Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Questions about the installation of FreeBSD
NeverSimple
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Aug 20, 2017 10:08 am

Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by NeverSimple »

I installed GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1 succesfully on one computer, now trying to install on a second one, but no luck.

Using a USB stick to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1 Xfce. Booting from the stick works fine, I get to a working live desktop. When i use the installer I get to the point where it asks me to choose a partition scheme. I go for 'UFS full disk' (sorry, I'm doing this from memory) and 'install GRUB'. When I click 'next' nothing happens. If I then choose to do manual partition (second option), I can see the disk, it let's me make a swap partition and a root partition, but the 'next' button stays greyed out. I can't get past this point. It seems that it doesn't matter what other option i choose, I can't get past this point.

- looking at dmesg, the disk seems to be identified correctly
- I tried AHCI and IDE emulation in the BIOS setup for the diskdrive
- can't use fdisk at this point; error message with something about 'root environment not as expected'
- Parted magic has no trouble seeing and partition the disk
- the GhostBSD installer for 10.3 works fine, and installed fine (boy, using a DVD is no fun, when compared to a USB stick...)

Even after using PartedMagic to partition the disk with:
- xfs
- remove all partitions

the problem remains the same.

Caveats (maybe it's not important):
I installed 11.1 ALPHA1 from a USB stick, 10.3 from a DVD disk (had that lying around)
11.1 was Xfce edition, 10.3 was MATE edition.

Idea's? I can provide more info if needed.

Richard
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NevilleGoddard
Developer
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Location: Japan

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by NevilleGoddard »

Hi and welcome to GhostBSD!

How about trying - "UFS Full Disk" and then instead of grub use - "FreeBSD bootloader" does this work?

When I installed GhostBSD 11.1 I used ZFS Full Disk and "Grub" and there was no problem.

On 10.3 I used - UFS Full Disk and FreeBSD bootloader and there was no problem. Unfortunately I've never tried your combination of UFS Full Disk and Grub.

Both times I used a USB stick.

Are you using a USB 3.0 port or a 2.0 port? I have heard that USB 3.0 ports can cause problems when installing an OS. If so, use a 2.0 port and see what happens.
NeverSimple
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Aug 20, 2017 10:08 am

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by NeverSimple »

NevilleGoddard wrote:Hi and welcome to GhostBSD!

How about trying - "UFS Full Disk" and then instead of grub use - "FreeBSD bootloader" does this work? .
No, none of the options work. Did not try ZFS.
NevilleGoddard wrote:When I installed GhostBSD 11.1 I used ZFS Full Disk and "Grub" and there was no problem..
It wasn't for me either as I mentioned, on a different computer, used the same 'UFS full disk' and 'GRUB' and it worked perfect.
NevilleGoddard wrote:On 10.3 I used - UFS Full Disk and FreeBSD bootloader and there was no problem. Unfortunately I've never tried your combination of UFS Full Disk and Grub.

Both times I used a USB stick.

Are you using a USB 3.0 port or a 2.0 port? I have heard that USB 3.0 ports can cause problems when installing an OS. If so, use a 2.0 port and see what happens.
On this computer a USB 2.0 port. Although, as I mentioned, I get a working live desktop, just can't install. On the computer that did install 11.1 I used a USB3.0 port.


Richard
ASX
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 12:46 pm

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by ASX »

NeverSimple wrote: Idea's? I can provide more info if needed.

Richard
Hi and welcome,

there should be an install log file available in /tmp (and moved to /root upon install completation).

Depending on the failure phase, you sould find the install log in /tmp (live session), or in /root (installed system), or no file at all if the failure happen too early.

Also, can you describe your hardware ?
I go for 'UFS full disk' (sorry, I'm doing this from memory) and 'install GRUB'. When I click 'next' nothing happens
The only thing I can think of is that there could be a glitch in the installer, .... has not been selected a disk ..., or switching back and forth in the installer pages ... so, try a new install and try to use a "straight" procedure.
NeverSimple
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Aug 20, 2017 10:08 am

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by NeverSimple »

ASX wrote: there should be an install log file available in /tmp (and moved to /root upon install completation).
The system is now running GhostBSD 10.3. I will try again to install 11.1 and see if there is a log; post it here if there is.

Depending on the failure phase, you sould find the install log in /tmp (live session), or in /root (installed system), or no file at all if the failure happen too early.
ASX wrote:Also, can you describe your hardware ?
Somewhat older system, nothing special, just a plain HP desktop. See output from 'sysinfo'

Code: Select all

System information

Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Product Name: HP Compaq 8000 Elite USDT PC

Base board information
Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Product Name: 3648h

Graphic card information:
vendor='Intel Corporation'
device='4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller'
INFO: Check pciconf(8) for more information.


Operating system information

Operating system release:	FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE-p20
OS architecture:		amd64
Hostname:			ghostbsd10.xxxxxxxx.xx
Kernel build dir location:	/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
Currently booted kernel:	/boot/kernel/kernel


CPU information

Machine class:	amd64
CPU Model:	Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E8500  @ 3.16GHz
No. of Cores:	2


RAM information

Memory information from dmidecode(8)
Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
Number Of Devices: 2
Maximum Capacity: 4 MB
Number Of Devices: 1

System memory summary
Total real memory available:	3966 MB
Logically used memory:		521 MB
Logically available memory:	3445 MB

Swap information
Device          1K-blocks     Used    Avail Capacity
/dev/label/swap0   4058108       0B     3.9G     0%


Storage information

Available hard drives:
ada0: <ST9200420AS 3.AHC> ATA-7 SATA 2.x device
ada0: Serial Number 5SH0D11X
ada0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
ada0: 190782MB (390721968 512 byte sectors)
cd0: <hp DVD A  DS8A4LH DHD5> Removable CD-ROM SCSI device
cd0: Serial Number 005230054474
cd0: 150.000MB/s transfers (SATA 1.x, UDMA5, ATAPI 12bytes, PIO 8192bytes)
The only thing I can think of is that there could be a glitch in the installer, .... has not been selected a disk ..., or switching back and forth in the installer pages ... so, try a new install and try to use a "straight" procedure.
Well, I didn't start out 'switching back and forth in the installer pages', of course. Only tried different options when my preferred choice didn't work... I did reboot several times and started 'clean' with a different option.

Richard
NeverSimple
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Aug 20, 2017 10:08 am

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by NeverSimple »

Well, don't know what just happened :shock:

repeated the same procedure I spent several hours on yesterday, without luck. Today it succeeded in one try. No problem at all....

That is: the installer is running, don't have a working system yet, but couldn't get to this point at all.

Well, it is finished now, and I booted into a fresh 11.1 install. Don't ask me what happened... I guess computers are just 'mysterious', at times.... ;)


Richard
ASX
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 12:46 pm

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by ASX »

:D
kraileth
Posts: 312
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2016 12:30 pm

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by kraileth »

I would assume that you might have been hit by a bug... In fact a colleague of mine tried out GhostBSD on my recommendation and reported a somewhat similar problem. We tried again together and there wasn't any problem, so I dismissed it. Now reading about it again, I fired up the current ISO in VBox and played around a little. And in fact I managed to reproduce the wrong behavior which might well be the same problem both you and my colleague had:

The "next" button is deactivated (greyed out) even though a drive is selected. If you deselect it however, you can proceed! There's definitely a bug in the installer. I think this happens when you select "UFS Full Disk Configuration", select your drive, hit the "back" button and come back to "UFS Full Disk Configuration" again. After some more fooling around I even managed to get into a situation where it was no longer inverted but "next" stayed deactivated, no matter what I did. This needs some investigation, I guess...
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ASX
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 12:46 pm

Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by ASX »

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ericbsd
Developer
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Re: Trying to install GhostBSD 11.1 ALPHA1

Post by ericbsd »

I dod recall that but i will look in to it.
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