Kubuntu installation failed multiple times | Linux Mint Community🍵 | Page 1

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 9:51 AM

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I tried installing Kubuntu about five or six times yesterday but it always failed for some reason or another.

Sometimes it got stuck on installing GRUB (crashed, installer unresponsive) so I tried installing it without the bootloader but that didn't work
One time yesterday it crashed after hours of trying to install because some command did not produce a response within 30s. I don't remember which command or where to find the correct log on the install medium.

Here are the EXACT steps I took:

Formated my SSD drive using the disks program on Linux Mint.
Downloaded the Kubuntu 24.10 .iso from here.
Flashed an external 16 GB USB thumbdrive with balena Etcher and the Kubuntu .iso
Restarted my PC, booted from the USB.
Went through the installer, choosing sometimes "Normal installation" (with some drivers, media players etc.) and sometimes "minimal installation", though it did not seem to have made any difference. I chose the previously flashed SSD and picked the "erase" option, allowing Kubuntu to take up the entire drive. I set the format to ext4.
Tried to boot from the SSD anyways. Of course it did not work, it immediately jumped to GRUB on my secondary drive (where Linux Mint is on).

I don't know what to do anymore, why don't these things ever just work 😭

Kubuntu

Aaron Honeycutt

Download Kubuntu

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 9:54 AM

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Have you verified the ISO you downloaded?
Did you try updating the system (or at least the installer) in the live environment?
Have you tried Kubuntu 24.04.1 as well?

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 9:58 AM

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unborn rapids Have you verified the ISO you downloaded? Did you try updating the system (or at...

Checksum is correct
What do you mean by "updating the system or the installer in the live environment"?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 9:58 AM

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As in letting the system apply some updates when booted in the live environment

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Sometimes there are installer updates

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 9:59 AM

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You mean the one I boot from the drive prior to installing? No I havent done that, how would I do that? The usual apt-get upgrade?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:00 AM

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It might tell you when you connect a network but yeah you could do that too

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apt upgrade is all you need

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:01 AM

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Sidenote: When I format my disk to prepare it, does the partitioning matter?

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I have always set it to "empty" thinking that the installer for Kubuntu would overwrite that anyways

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:04 AM

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You don't need to format in Disks beforehand, the installer should be able to do that for you

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:06 AM

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Okedoke
Im downloading the ISO for Kubuntu 24.04.1 now and trying it again with that. I am also going to ensure Im connected to my network and check for updates

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How long are these installations supposed to take, by the way? It always takes hours just for one attempt at installing

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:06 AM

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Not hours

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:06 AM

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... well shit

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:07 AM

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Max with a spinning rust drive probably like 30-40 minutes

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:07 AM

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Maybe its my drive? Both the thumb drive and the HDD I flashed are kinda old-ish

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:07 AM

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Unlikely, if the disks have been used before and worked fine

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:07 AM

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And I read online that when installing GRUB the installer might try to pull a lot from XORG

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:08 AM

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unborn rapids Unlikely, if the disks have been used before and worked fine

Alright, ty

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:13 AM

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Did the ISO pass verification @astral forge ?

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:16 AM

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The first one did, yeah. But Im still downloading the older LTS one

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(First tried with 24.10, now trying with 24.04.1)

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Second passed verification too 🙂

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:18 AM

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Good

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:43 AM

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What does this do?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:44 AM

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Which?

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:47 AM

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The swap to file bit. Does it matter if its ext4 or btrfs or xfs?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:47 AM

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I'm not sure I'd be using btrfs for it, that seems...odd...

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I'm also not sure why it even has swap to file as an option alongside a filesystem choice

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:48 AM

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I always went with ext4 so far. Its the only one I know and it worked on other devices

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Though not sure if it might be the cause of the problem here...

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Also is it necessary to install GRUB on this drive again when I already have it on another?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 10:51 AM

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I don't really know, sorry, I've only ever had single boot drive setups.

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 11:51 AM

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Should I be worried about sync timing out repeatedly?

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unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 11:55 AM

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That seems...weird...

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Is this on the 24.04 install?

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 11:57 AM

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Yep

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 11:58 AM

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astral forge I tried installing Kubuntu about five or six times yesterday but it always faile...

Miight it somehow be related to the 4 bad sectors my drive seems to have?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 12:01 PM

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Possible

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I also wouldn't rule out the weirdness with the swap file choice but I do not know enough to comment further

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 12:08 PM

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Well you already put in a great deal of effort, thank you @unborn rapids 🙂

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 12:09 PM

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I would probably try without picking the swap file option (try as partition perhaps) but also yeah, would be concerned by those bad sectors.

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 12:18 PM

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Im gonna give it another shot without the file swap thing. If that doesnt work, Im giving up

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 12:18 PM

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Have you tried any other distros?

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Out of interest

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 12:25 PM

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On that drive or in general?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 12:25 PM

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On that drive

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 12:27 PM

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Nope, never. It was a Windows 10 drive up until yesterday. You think it might be a Kubuntu issue?

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 12:29 PM

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Perhaps, since it uses a different installer to the standard Ubuntu installation

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 12:29 PM

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I really wanted a distro that can run KDE. I kove how it looks and how snooth it feels so people recommend Kubuntu to me. But yeah I could try getting Mint to run on the drive and if that doesnt work I know its busted

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I read online that bad sector basically means hardware defect. Unfixable.
Its not a particularly nice drive anyways...

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 12:31 PM

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It is, but depending on the nature of the defect and/or the firmware, it should be able to work around it.

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I would see if another random KDE distro of your choice can install to it.

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 3:37 PM

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Okay so... Fedora KDE seems to work

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Guess Im a fedora user now

unborn rapids Feb 8, 2025, 4:54 PM

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LUL

astral forge Feb 8, 2025, 10:20 PM

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Update: I have lost all my data. Mostly memes

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I decided to trash the small SSD and instead just install straight to tbe big 1 TB SSD I also have but only used for data storage up until now

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Installing Kubuntu on that bigger SSD worked first try by the way. Fairly quickly too.

#Kubuntu installation failed multiple times