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Solved: Stalled Install in Ubuntu and Linux Mint

There was a problem I encountered and solved when installing Linux Mint. I heard that the same problem comes up on installing Ubuntu Linux as well. The problem is when installing the distribution, the installer hangs at "importing documents and settings" and never completes.

The reason this happened to me is because I had a previous backup copy of my former Ubuntu distribution on an NTFS partition. For some reason this backup copy was recognized as Ubuntu 8.04 and the Linux Mint installer tried to copy those over to my new Linux Mint root directory. The installer hangs at this point.

So the solution to fix this problem is to simply rename the backup directory folder names, e.g.:

mv etc 2etc2
mv home 2home2
mv usr 2usr2
mv var 2var2

and so forth. Be sure to rename the directories back to the original names after running the successfully installed distribution.

Let's get this of the zero-reply list by adding another tip.

I was playing with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 in live mode. After I got the wireless working I decided to install from within live mode. During the install it detects the network connection and decided to update the packages. My network connection was very slow at that stage (due to an isp issue?) so the update was taking very long (and no progress indicator indicating anything). I interrupted the install and reinstalled without network connection and did the updates a day later.

My tip: do not install while a network connection is present.

I should note, that if you are in the middle of an install, and you get stuck at this point, but really do not want to have to restart the install again ... then go to a command line (Ctrl-Alt-F2) and find the migration assistant

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu $ ps -ef | grep migr

root xxxx xxxx x Nov19 ?    00:00:00 [migration/0]

root xxxx xxxx x Nov19 ?    00:00:00 [migration/1]

root xxxB xxxA x Nov19 ?    00:00:00 log-output -t ubiquity --pass-stdout /usr/lib/ubiquity/migration-assistant/ma-apply /usr/lib/ubiquity/migration-assistant

root xxxC xxxB x Nov19 ?    00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/lib/ubiquity/migration-assistant/ma-apply /usr/lib/ubiquity/migration-assistant

root xxxx xxxx x Nov19 ?    00:04:11 /sbin/mount.ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/migrationassistant -o rw,umask=0022,nls=utf8

root xxxD xxxC x Nov19 ?    00:00:00 log-output -t migration-assistant /usr/lib/ubiquity/migration-assistant/ma-import --target=mymusic --ostype=windowsxp --fromuser=gary --frompath=/mnt/migrationassistant --touser=gary --topath=/target

root xxxF xxxD x Nov19 ?    00:03:43 /usr/lib/ubiquity/migration-assistant/ma-import --target=mymusic --ostype=windowsxp --fromuser=gary --frompath=/mnt/migrationassistant --touser=gary --topath=/target

root xxxx xxxx x Nov19 tty2 00:00:00 grep migr

ubuntu@ubuntu $ sudo kill xxxF

Note, I changed all of the actual process IDs, but I otherwise hand-typed everything else. The first set of xxxx numbers is the actual processID. The second set is the ID of the parent process. You'll note that the sequence goes from the earliest command, and each command spawns the other until the final migration-assistant process (the one that will be accumulating CPU time). That PID (xxxF in my example) is the one you will want to kill.
Note2: Process IDs do not ever have x or F. I used a non-numeric in my example to make harmless those who would actually type sudo kill xxxF, assuming that the process ID must be the same, instead of actually going and finding the number.

After that, the installation finishes, but your stuff will not have finished importing. Go check your home directory manually, and you may be deleting or re-copying things yourself.