[SOLVED] Cannot install Debian or Ubuntu, dual boot with Win10 on last-gen Ryzen 5 on laptop

zetef · 11-24-2019, 03:41 PM

Hello guys! I am very new to this forum so bear with me.

I bought this laptop last week (yeah, I tried for a full week to install a distribution on it...), and it has the following specifications:

Model: HP Gaming Pavilion 15-ec0001nq
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3550H (with integrated Vega 8 on it)
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050
Storage: Toshiba SSD 256GB M.2
Ports: USB 3.1 and a USB 2.0

I listed the specifications because I looked up in other threads and saw that maybe some modern AMD processors have some trouble or something like that.

Now, I have installed Windows 10 Pro Version 1909 OS build 18363.476 off a USB stick I had lying around with 16gb. All was buttery smooth. I even left some unallocated space for Debian (Ubuntu was a second option) and everything worked great. I installed the drivers from HP, AMD and Nvidia. Then I looked up online how to install Debian and saw I needed Rufus. All said and done, I installed Rufus, got the Debian 10.2 netinst iso and used Rufus on it. I restarted the computer and pressed F9 like a maniac (sorry computer). It popped up the dialog box where it let me choose the boot option. I chose the USB stick. All well and good. I chose to graphically install Debian. I saw some error messages like:

AMD-Vi: Unable to write to IOMMU perf counter.

And some others and I did the installation. I partitioned the drive. I used that unallocated space and it was doing his thing. At the end it said to me that it finished and told me to restart. I did just that and removed the USB stick like it told me to do and was welcomed by a command line. I have to mention that in the installer it did not ask me what desktop environment I would like to install. After 2 days searching the web for solutions on uninstalling grub as the default bootloader I tried another approach.

This time I tried the Live one. The same Rufus settings. Now after I selected the "Try Debian without installing" it showed me the usual AMD-Vi error and moved to that spinning ring. I was full of joy. I thought I could finnaly see some Debian sexiness on this laptop. But unfortunately it returned to the black screen where that AMD-Vi error was and there popped other errors about some firmware. "Aha! This means I have to install the nonfree version" I thought and did just that. I installed the nonfree version with the same Rufus settings, the same F9 maniac tapping and now those errors weren't there, just the AMD-Vi was still present. I did not pass the loading screen.

I was desperate. I installed UNetBootin and let it install for me the Stable_Netinst_x64 version of Debian and let it run. I saw that it wasn't structured in folders like the Rufus one, but I didn't care that much, I just wanted Debian installed.

I restarted and surprise, surprise there wasn't any USB stick as a boot option. I blamed it on the way UNetBootin was structured and tried this time to install Ubuntu 18.03 LTS Live from the UNetBootin Distribution options.

I was bursting of joy! It "finally" worked! I was sooo wrong. This time it passed the Ubuntu loading screen with the little dots, but when I tried to run the Install Ubuntu icon it didn't work and this error popped up:

Failed to execute child process "sudo" (input/output error)

I looked it up online and concluded that the installation was corrupted or it did not download well.

The second time I tried Ubuntu 19 (from UNetBootin) and was able to pass the loading screen but it couldn't install Ubuntu. This time it couldn't even connect to the Internet, the previous one could. I cannot really remember what error it gave me but it wasn't helping.

This time I decided to install myself Ubuntu 18.03 and verify the installation on my own. I verified it thru the Windows Linux Subsystem and everything seem to be OK. Now I gave the iso to UNetBootin to do its job. I restarted as usual and now it could event get past the loading screen and it was stuck on a black screen with a cursor blinking in the top left corner.

I was desperate. I tried switching between the USB ports and install Debian either Ubuntu, graphically and thru the Live method. Nothing seems to work.

I am stuck and really sad I cannot figure this out on my own so I wrote this post thinking you guys could help me out.

If I have to do something or tell you more information about the drivers or anything, please tell me!

Thanks in advance and have a nice day!

arl0Vv · 11-24-2019, 11:50 PM

IDK for certain, but in the past Toshiba hard drives have been a problem for me (but these were spinners, not SSD) due to some built-in chip limitation from the factory.
Suggest burning to DVD with something like isoburn and attempting install via optical drive before delving into the above, however.
Good luck!

zetef · 11-25-2019, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arl0Vv

IDK for certain, but in the past Toshiba hard drives have been a problem for me (but these were spinners, not SSD) due to some built-in chip limitation from the factory.
Suggest burning to DVD with something like isoburn and attempting install via optical drive before delving into the above, however.
Good luck!

Unfortunately my laptop doesn't have a CD reader and I can't get a hand on an external CD reader.

mrmazda · 11-25-2019, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zetef

Model: HP Gaming Pavilion 15-ec0001nq
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3550H (with integrated Vega 8 on it)
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050

According to https://support.hp.com/us-en/documen...01_title_r0002 that model has only the Vega graphics, no NVidia. Please boot a live media in which the graphical desktop works and provide output from the following run in a terminal emulator window:

Code:

sudo lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
inxi -Gxx

If the inxi script isn't on the boot media you can fetch it from the inxi author's web site, change to the directory where you extracted the download and do:

Code:

sh inxi -Gxx

yancek · 11-25-2019, 06:47 AM

Did you install windows 10 UEFI? Are you using a GPT disk? Did you install Ubuntu/Debian UEFI? When you boot the HP, you should see a message on screen telling you to use the Esc key to access options then use the F9 key to get boot options. Here you should see the USB listed by name under UEFI and also (probably) Legacy so you need to select the correct one, UEFI if you want to install UEFI, Legacy if you want a Legacy/MBR install. These are the option I have on my HP laptop but I don't know if yours has them, should have something similar.

Ubuntu has pretty good documentation at their site below on dual booting with windows 10. The general principles section should apply to most any Linux.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

beachboy2 · 11-25-2019, 09:54 AM

zetef,

Personally I would use Etcher for burning an ISO to a USB drive:
https://www.balena.io/etcher/

IMO it makes life much simpler and ensures a 100% accurate burn.

zetef · 11-25-2019, 03:27 PM

I will answer multiple questions:

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

According to https://support.hp.com/us-en/documen...01_title_r0002 that model has only the Vega graphics, no NVidia. Please boot a live media in which the graphical desktop works and provide output from the following run in a terminal emulator window:

Code:

sudo lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
inxi -Gxx

If the inxi script isn't on the boot media you can fetch it from the inxi author's web site, change to the directory where you extracted the download and do:

Code:

sh inxi -Gxx

The laptop has an Nvidia video card. I checked thru Windows (task manager) and installed GPU-Z to see some info about my installed graphics cards. I tried the UNetBootin live images that is downloaded on its own and it no longer works, so I cannot give you that information. It returns to the black screen where I can use BusyBox and maybe I can run some commands.

For the general information, I have checked the iso images that I downloaded and there is no mismatch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Did you install windows 10 UEFI? Are you using a GPT disk? Did you install Ubuntu/Debian UEFI? When you boot the HP, you should see a message on screen telling you to use the Esc key to access options then use the F9 key to get boot options. Here you should see the USB listed by name under UEFI and also (probably) Legacy so you need to select the correct one, UEFI if you want to install UEFI, Legacy if you want a Legacy/MBR install. These are the option I have on my HP laptop but I don't know if yours has them, should have something similar.

Ubuntu has pretty good documentation at their site below on dual booting with windows 10. The general principles section should apply to most any Linux.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

Yes, I have Windows 10 UEFI. My SSD is using GPT. I did not install Ubuntu\Debian, that's what I am trying to do. Yes, I know I have to press F9 to get into boot options. I can pass that stage. My problem is at booting either live images\gui installers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by beachboy2

zetef,

Personally I would use Etcher for burning an ISO to a USB drive:
https://www.balena.io/etcher/

IMO it makes life much simpler and ensures a 100% accurate burn.

I used Etcher to flash Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS on my USB and there seems to be a checksum mismatch. I tried the usual diskpart thing where I cleab and format the USB stick and the chkdsk to see if it has bad sectors on it. I am sure it's not the USB fault. I also downloaded multiple times the Ubuntu iso image and nothing.

Thanks guys for helping. I am going to try again some other configs or anything at all.

yancek · 11-25-2019, 03:53 PM

You need to do an md5 checksum or shasum immediately after downloading the iso as there is no point in putting it on a usb if it is a bad download.

zetef · 11-25-2019, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

You need to do an md5 checksum or shasum immediately after downloading the iso as there is no point in putting it on a usb if it is a bad download.

I did just that using the Window Linux Subsystem just to make sure and it says that thing with the OK

colorpurple21859 · 11-26-2019, 05:25 AM

Quote:

I chose to graphically install Debian

Did you try the other boot/install options? not sure what it is called: safe mode, low graphics mode, text mode something like that.

beachboy2 · 11-26-2019, 08:33 AM

zetef,

Quote:

Originally Posted by zetef

I looked up in other threads and saw that maybe some modern AMD processors have some trouble or something like that.

Various users with Ryzen 5 CPUs having similar problems:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1078...eon-vega-8-gfx

The stumbling block is almost certainly your Ryzen 5 CPU because the Linux kernels you have used do not support it.

It appears that a newer kernel (5.2 > ) should fix the problem:
https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n...-I2C-Linux-5.2

Why not try installing Manjaro Xfce which uses kernel 5.3.12-1?

You can always install Linux Mint or Ubuntu later when their kernels have been updated.
Manjaro:
https://manjaro.org/download/

Warning: Never install a package without updating the system first. On a rolling release this can lead to an unbootable system.

So just remember to use this command in Manjaro to update the software first:

Code:

sudo pacman -Syu

Pacman overview:
https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?t...acman_Overview

You can also use the pamac GUI to add/remove software.

zetef · 11-26-2019, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

According to https://support.hp.com/us-en/documen...01_title_r0002 that model has only the Vega graphics, no NVidia. Please boot a live media in which the graphical desktop works and provide output from the following run in a terminal emulator window:

Code:

sudo lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
inxi -Gxx

If the inxi script isn't on the boot media you can fetch it from the inxi author's web site, change to the directory where you extracted the download and do:

Code:

sh inxi -Gxx

So after all I am writing this from the Ubuntu 18.04 Live image from Firefox and could run the commands you gave me.

For the first one:

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:1c91] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:86d4]
	Kernel driver in use: nouveau
	Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau
--
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso [1002:15d8] (rev c2)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:86d4]
	Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
	Kernel modules: amdgpu

and the second command:

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Downloads/inxi-3.0.37-1$ ./inxi -Gxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nouveau v: kernel 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c91 
  Device-2: AMD Picasso vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
  bus ID: 05:00.0 chip ID: 1002:15d8 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: amdgpu compositor: gnome-shell 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing.

This is all of it. I ran the second command from the extracted folder of version 3.0.37-1 from the releases option from github.

zetef · 11-26-2019, 12:20 PM

Also I am currently trying to burn an Ubuntu 19.04 Live image to a new USB just in case. Updating on that later.

mrmazda · 11-26-2019, 12:49 PM

So, you do in fact have dual graphics, AMD 1002:15d8 and NVidia 10de:1c91. That complicates installation regardless of distro, especially if the hardware is newer than the distro, which the GTX probably is and the Picasso might be.

It may help us help you if while booted to the 18.04 live image you capture Xorg.0.log from both the live installation and from the installed system and pastebin them for our perusal. From the live image Xorg.0.log should be in /var/log/, but possibly in ~/.local/share/xorg/, and the 0 could be some other digit. From the installed system they would be in the same sub-locations, under whatever mount point you can find the installed system's root partition. To pastebin from the live media try:

Code:

pastebinit /var/log/Xorg.0.log

first. If successful you can do similarly for the installed system's log. If unsuccessful, you can upload via web browser. Here are some places you can upload to that way:

zetef · 11-27-2019, 06:13 AM

Update!! I actually installed Ubuntu 19.04 downloaded automatically by UNetBootin on a new USB drive on the 2.0 port and out of my paranoia I chose not to install proprietary drivers just to be sure it doesn't mess up with the install. Now I can't install the drivers and I don't really know how. I tried to install the 19.04 iso from the website and mount it from the USB stick. I then went to Ubuntu Updates or Software Update, I don't really remember how's it called, but from there I could choose to install drivers from the CD rom, but that was actually the iso from the USB stick that I mounted. I also tried to install from the iso file and go into the pool/main/d folder and install from there the wireless drivers, but after I click install and close the install window it's still not installed. Can you guys help me install the drivers?

This is my wireless card for information:

Code:

sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for zetef: 
  *-network UNCLAIMED       
       description: Network controller
       product: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f7700000-f770ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
       logical name: eno1
       version: 16
       serial: 04:0e:3c:92:f1:dd
       size: 10Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 duplex=half firmware=rtl8168h-2_0.0.2 02/26/15 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
       resources: irq:49 ioport:d000(size=256) memory:f7604000-f7604fff memory:f7600000-f7603fff

I think the UNCLAiMED is the wireless card and is not recognised. If you would like to know more information about the wireless card just tell me!

Thanks for all your help! I am very thankful!