Major fail...

[DoYouKubuntu]

I'll omit the background since the people here probably already know it, and leave it at this: my new (as in replacement, brand-new) System76 Gazelle laptop came late last month--but arrived with the wrong size hard drive in it. Two days ago I received the correct hard drive, and today I installed it--removing the incorrect one first (to send back to S76). I installed K on it without issue. Not a single burp or hiccup during the whole install. After seeing that "Kubuntu was successfully installed," I happily removed the installation media when prompted, and let it do its thing.

Unfortunately, that meant not getting past the System76 splash screen. That's it! I waited and waited for K to start up, but it didn't. I poked around in various boot/startup settings and found that the computer has ubuntu (spelled like that) *and* Pop!_OS installed. The thing is, I installed a brand-new, empty, 1TB hard drive, removing the 500GB drive it came with--the drive that had Pop (and then K) on it.

I'm done for today, but tomorrow I think I'm just going to open it back up, stick its original 500GB drive back in, *add* the 1TB drive, re-partition everything to my liking, and pay S76 whatever the charge is for the extra drive. That is, unless someone can tell me how the hell to get it working! I did manage to get to a login prompt at one point, so if there's any command-line magic to work, I'm up for it!

[Fred47]

I would say that System 76 installed their OS on the drive. I would delete all partitions and install again from scratch. Wipe and Load is my mantra.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I would say that System 76 installed their OS on the drive. I would delete all partitions and install again from scratch. Wipe and Load is my mantra.

Well, that's the logical assumption, except that, as I said: "The thing is, I installed a brand-new, empty, 1TB hard drive, removing the 500GB drive it came with--the drive that had Pop (and then K) on it."

The new drive, the 1TB drive, was in a SEALED Western Digital package. It had NOTHING on it.

[Snowhog]

Two days ago I received the correct hard drive, and today I installed it--removing the incorrect one first (to send back to S76). I installed K on it without issue. Not a single burp or hiccup during the whole install. After seeing that "Kubuntu was successfully installed," I happily removed the installation media when prompted, and let it do its thing.

Unfortunately, that meant not getting past the System76 splash screen. That's it! I waited and waited for K to start up, but it didn't. I poked around in various boot/startup settings and found that the computer has ubuntu (spelled like that) *and* Pop!_OS installed. The thing is, I installed a brand-new, empty, 1TB hard drive, removing the 500GB drive it came with--the drive that had Pop (and then K) on it.

System76 Gazelle Specifications: https://system76.com/laptops/gazelle#specs

Specifically: Storage2x M.2 SSD (1x SATA or PCIe Gen3 & 1x PCIe Gen4) & 1x 7mm 2.5"" SSD/HDD, Up to 18 TB total

Does your Gazelle have an M.2 SSD as the specifications say it does? If it does, then I'm relatively certain that their OS's on the machine are installed to the SSD, and the HDD you removed was for storage. Did you install Kubuntu to the 1TB HDD and not the SSD, again, assuming that the laptop has a SSD?

[DoYouKubuntu]

System76 Gazelle Specifications: https://system76.com/laptops/gazelle#specs

Specifically: Storage2x M.2 SSD (1x SATA or PCIe Gen3 & 1x PCIe Gen4) & 1x 7mm 2.5"" SSD/HDD, Up to 18 TB total

Does your Gazelle have an M.2 SSD as the specifications say it does? If it does, then I'm relatively certain that their OS's on the machine are installed to the SSD, and the HDD you removed was for storage. Did you install Kubuntu to the 1TB HDD and not the SSD, again, assuming that the laptop has a SSD?

No, it has EITHER (or any combination) of those.



I've highlighted the drive I ordered; I don't know for sure which of the 500GB drives (in the middle column) they shipped it with instead. If you scroll down that page you'll see another drive option, for additional M.2 NVMe storage.

To be absolutely clear here: it came with *ONE* drive, an incorrect 500GB drive; it was SUPPOSED to ship with *one* drive, a 1TB NVMe drive as highlighted above. When I received the correct drive, it was in a SEALED Western Digital box; it was BLANK. The drive that was installed originally is sitting in the WD box now--it is NOT in the laptop.

[Snowhog]

You removed the 500G HD that came with the replacement laptop (that had Ubuntu and Pop!_OS installed on it) and installed the 1T HD. Then you installed Kubuntu (from what, a LiveUSB or ?). Then after seeing that Kubuntu was successfully installed, you removed the installation media and rebooted, at which point it wouldn't get to a functioning Kubuntu Desktop. You then you poked about in various boot/startup settings and found that ubuntu and Pop!_OS were installed.

What did you find to give you the impression that ubuntu and Pop!_OS were installed?

I understand that you ordered the 'original' Gazelle with a single 1T HD, but are you certain that when the replacement was issued, it didn't come with a 500G M.2 SSD and a 500G NVMe HD? I'm reaching, sure, but if ubuntu and Pop!_OS were truly found in your searching (and both were actual full installations of the OSs), they have to be on a drive other than the 1T HD you installed (and also were not on the 500G HD you removed).

If you boot into the Live media you used to do the Kubuntu install, run KPartition Manager (I believe that's correct). What does it see?

[DoYouKubuntu]

You removed the 500G HD that came with the replacement laptop (that had Ubuntu and Pop!_OS installed on it) and installed the 1T HD. Then you installed Kubuntu (from what, a LiveUSB or ?). Then after seeing that Kubuntu was successfully installed, you removed the installation media and rebooted, at which point it wouldn't get to a functioning Kubuntu Desktop. You then you poked about in various boot/startup settings and found that ubuntu and Pop!_OS were installed.

Yes, thank you, this is precisely what happened.

What did you find to give you the impression that ubuntu and Pop!_OS were installed?

When it failed to start K, I pressed various keys during boot, [esc] at one point, [F2] at another. One of those yielded what I wrote, plus two other entries. One said "Linux...." something (boot manager? I don't recall) and the other looked like something to do with the WD drive. I tried booting from each of the four entries; ubuntu yielded the System76 splash screen--and nothing more; Pop yielded a text error message about failing to boot, as did the Linux choice, and the hard drive choice gave me the S76 splash screen (IIRC). I'm using the loaner and am too lazy to drag the other Gazelle over here right now, but I'll be happy to post pics of anything that might help later.

I understand that you ordered the 'original' Gazelle with a single 1T HD, but are you certain that when the replacement was issued, it didn't come with a 500G M.2 SSD and a 500G NVMe HD? I'm reaching, sure, but if ubuntu and Pop!_OS were truly found in your searching (and both were actual full installations of the OSs), they have to be on a drive other than the 1T HD you installed (and also were not on the 500G HD you removed).

Very certain. SH you have no idea how much time I've spent talking (on the phone, and online) to S76. BELIEVE ME, it was supposed to ship with one, 1TB drive, but came with one, 500GB drive instead. Then they sent me the correct drive--in a sealed WD box--which I installed AFTER removing its installed 500GB drive, and putting it in the 1TB drive's WD box. I can post pics of it if that would help!

If you boot into the Live media you used to do the Kubuntu install, run KPartition Manager (I believe that's correct). What does it see?

That's just it--after all this, I could no longer even use the live thumb drive. I finally gave up last night, exasperated, so maybe today will yield a different result, but when I last tried booting with the live drive plugged in, it was like it wasn't even there.

Keep in mind that at one point I was able to get to a command prompt. From there I "sudo apt install kde-standard" thinking maybe this would help. It, too, showed successful completion....and then nothing but the S76 splash screen upon booting. My point? If there's anything I can do at a prompt that can sort this out, kindly point me in the right direction!

[Snowhog]

Pressing/holding F2 after pressing the Power on button will get you into the BIOS settings. Pressing/holding F7 after pressing the Power on button gets you to the Boot Item choice menu.

[jlittle]

Perhaps the Pop OS option came from the NVRAM boot variables, and that the Kubuntu install failed to set them up properly, or that set up was messed with by a buggy UEFI.
I suggest running

 sudo efibootmgr -v

Having booted from a USB you might have to apt install it first.
All those installs you did with the failing drive might have triggered a UEFI bug. These used to be common. On my desktop sometimes boot entries multiply and have to be cleared out.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I'm back from making several more attempts. I was finally able to get in, sort of, by choosing 'safe graphics' at startup. Along the way I tried numerous things, including 'try Kubuntu' (from the live drive), but that just yielded a black screen with a text error message. I also tried installing K again, only this time using 'guided' and 'use entire disk' instead of my usual partitioning. Nope. Booting up still left me stranded at the S76 splash screen.

However, I think I'm on to something. Please look at these [awfully bad] pics:





As you can see from the first pic, it thinks Pop is installed.

But it's the second that I think may hold the key. Under "Boot loader" I don't think I've ever CHOSEN anything, i.e., whatever the default was, that's what I've always used. Looking at the partitions (this is its current arrangement), WHAT should I choose for boot loader? I had previously left it at the default--that obviously didn't work, so this time I chose the second entry, the one ending with p1. Nope. Before I waste any more time barking up the wrong tree, can someone just tell me which choice I should be using?

I'm done for today. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Perhaps the Pop OS option came from the NVRAM boot variables, and that the Kubuntu install failed to set them up properly, or that set up was messed with by a buggy UEFI.
I suggest running

 sudo efibootmgr -v

Having booted from a USB you might have to apt install it first.
All those installs you did with the failing drive might have triggered a UEFI bug. These used to be common. On my desktop sometimes boot entries multiply and have to be cleared out.

Thanks, John. I posted my latest update before reading your reply--I'm done for today, but will give your suggestion a try tomorrow.

[jlittle]

Those entries come from the NVRAM boot variables. The UEFI screens (often called the BIOS settings) should let you prune them, but those screens come from the motherboard, and vary between mobo manufacturers and models. However, on my desktop efibootmgr -v shows more detail, that can be checked. For example, my ubuntu entry shows as

Boot0000* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,ff254b9b-327c-4772-ad2f-8c789e4a69f8,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\GRUBX64.EFI)

The id, ff25...9f8, is the "partition UUID" of the EFI System Partition. Grub calls that partition "gpt1".

As I suggested, the entries of which you posted a picture explain why the laptop mentions Pop OS even though you've removed the drive with Pop OS on it. But it doesn't explain why the ubuntu entry doesn't work reliably.

I don't know what the Kubuntu installer is doing on the screenshot. In the BIOS/MBR days one could choose a partition for the bootloader, instead of the device, for some kludge to have multiple installs on the drive. I don't know what that means in a UEFI/GPT context. These days, I always run ubiquity with -b to tell it to not install a bootloader at all, I've already got one, thank you, under my control. (I edit grub.cfg manually like people used to with lolo's menu.lst. IME with multiple installs, grub always screws up sooner or later.)

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thanks, John. I'm on the loaner right now, and after another cup of coffee I may be ready to tackle the new one again. I'll try your suggestion and post results. So, regarding the boot loader options--should I just reset that back to its default, i.e., the first entry?

[jlittle]

(Time zones - it's 9.20 Sunday here.) If you can boot to Kubuntu, I'd be curious to see what sudo efibootmgr -v would say. You can use efibootmgr to clear out the entries, but the command syntax is a bit cryptic. When my desktop's UEFI misbehaved, and added a dozen or two weird entries, it didn't matter which, UEFI or efibootmgr, I used; once back to normal it would behave itself for a while. (I stopped mucking around with them once I settled on my present set up 2018 or so, despite doing many and varied installs.)

[DoYouKubuntu]

(Time zones - it's 9.20 Sunday here.) If you can boot to Kubuntu, I'd be curious to see what sudo efibootmgr -v would say. You can use efibootmgr to clear out the entries, but the command syntax is a bit cryptic. When my desktop's UEFI misbehaved, and added a dozen or two weird entries, it didn't matter which, UEFI or efibootmgr, I used; once back to normal it would behave itself for a while. (I stopped mucking around with them once I settled on my present set up 2018 or so, despite doing many and varied installs.)

I'm great with cryptic *nix commands! (Or at least I once was.) I'll man efibootmgr and see what I can do with it...

ETA: I'm looking at efibootmgr on the loaner to get a feel for it. We may be on to something here....