I am having trouble getting Linux to work on my laptop, an ASUS Q501. I have created bootable USBs containing Debian, Elementary, and ArchBang, but run into a problem with all of them. I have not been able to reach the install screens when booting from the drives with Elementary and ArchBang. In ArchBang, I got a bootloader that allowed me to select how to boot it, but immediately after making a selection, I get errors about enumerating USB devices. I was able to go through the graphical install of Debian, but when I booted it, after the install, I am getting errors.

The errors that I am getting are these three lines, which constantly repeat:
After installing Debian, I removed all USB devices from my laptop and booted and I am still getting these errors. I disabled ‘XHCI Pre-Boot Mode’ and ‘Legacy USB Support’ in my BIOS and Debian seems to get closer to booting, as in I get more messages on the screen when it boots that seems to indicate that it is working. The errors also are not displayed when booting with these settings off; however, I always end up getting a blank, black screen, rather than actually booting Linux.

Does anyone know how I can fix this problem? When installing Debian, I deleted my Windows 8 installation (after backing up the recovery partition), so I cannot use my laptop at all right now.

It wasn't legacy usb support for sure.

When I peek at all the issues with the -110 code it seems to suggest a usb to some card reader is to blame. Either have to have it supported in boot environment or use other boot means to disregard it.

"string descriptor 0 read error: -110"

This also assumes some other things. One is how you made the usb, two is any bios settings that relate to windows 8 and modern linux, three is how you booted the usb in bios order. It should have been a form of hard drive either ehci or legacy. May also be how you created the usb.

Is there a cd/dvd reader in this?

Thanks for the response. The laptop does have an integrated card reader, maybe that's connected to an internal USB bus? There are no USB devices connected, externally at least.

The laptop does not have a CD/DVD drive.

I created the USB with the LiLi USB creator, which I've used without problem in the past.

To boot from the USB drive, I selected it from the boot override section in the BIOS.

I don't know what boot override means. Do you mean a F key at boot time that lets you select a boot media?

Search and read posts on this, "string descriptor 0 read error: -110" for clues as to what to go to next.

Can you test this usb on a different system. Not that it will prove a whole lot but worth a test.

I can't say for sure what this iso is. A number of the LTS type installers use a text installer like the old distro's used (and some do still.)

I use boot override from the BIOS to choose the boot media. I've also tried setting the order so the USB was first and got the same error though.

I've been looking for people that got the same error, but haven't made any meaningful progress. A lot of them seem to occur after the user already has Linux working on their machine, a point that I have been unable to reach.

Can't attempt to install on another system, but I will attempt to boot from it. I've successfully booted form it on the past, with different distros.

I got the ISOs directly from the developers via links on their pages. I then ran the ISOs through LiLi to create a bootable USB. I then attempted to install Linux after booting from this bootable USB. Are there any other applications you would recommend for creating a bootable USB, so that I can attempt to install Linux. No DVD drive, so I can't go that route...

I think that the problem must be with an internal USB bus. I believe this because I get the error, when booting Debian, which I was able to successfully install, even though I have no connected external USB devices. If this is the case, is there anything I could do about it?

When in bios does this flash show up under hard drive? You don't use usb, you boot to hard drive and move the usb flash up in hard drive order.

I'd dd the image to the usb instead of a creator. Not all distro's easily work with creators and they also may not work with dd. Since this is a developer iso then you'd need to contact them for clues as to how to use it.

You may be able to pxe or gpxe/ipxe it or even nfs it on a new system.
May be possible to use other system to install to usb (just as if it were a hard drive) and then move the flash back and dd it to internal drive. Fix some issues and reboot and gpart it back to normal.

It shows up as a 'bootable device', as it has on other computers I have installed both Linux and Windows on off of a USB drive.

I can try that. As I don't have Linux installed, I would assume I would need to get a LiveCD and boot my desktop with it. Then I would have to mount the desktop's hard drive with the ISO and then mount the USB, at which point I could dd.

Cannot use the network as the Ethernet port does not work and I would need to install wireless drivers after getting the OS to work.

Is this a core i5 processor?


It may be possible to just disconnect this internal reader. Usually it isn't easy on laptop. Might actually help out if you put in a non-bootable CF or whatever it supports. Guess you could also create a bootable CF card.

Wonder if you could borrow a usb cd/dvd drive.

Some times it is easier to get a usb to sata/ide adapter and load the OS on from a different system.

While they do have dd for windows, I'd agree that you would be better off trying to boot to a different system from live media. Be sure you remove internal drive.

It may be possible to use a floppy like G4U to copy image over to disk but you'd have to have source and destination available. G4U may support usb.

On a normal image you could use a suggested way. For reference. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...ick-on-windows

After editing some BIOS settings and using another USB stick, I was finally able to install a copy of Linux without the above USB errors. First, I installed Debian, but whenever I logged out, I got a black screen and had to reboot. Reboots failed sometimes as well. Eventually, I gave up and tried elementary. After some of the same problems, I was able to get it working as well.

I have tried to get Fedora working, but have not been able to. The LiveUSB works fine and I am able to instll Fedora, but I can't boot into it after because it is not installing correctly for UEFI. I've followed a couple of guides to try and get it working with UEFI, but no luck so far. Also, keep in mind that I have no DVD drive and can only use LiveUSBs.

Any advice on how to get Fedora working? I don't care too much for Elementary and don't really want to put too much time into setting it up when I would prefer to replace it.

Thanks for the update. I've had shutdown issues over the years on various systems and distro's. In some cases an update has fixed it while others have had me write up bug reports. A common fix is to log out of user and then shutdown or even escape gui and shutdown from terminal. Might play with acpi or other bios power options too.

Not all systems seem to have clear and common uefi standards. The top distro's offer a few web pages on how to handle uefi. Some describe how to fix grub or fix loading so that it can boot. I haven't played with it enough.

Might go ahead and start a new thread about Fedora on uefi system.

When I first got Elementary OS working, I rebooted and it booted fine. However, I shutdown a little while later and when booting again it put me in grub-rescue with a error something like 'ELF: header too large'. I followed these instructions (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair) and booted from this ISO (http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/) and in the process it told me I didn't have an EFI partition. I don't know how it booted without one the first couple of times, but it did. I used the tool and it reinstalled GRUB and it worked fine. Do you think that might work with Fedora or am I facing a completely different problem? I would like to replace Elementary, but at the same time I would prefer something that's working to something that's not and is a headache to fix.

I'd be tempted to run memtest for a day or so. I'm not happy about why these issues happen. Could be bios settings too fast or bad cables or power issue or power settings on ram. Drive issues or maybe drive adapter controller issues.

That -110 part of the initial error looks strangely familiar. I seem to recall seeing it on my old laptop before the USB bus became basically unusable. A few corrupted filesystems later, and eventually a 30% success rate of booting from it. You might try a different usb port. Although in my case the laptop was 7+ years old, and hadn't had a working fan for 3+ of those years.

You might try installing a USB linux on the stick on another machine and boot the stick on that one. That's what I love about linux, being able to install it on any storage device and if you set it up right take that storage device to any hardware of the same architecture (x86) that supports booting from it and boot it.