Disk error when installing Linux Mint

[civic pivot]

I recently obtained a HP EliteBook 8440p and decided to mess around and try installing Linux Mint on it (This is my first time ever dabbling in Linux..) I got it on a USB, booted, installed, etc, but upon restarting and taking out the USB, I am greeted with a "Non-system disk or Disk error" error.

I'm positive the ISO I got is fine, as I installed it on a different spare desktop I have and that functions just fine. I tried reinstalling it on the laptop just in case, and had no luck. I've since placed sysrescue on a separate USB, and when this is plugged in I can reach Linux Mint (VIA booting a linux OS installed in the disk), but keeping this USB plugged in 24/7 to make the laptop work isn't ideal, and idk how to use it to permanently resolve the issue.

To Summarize,

1. seemingly successful install of Linux Mint
2. "Non-system disk/disk Error" Upon reboot
3. Can boot but only if I have my sysrescue USB. Idk how to use sysrescue to fix this permanently

Never really worked with Linux before but I would love to try and learn.. Any help, advice, or direction would be greatly appreciated! :)

[torn sequoia]

@civic pivot are you in linux now, via the sysrescue method?

[civic pivot]

lemme get there quick, 1 moment c:

[civic pivot]

i am in!

[torn sequoia]

sign into discord or discord web on browser

Alt-prtscr for windowed screenshots

then from terminal, show ss of inxi -SMd

and sudo parted -l

and lastly of efibootmgr

all case-sensitive

[torn sequoia]

maximize the terminal, @civic pivot

before screenshotting

tag me once you've posted pic(s)

@civic pivot today sometime?

been 15 minutes already

[civic pivot]

sorry this laptop is fighting for it's life right now lol

i know my apologies, ack

[torn sequoia]

did u open firefox ?

[civic pivot]

I did, went to sign in and the laptop is struggling

[torn sequoia]

ok get the terminal info ready

[civic pivot]

been sitting for like a minute waiting for servers/channels to appear

[torn sequoia]

maximize and show with camera if necessary

by clear, landscape photograph

[civic pivot]

will do - apologies for the delay, i appreciate how fast u replied c:

[civic pivot]

will do!

[civic pivot]

Sorry again for the wait, your patience is much appreciated lol

Computer was very unhappy with me attempting to use discord ^^'

[torn sequoia]

show result of df -h ; free -h

[torn sequoia]

that's why

no swap

and on top of that, low RAM

and on top of all that, the install needs to be redone, in legacy mode. this is a pure BIOS computer

to reinstall, properly , put in the live Mint xfce USB stick

and reboot from it now.

[civic pivot]

on it ^^

[torn sequoia]

the usb should only boot with a legacy mode.

[civic pivot]

This, correct?

[torn sequoia]

see https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boot.html first pic

yeah go on from that screen

ensure it looks like first pic in link

[civic pivot]

?

[torn sequoia]

wallpaper yes.

hit enter

[civic pivot]

I'm in now yeye

At this stage

[torn sequoia]

search gparted in start menu

pick the Toshiba 320 gig drive in its selector box at top right

[civic pivot]

Selected 👍

[torn sequoia]

now go to the Device menu, choose new partition table, as msdos style

[civic pivot]

Got it

[torn sequoia]

right click the space and choose 'new'

primary partition, 'free space following : 4096 MiB

fileystem type: ext4

[civic pivot]

Got it

[torn sequoia]

hit add

the go to the view menu.

and select the 'show device info'

then show pic

of full window

[torn sequoia]

ok click green checkmark

is this computer plugged to network via ethernet?

[civic pivot]

No but it can be

[torn sequoia]

k nvm.

later on post-install u do the codecs. skip them in the installer part.

once gparted finishes, close it

run up the installer til u get to the 'what do you wanna do' part, and choose 'something else'

and hit next.

[civic pivot]

There now

[torn sequoia]

ok

scroll down in the chart to sda1 and pick it

then hit the 'change' button

USE AS: ext4 journ. fileystem

mountpoint : /

and hit ok to close that dialog

then choose the 4 gigs free space, and click the plus icon

primary, whole size, USE AS: swap area

then ok it, then show pic of whole main installer thing with all the sda stuff clearly in view

also make sure this pc is on AC power. this is critical

[civic pivot]

Yup yup, it is currently plugged in

Forgive me for asking, but do I need to change the beginning/end of this space option at all?

[torn sequoia]

for swap? no

[civic pivot]

Gotcha gotcha

[torn sequoia]

it's to take up the entire 4K MB

so begin/end doesnt matter

[civic pivot]

I seee

How's this look?

[torn sequoia]

seems fine. bootloader going to where it should. btw gparted finished making the ext4 perfectly right?

[civic pivot]

It did yup yup

[torn sequoia]

ok so since the format tick isn't on, it wont redo it. but it will squawk about it, and no EFI, just ignore and continue. Now hit install button

[civic pivot]

Continuing with install ^^

It's doin it's think now, I'll let u know when it's done

Ty again for guiding me through this!

[torn sequoia]

yep

should be around 24 minutes on an HDD

i recommend as soon as u boot in, connect to net, run this precise command sudo apt update && sudo apt install synaptic

dont do any upgrades til then

til synaptic is open, and you've LOCKED the linux kernel. tag me when u at that point

[civic pivot]

Will do

[civic pivot]

Synaptic is installed and open

Not sure how to go about locking the kernel however

[torn sequoia]

ok so ur new system booted up eh?

@civic pivot

[civic pivot]

It did!!

[torn sequoia]

new 16 yr old laptop that is

[civic pivot]

Yea LOL

[torn sequoia]

just quickly check kernel : run uname -r in term.

[civic pivot]

Just a piece of junk that my mom was gonna toss. I know this thing is kinda useless but I was curious to see if it could be used at all lul

[civic pivot]

On itt

[torn sequoia]

hmmmmmm

run this:

inxi -SCGmd ; free -h ; swapon -s

all one line.

show result

[torn sequoia]

ok

in synaptic, click Status on the lower left

then "installed" above

move the horizontal split drag it down a bit so u see more results, but not more than 80 % of height of the pane

scroll to linux-image

and find the kernel matching your current one

[torn sequoia]

this one

[civic pivot]

Located!

[torn sequoia]

now go to the package menu in menubar

and choose 'lock version'

do the same for linux-headers of the same exact numeric version

[civic pivot]

Done yeye

Both are locked

[torn sequoia]

maximize synaptic, and scroll results a tad bit down.

do u see linux-modules with same number?

[civic pivot]

I do yup yup

[torn sequoia]

nvm it's there even

lock that too

[civic pivot]

Affirmative

[torn sequoia]

then show final pic

[civic pivot]

Should i lock linux-modules-extra too?

[torn sequoia]

no

[civic pivot]

Kk

[torn sequoia]

just the one with the exact number matching ur current kernel

[torn sequoia]

ok kool.

notice u can see the left side has things upgradable etc. mental note. u can do such things from here, or use the update manager, either way

u can also search any native package in the repos too using the search button, but u should hit the "reload" button once in a month or so

i take it u ran apt update earlier, so synaptic should already be seeing fresh catalog

remember, no two software managing apps open at the same time.

I think you're all set then.

you can do a timeshift setup if u wish for system backup. also make sure ur ethernet and wifi work .

[civic pivot]

(Forgive me.. may I ask why? Is this like having 2 anti-viruses and they just clash with each other)

[civic pivot]

Will do c:

[torn sequoia]

exactly .

[civic pivot]

I see I seee

[torn sequoia]

u can close one, and use the other

[civic pivot]

Was assuming so but was curious and wanted to double check haha

[torn sequoia]

but never try to run apt stuff in terminal while either SM or synapt. is open

or any combo of those three, and update mgr also

[civic pivot]

Good to know i'll make a note of that

[torn sequoia]

also, now that u have 4 gigs of swap, that should stabilize things.

[civic pivot]

Also, side note, one other question that i can't help but be curioud about

[torn sequoia]

try running up Firefox. review its intrinsic settings and uncheck any privacy thing or setting u DONT like

[civic pivot]

Would u by chance know why I was having issues with this laptop, but the desktop i tried installing on worked fine? I know u would likely have to see the desktop to have a definitive answer but

That part confused me so much lol

[civic pivot]

Will do!

[torn sequoia]

see if Discord loads from address bar in FF

I think it totally will.

[torn sequoia]

the answer is here in the parted results for the Toshiba. gpt table, and esp flag... not compatible with this legacy BIOS system. go ahead n run same command as before n see now. (for your info, not mine)

[civic pivot]

Doing both rn x)

wait oh my god discord is working

what the fuck lol

[torn sequoia]

cuz u had no swap before

[civic pivot]

I mean it's still a lil slow but that's actually cool as fuck, I'm typing on it right now

[torn sequoia]

i had a first gen i5 and it worked a treat a few years ago, for over 6 years

[civic pivot]

I kinda, hate to ask, as I feel I sound very stupid saying it, but what is a swap/what is it's purpose?

[torn sequoia]

same as virtual memory

been around since the Windows 2 days

[civic pivot]

I saw it a few times when trying to find guides for installing linux but couldn't rlly follow along with them all too well. not sure if it was a bad guide or me misunderstanding (likely me)

[civic pivot]

damnn

[torn sequoia]

u can open 'task manager' in the start menu and have a look

i also recommend tweaking TM's settings to show memory values in BYTES, not only %

[civic pivot]

forgive me, but where can I find that?

[torn sequoia]

start menu... admin i think

or search by name

it's just the system monitor essentially. xfce calls it task manager

[civic pivot]

Err, sorry, I meant the setting to show bytes instead of % x)

[torn sequoia]

there a settings gear or sth

[civic pivot]

I believe TM settings, columns, virtual bytes did the job yaya

[torn sequoia]

not virtual bytes

that's adding a column

take that off

[civic pivot]

Ah xD

[torn sequoia]

look for the actual apps own settings

[civic pivot]

Do forgive me but I don't entirely follow ? With that being said TM already shows both the % being used and the exact amount of bytes

I feel a bit dumb lol, apologies

[torn sequoia]

alright

then leave it. but the gear should show all interface options

a handy thing i like to put on xfce is the 'network speed' monitor

right click panel> panel prefs > items tab, click the add button

find the network thing and add it, then drag it in the list where u want it. click the edit icon and set it to work for your typical internet interface (either wifi or ethernet)

inxi -nz will show the interface names .

eg. eth0 or wlsxyz0

and set it to kilo__bits__ per sec readout

mega__bits__ . whatever

[civic pivot]

hmmm I'm at the add button step - I see the list of items but I'm not seeing the network thing you're referring to?

[torn sequoia]

scroll

if not there, open synaptic and search xfce4 goodies

and install the package.

then it should show up in the items

[civic pivot]

Doin it rn x)

[torn sequoia]

if the goodies package already shows green box in the synaptic results, it means u already have it

[civic pivot]

It did not, so i marked it for install and applied itt

Currently it is on my panel :D

[torn sequoia]

note u can drag items in the item list to place their left-to-right appearance

or rightclick a widget, in the panel, pick 'move' and begin dragging it

have a look at the docs in the zip here

have fun.

[civic pivot]

I'll give it a looksie yup yup x)

Was just rereading some of your previous instructions n whatnot

[torn sequoia]

👋