Thank you Beachboy2. Wow. I will put if off to later in the day when I will sit down, read, and "inwardly digest" before starting. I think I will start by getting a few new USBs.

RenH,

Yes, take your time.

Preferably get one or two USB drives which are not 32GB.

It just adds to the confusion when it comes to partitioning the eMMC 32GB drive!

Deleted.

Hi Beachboy2,
Thank you for your last reply --those images cleared up a lot for me, especially the drives from your computer. I thought I was ready to go but I waited, read, and looked for places where I could go wrong. Well, here is what happened.

I went to the nearest large shop that sold USBs and they had just ONE 16 gig type 2, which I bought; the rest were 32 and up. So I bought another 32 and swapped its contents with an 8 gig I had used as a backup. So USB problem is solved. I think.

I found that my MX21-3 FREEZES! I was using the February version, which I think is not the final one. So I tried the January release, which I think is the "standard" version but it also freezes. When I examined it I noticed there is NO folder for the MX. I tried several times using BalenaEtcher without success. Either the USB is faulty or I am/have downloaded the incorrect version. I think I downloaded the KDE, but I wonder if it should be the XFCE version. Which is the correct version?

Unbelievable, but if there is a way to screw up I will find it!

I made a live USB for GParted because I now see why I need it. But it's a small programme hogging an 8 gig stick!

I think xfce will be a better fit, it is usually lighter on resources than kde. The heaviness of kde may be the cause of the freezing problems.

RenH,

As colorpurple21859 has said, choose the 64-bit Xfce with Debian standard 5.10 kernel.

Also, don’t forget to check the integrity of all downloads, as I suggested previously.

That 8GB live USB with GParted will pay for itself several times over in the future, believe me.

It is always a good idea to have at least one spare USB drive handy. The USB 3.0 version is several times faster than USB 2.0.

In the case of a small ISO file like GParted, that is irrelevant, but distro installation times will be shorter with USB 3.0 drives.

Even a USB 2.0 seems fast when compared to a DVD, which feels like watching paint dry!

beachboy & colorpurple,
What a frustrating time! I had checked the sha 252 and checksum of my first stick and all was well. But when I tried to burn with balenaEtcher everything looked OK but there was no Mx folder on the drive! There was a label: "cdrom.ico". If I clicked on it it brought up a graphics progamme! There was also a text file labelled "version" with the name of the programme: "MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower January 15, 2023".

So I thought perhaps the USB was defective. I used a brand new 14 gig USB and repeated the steps and got the same results!

What was interesting was that when I inserted the new blank USB and brought up GParted to make a FAT32 partition, what I saw was that the partition was already there --FAT32 and greyed out was usage 8 gigs and unused 14 gigs! Note that I had turned off my machine, had dinner, and returned to the computer so if there is anything hanging dynamically it should have been wiped when I rebooted.

The other frustrating point is that I could not find the sha 256 data at the site. I know I saw them before and copied them for the first USB. Also my January version is out of date but the March is still in process.

I know I definitely downloaded Xfce for the second USB, and I suspect I did the same for the first but is there a way of finding out?

I wonder if something is happening on my computer.

RenH,

Just use the Final ISO and md5sum.

Visit:
https://mxlinux.org/download-links/

Current Release: MX-21.3

1. How to choose:

Three different desktop options are available

–Xfce (our flagship desktop)

• MX-21.3_x64, with a standard 64 bit kernel and hardware support from Debian Stable. Suitable if your PC is a few years old.


Supplied md5sum: 85178dba2a49faad6afa22a20600a338


After all this it is possible that your netbook is faulty.


Just use the md5sum to check the installed Final ISO from the above link.

Now simply boot from the 8GB MX drive.

There is no need to use a separate GParted drive if you follow the instructions on post #147.

You just boot the MX drive and then once your wifi is connected, click on Install.

Make sure to select “Customise the disk layout”.

NEXT, click on HDD icon-Gparted (see attached screenshot), below the blue clockwise arrow.

Using GParted, format the 32GB eMMC drive as GPT for UEFI:

GParted > Device > Create Partition Table > Advanced > msdos > gpt > Apply.

Follow the rest of the instructions on post #147.

Once you have shutdown GParted, you boot from the 8GB MX drive a second time.

When you reach "Customise the disk layout", configure the 4 partitions created by GParted like the ones shown in the attachment (Example...Asus) to this post.

Let's hope your netbook isn't faulty.

If possible, do the ISO downloads and burning on another fully-functioning PC/laptop, using Etcher on Linux or Rufus on Windows.

Good luck.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Attached Files

Example of the “Choose partitions” screen in MX-21.3 (Asus).pdf (47.6 KB, 4 views)

Beachboy2 and colorpurple,
A happy Easter! I thought I would update you on my ongoing struggle.

I cleared out all my previous downloads of MX-21 and started afresh on my new 16 gig USB. Downloaded MX-21 on my desktop. Did a sha and md5sum test-- all was well.

I looked at the folders of the MX-21 and once again I only saw the .ico, not the folder. I tried the different ways of viewing the downloaded folders and they all indicate just a few kb. Which led me to think that perhaps a "live" USB is an "image" [mirror?] that draws the files from the website or my PC.

Anyway, I decided to try to use it It took me 3 to 4 times before it opened MX. The first time only one dot lit up. Next time two, then three, and on the fourth try it opened up MX. The first time it opened up it would not connect to the WiFi until after several attempts. Then it hung.

I decided to repeat the above on what I thought was my defective USB and got the same response. So at least I know the USB is not defective, and I am now going to try again --keep booting and rebooting till, I hope, it opens properly.

RenH,

Why do you need to look at the MX 21.3 folders?

You have used Etcher or Rufus to create a bootable drive and checked the integrity.

Attached is a screenshot of the contents of my Xfce MX Linux 21.3 bootable drive.

Properties: 1004 items totalling 2.0GB.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Thank you, beachboy2! It's what I have. Earlier "live" USBs showed the folder so I was concerned that the current ones did not. But I think I understand the mechanics of the current live USB. When activated it collects the downloaded MX-21.3 via the WiFi and hence the WiFi has to be first connected.

Tomorrow will keep trying to install.

RenH,

Okay, try booting again.

If you still have no joy, this may work.

Instead of creating your bootable USB drives using Etcher on Linux, get hold of a Windows machine for a short while.

I suggest formatting both of your USB drives as FAT32 on the Windows machine first.

Download the ISOs for MX Linux 21.3 and GParted.

Download Rufus 3.22 from:
https://rufus.ie/en/

Make sure to select GPT partitioning and UEFI boot.

Follow the instructions to create bootable drives for MX Linux and GParted.

Then retry booting these drives on your ASUS.

With the freeze ups you are having, it might not hurt to run memtest to check the memory.

Beachboy and colourpurple:

There has been some progress. For one, I am getting into MX and I am afraid the defective agent is me. I am in the process of creating the partitions, following Beachboys's sample. but I can't seem to change the very first line [the ones giving the entire partition "sda' and "sdb". But the system has not hung.

One question I have is the flash hard drive on the Notebook is 64 gig, so why am I formatting for only 32 [if I can] for sda?

Do I need the mmchblk partitions? Are they "automatic" or do I have to enter some value?

Thanks colourpurple for your suggestion. I had been thinking of how to clean the memory -- there has to be something unwanted because I still see the two Scandisk drives but there is nothing in them.

RenH,

Your eMMC (sda) drive appears to be 64GB, so format the whole drive. I assumed that it was 32GB.

Have you actually used GParted to firstly format sda as GPT and deleted all existing sda partitions, followed by creating 4 new partitions?

See photos numbered 1883 to 1887 on post #149 and 1888 & 1889 on post #150.

I was using VirtualBox to illustrate, so I started with a blank 256GB drive. You will have existing mmchblk or emmc partitions.

We really need to see some photos showing your progress through the various operations so that we can see exactly what is going on.

First of all you need to either:

1. Boot from the GParted USB drive

OR

2. Boot from the MX USB drive and gain access to the GParted partitioner. Look at the attachment on post #147. Look where the black arrow is pointing.

Once you have the 4 new partitions, you close GParted and then use the MX drive to configure those formatted partitions.

It would appear from your comment
that you have just used the MX drive.