Zorin 9 Install Freezing-Live CD Works Fine!

I am trying to install Zorin OS 9 Lite (32 Bit) in a 2006 vintage HP notebook with
the following specs:

Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv8000 (ET837UA#ABL)
AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-37
2GHz, 2GiB DDR RAM
Video: RS480M [Mobility Radeon Xpress 200]
Ethernet: RTL-8100/8101L/8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
WiFi:BCM4318 [AirForce 54g] 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Transceiver

I was able to use the machine very successfully with the "live cd". I was able
to install a driver for the WiFi, Install/Use VLC Media Player and Skype.
However when I try to install Zorin, the install hangs and I can not get control of
the system back.

This problem is even more frustrating because of the "dumbed down" installer that
just shows a splash screen instead of progress messages.

Any suggestions as to how to troubleshoot this problem? Is there a way to get an
advanced installer that provides a verbose install?

Any help would be much appreciated.

You could try decalman's excellent text-based install method?:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8004&p=38810&hilit=text+based+install#p38714

Also at boot try editing the boot command by pressing 'E' or the 'Tab' key and enter:

Code:

acpi=off nolapic nomodeset xforcevesa

My initial suspects are the graphics and acpi - as for just a simple graphic interface you should see a drop-down arrow near the bottom which will show you what is happening underneath the slideshow.

Keep us posted!

Hi Swarfendor437

Thanks for your quick reply... I've spent a few hours messing around with this, and I'm hoping that you or someone else can help me move things forward.

I followed the following procedure:

• Boot to CD, Press F6 once the blank screen with the Createive Commons symbol at the bottom of the screen - Lanuguage menu opens and I select english.
• I use the arrow key to select 'Install Zorin OS' (but don't press Enter)
• I press F6, and then Esc to open the boot line.
• I remove the words splash & quiet, and following the -- acpi=off nolapic nomodeset xforcevesa
• I pressed Enter and the boot from CD continued a series of console messages scroll up the screen, the screen breaks up, and then a screen similar to the Welcome Screen shown here http://s819.photobucket.com/user/xdecalmanx/media/Zorin%20OS%209/IMG_20140804_000320_zpsyjpjlfla.jpg.html (except no menu at the top of the screen) comes up.
• The synaptics touch pad (which was working when I just booted and used the live CD) did not work. The mouse pointer was frozen. I used keyboard navigation to continue the process.
• I selected English, Continue, On the Preparing to Install Zorin screen, I left "Download updates while installing" unchecked and selected continue
• I selected the second option to replace the whole hard drive with Zorin, and left the other options unchecked - then selected Install Now
• Entered location on the Where are you? screen and continue.
• I left the default English US keyboard layout and Continue
• Completed Who Are You and Continue
• The install began. A very small dialog box appears in the centre of the screen-I was able to open a very tiny window that shows only one line.
• System hangs and becomes totally unresponsive last message displayed "Configuring Hardware" Date/Time zorin-os ubiquity: Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.1) ...

Other than the above, I get no indication of what caused the hang.

I tried booting the system again just allowing the system to come up, and I managed to get the install to run by taking the command from the install icon in a root terminal window.

When I tried to boot the system, I get a splash screen and the system eventually hangs before getting a desktop. If I do Ctrl-Alt-F6 I get a blank terminal window, but when the system crashes it left the following error message: (Click image to enlarge)


Can someone please tell me what this error means, and most importantly what I could try to work around it.
(It's doubtful this is a memory problem as the system successfully passed 6 passes on memtest.)

It seems strange that the Live CD works perfectly, but that the installer is too stupid to configure the system properly.

Any suggestions or assistance is much appreciated.

I suspect that there may be an issue with the kernel and the processor in the notebook based on the content of those messages - this is the bizarre thing about some distros that run fine in live mode but have issues at point of install.

You could try this method:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8004&p=38810&hilit=text+based+instal#p38810

bear in mind that decalman wrote this for Core not Lite.

If you don't get any further all I can advise is to take a look at:

LXLE - http://lxle.net/
Lubuntu - http://lubuntu.net/
SolydX - http://solydxk.com/
ElementaryOS - http://elementary.io/

Unless there is someone on here with a similar rig to yours that has it working!

Keep us posted!

Thanks again Swarfendor437

Maybe you or someone else can help me on a couple of things: (Questions are in bold)

Just to make sure I've explained where I am now, I've gotten past the "initial install". I can boot into the recovery menu on the advance options, and everything there seems to work - I can do fsck, bring up networking, run the root shell etc..

If I try to resume the boot after recovery, the last message printed before things hang is
*Starting Bridge file events into upstart [OK]
Not sure if that gives any hint as to what may be causing the hang or not. I can not open other terminals with Ctrl-Alt-F... system completely dead - likely a kernel panic.

I hacked the Zorin option on the Grub config file to include acpi=off. With this setting I can get the system to boot to a desktop with the greeter. As a few seconds after I enter the userid/password the system hangs. In an attempt to figure out what was happening, I opened a terminal, started htop, went back to the desktop greeter, logged in and then watched htop... after about 20 seconds everything stopped.

The Synaptics pointer device worked fine on the live CD - but doesn't work on the desktop - I need to use the keyboard to log in.
Any idea how I might be able to get the pointer working? Is there information that I could extract from a running system booted with the live cd?
Are there keyboard shortcuts to open menus and navigate the LXDE desktop, or are you out of luck without a mouse?

I managed to drop to a shell with Ctrl-Alt-F2 or Ctrl-Alt-F6 prior to logging in, but for some reason eth0 does not have an IP address. I think the console that I get before the desktop login MAY be at a lower run level, but I'm not sure. All I know is that networking isn't functional.

Steps I took to try and fix it:

• Added the following entry for eth0 to /etc/network/interfaces:
  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet dhcp
  and restarted the network manager.
• Tried ifconfig eth0 down/up
• ifdown eth0/ifup eth0
• also tried dhclient eth0 - messages about no offer from server (I suspect that the request was never sent)
  and still no IPV4 ip address -there is an IPV6 address, but it doesn't come from the network as I have not enabled any IPV6 on my network yet.
  Networking starts fine from the recovery menu, and also the live CD

Any idea how I might be able to get networking going? (Are there other configuration files that need to be set besides /etc/network/interfaces?

I suspect the problem may be associated with either the synaptics driver that isn't working or the Broadcom B43 for the wireless. Or possibly a dial up fax/modem (which is in the machine but I have not attempted to use).
Is it practical to rip out all the wireless including the driver for testing, and then put it back later - if so how?

and finally.... If I understand what I'm reading decalman was dealing with NVIDA driver issue. I have an RS480M [Mobility Radeon Xpress 200] in my machine. Other than the F6 options during the install to get things to install is there anything else I need to get from this example? I don't need NVIDA drivers since my hardware is ATI.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Hi, at work so can't answer at moment - I can see an install coming on! But please be patient - could be a couple of days before I get back to you on this if you can wait that long (tomorrow pm local time).

Hi Swarfendor437

That's fine... really appreciate you checking in with me like this... can wait no problem.

FYI I've had similar (crashes/freezes-not sure if it was a kernel panic, because I didn't know about Ctrl-Alt-Fx to open other terminals when I tried them.) with several other debian based installs (elementary, Ubuntu, Lubuntu).

I think they are all using the same basic installer.

Thanks again.

OK, what I have found so far (looks complex to me re mouse!):

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubun ... d_settings

Keyboard settngs:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1422861 with reference to:

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Bindings

Networking: Our resident expert madvinegar is the best person for this - don't know if this is relevant but take a look at a post he made here:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9293&p=45884#p45884

Keep us posted!

Hi,
Were the problem depictic by smokefree solved? I.e. I do have
exactly the same vintage laptop model w same specs. Now I'd like
install Zorin OS 9 to it but no success so far...
--ATK

You could try PM'ing smokefree? Other lightweight distributions you may want to consider:
Makulu XFCE, LXLE (also based on Lubuntu with Long Term Support), Quelitu, Slitaz.