitioning and formatting, prior to the installation? Probably the answer is "YES", but with your installer crash, it leaves one uncertain, doesn't it?

        The other thing that is quite unusual and concerning (I've never heard of it) is having the initial .kde directory be corrupted with root (or some other) permissions. Usually even the newest of users needs to boot in one time, and run "sudo dolphin" to screw that up.

        Do you have a USB memory stick that you can spare? Does your old system have USB connectors? I'd like to see you boot your Live CD and run GParted (you might have to install it first, which is no problem if there's Internet connectivity).

        Alternatively, if you have a USB memory stick that you could spare, you could download the zip file and make a Parted Magic bootable USB stick -- it has GParted plus other diagnostic and benchmarking tools.

        Bottom line -- there's probably nothing wrong with your hard drive and its partitions and filesystems, but if there were, everything we try would be a waste of time. It would really be nice to know that the partition table and filesystems are OK.
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          #5
          Re: Installer crash?!?

          Hi,

          thanks again for your answer.

          I am not sure what do you mean with "the filesystem is ok", but I can actually login and navigate in my /home folder (the one I didn't ask to format) and all the contents are there. I tried creating a new user, and I still get the problem with permissions of its home folder.

          Is there somewhere a log of the installation process? I would really love to understand at what point it crashed and what is missing to have a usable system.

          I am now trying to install ubuntu-desktop, hoping that it would complete whatever was left undone by the installation.

          Thanks for your help,

          Andrea.
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            #6
            Re: Installer crash?!?

            All log files are stored at /var/log. I do not recall hearing of a log of the initial installation process, and a quickie google only turned up this, which doesn't show it either: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ighlight=grub2

            I understand the your system appears to be "mostly" working, but my concern is that filesystem corruption could have preceded, or resulted from, the installation crash, and normal use of the system might not reveal that problem (yet).
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              #7
              Re: Installer crash?!?

              Hi,

              at last, I am writing this message from my laptop, now working

              For the record, and in case somebody else hits the same problem, installing manually ubuntu-desktop (i.e. gnome) fixed whatever problem had been caused by the installer crashing.

              I now have a couple of minor but annoting problems:

              1) how do I get rid of gnome now? removing ubuntu-desktop only removes that package, not all of the rest... SOLVED lloking at http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purekde

              2) I want to remove kdenetworkmanager and use the gnome version instead. wicd is not an option because it doesn't manage properly umts modems yet. I had this working in 10.04 just removing the kde package and installing the gnome one. Now, however, it appears not to be enough. if I launch nm-applet, it tells me that the applet is already running, and indeed I am connected to the internet, but it does not show up in the systray. Telling the systray to display NM, results in some kde-ish version of it (not functional, btw), not the gnome one.

              Thanks again for any suggestion...

              Cheers,

              Andrea.
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                #8
                Re: Installer crash?!?

                Originally posted by barlowrm
                1) how do I get rid of gnome now? removing ubuntu-desktop only removes that package, not all of the rest...
                Simply install the package kde-full in Synaptic to get a full Kde installed.
                There's no solution for uninstalling all Gnome apps in one go, you'll have to remove them one by one (brasero, evince, etc.)

                Originally posted by barlowrm
                2) I want to remove kdenetworkmanager and use the gnome version instead. wicd is not an option because it doesn't manage properly umts modems yet. I had this working in 10.04 just removing the kde package and installing the gnome one. Now, however, it appears not to be enough. if I launch nm-applet, it tells me that the applet is already running, and indeed I am connected to the internet, but it does not show up in the systray. Telling the systray to display NM, results in some kde-ish version of it (not functional, btw), not the gnome one.
                True, knetworkmanager is garbage >
                Perhaps it's interfering somehow. Uninstall the following packages:
                Code:
                sudo apt-get --purge remove knm-runtime network-manager-kde plasma-widget-networkmanagement
                Alternatively, right-click on the packages in Synaptic and select "Mark for Complete Removal".
                Then, open Systemsettings > Startup & Shutdown > Autostart and add a new program entry for /usr/bin/nm-applet to have it run at every Kde startup.
                Shinda Sekai Sensen<br /><br />Kubuntu Maverick RC x64 w/ Kde 4.5.2 (main)<br />Kubuntu 10.04 x64 w/ Kde 4.5.1 to be wiped, no point in keeping it any longer
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                  #9
                  Re: Installer crash?!?

                  Originally posted by barlowrm
                  1) how do I get rid of gnome now? removing ubuntu-desktop only removes that package, not all of the rest... SOLVED lloking at http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purekde
                  Be careful there! Using that command would also remove programs you probably want to keep, like Compiz, Firefox, Synaptic etc.
                  Shinda Sekai Sensen<br /><br />Kubuntu Maverick RC x64 w/ Kde 4.5.2 (main)<br />Kubuntu 10.04 x64 w/ Kde 4.5.1 to be wiped, no point in keeping it any longer
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                    #10
                    Re: Installer crash?!?

                    Originally posted by Yuri sss
                    Originally posted by barlowrm
                    1) how do I get rid of gnome now? removing ubuntu-desktop only removes that package, not all of the rest... SOLVED lloking at http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purekde
                    Be careful there! Using that command would also remove programs you probably want to keep, like Compiz, Firefox, Synaptic etc.
                    Yes, thanks, I actually noted down the ones it was removing and reinstalled those I needed afterwards.

                    Now trying to solve this nm problem...
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                      #11
                      Re: Installer crash?!?

                      Originally posted by Yuri sss

                      True, knetworkmanager is garbage >
                      Perhaps it's interfering somehow. Uninstall the following packages:
                      Code:
                      sudo apt-get --purge remove knm-runtime network-manager-kde plasma-widget-networkmanagement
                      Alternatively, right-click on the packages in Synaptic and select "Mark for Complete Removal".
                      Then, open Systemsettings > Startup & Shutdown > Autostart and add a new program entry for /usr/bin/nm-applet to have it run at every Kde startup.
                      Ok, I tried the apt-get recipe, but the applet is still not showing. If I launch it from the command line, it now dies because of an icon not found...

                      I followed the instructions on

                      http://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-b...sg2566236.html

                      and now it runs smoothly.

                      Marking this thread as solved.

                      Thanks to all of your for your suggestions!

                      Andrea.
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