jmarina's questions

I am trying to install ubuntu on an acer aspire a515-48m laptop with amd ryzen 5 processor (it is uefi only in bios, legacy option does not exist). It has only "free dos" (uefi shell) on it with the commands as specified at uefi.org, bios version 1.0, insydeH2O setup utility rev 5.0 is written at the top of the screen in bios.

The problem is that it refuses to boot from the usb. I can only get as far as the grub menu. Question - Is there anything I can do to boot the live ubuntu usb, so I can then install linux?

I know there are a lot of questions about this but many are 3+ years old and did not help. What I tried:

1. usb stick with 1 fat32 partition, live ubuntu 20.04.6 and 23.10.1 (each tried separately), installed with unetbootin

2. usb stick with 2 fat32 partitions, live ubuntu 20.04.6 and 23.10.1 (each tried separately), installed with unetbootin; the first partition is EFI; the EFI partition was populated with this command:

    sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --boot-directory=/media/user/EFI/EFI/BOOT/ --efi-directory=/media/user/EFI/ /dev/sda1 --verbose
   

(if this command does not work, may need to sudo apt install grub-efi first; /dev/sda1 is the usb EFI partition)

3. options 1 and 2 above, with msdos partition table on the usb stick (the laptop saw it), and with gpt partition table (the laptop did not see the stick in the bios at all); I tried with gpt partition table as well just in case, as I saw the ssd has gpt partitions, using ls in grub;

I have to mention that one or both of options 1 and 2 with msdos partition table work great on all other laptops I tried previously

4. in the case of options 1 and 2, the grub menu appears, and after selecting ubuntu, it says EFI stub: loaded initrd, then the screen goes blank and then it goes back to the acer splash screen;

5. at the grub menu, I tried to press c, and then tried to load linux from grub:

    ls
    set root=(hd0,msdos1)
    linux /ubnkern
    initrd /ubninit
    boot
   

I also tried linux /ubnkern root=/dev/sda1 though it did not make any difference, and I have no way of knowing if the usb on that laptop would be /dev/sda1 or something else

when booting, the screen goes blank, and back to acer splash screen; the ubuntu logo does not even show up

6. I tried to disable the SSD in the bios (press F2 during boot to get into BIOS), but even so the usb does not boot; even if it had, I would not have been able to install with the SSD disabled; I also tried to press ctrl s in the Main tab in BIOS, and two more menu options appeared that did not help

7. the above was with secure boot disabled; I tried to enable secure boot and specifically select the efi file BOOTx64.EFI from the usb, no difference

8. in the EFI directory, I copied the boot efi as all 3 of these names (3 identical files) BOOTx64.EFI shimx64.efi bootmgfw.efi in case it looks for one of the other names

9. in the grub menu I also tried to press e and add this option nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=5500 and then press ctrl x to boot, which also didn't help; I also tried nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=9000 for good measure

10. I also tried tried kali 2023.3, parrot 5.3 and gnoppix 23.12 and the grub menu locks up and beeps continuously until I shut it off holding down the power button for all of these

11. I tried opensuse, gentoo, mint, blackarch and altlinux rescue, they all fail the same, after efi stub starts loading initrd, the screen goes blank and back to acer splash. The exact message printed by ubuntu 23.10 is:

    EFI stub: Loaded initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path
    EFI stub: Measured initrd data into PCR 9
    

then blank and back to square one.

12. I tried to copy ubnkern and ubninit to the fs1:\EFI\BOOT directory (the live ubuntu usb) using the UEFI shell (so-called free dos) and renaming ubnkern to ubnkern.efi, which makes it an executable in UEFI shell, and then type its name to run it, and same thing, screen goes blank and back to acer splash;

13. Tried debian testing latest build iso and it locks up and beeps until it is shut off using the power button, so it doesn't look like this is fixed. The same happens if booting in uefi shell, and then going to fs1:\EFI\boot and running bootx64.efi

is there any way to get ubuntu/debian to print some debug when loading the kernel or initial ramdisk (initrd) or whatever it is doing after that in the blank screen, before returning to the acer splash, to at least give a hint of why it is not working?

what I did not try:

physically remove the ssd and put it in another laptop and try to install it that way, though I have no way to know whether that would work or not until I try

is that how linux is to be installed on acer laptops? or acer finally figured out how to make laptops unusuable for linux, and they should be avoided?

could it be hardwired to not run linux?

kazam worked fine on ubuntu 19.04, recording audio and video, and showing the red rectangular border during screencast recording;

after installing ubuntu 20.04, kazam (from the repository) records video with no sound and does not show the red border as a visual cue so you know which part of screen is recorded

I looked at pavucontrol and nothing is muted, the sound is fine, it is just that kazam is not recording the sound

Also, going to File-Preferences in Kazam, in the General tab, the speaker sound is set to off. I can set it on, to max even, but there is no OK or Apply button, so as soon as I close this dialog, upon returning, the speaker sound shows again off as before. And recording with this dialog open and the sound set to max in the dialog, still has no effect, video is recorded muted.

I tried editing the

~/.config/kazam/kazam.conf 

file manually and set audio_toggled = True and restarted kazam but there was no effect

this is probably not related, but sure doesn't help, that in ubuntu 18.04, installing alsa-utils made available the really nifty and useful text-based commandline audio control/config tool

alsamixer

where you could use arrow keys to adjust the volume of the speakers, headphone etc. The alsamixer from alsa-utils in 20.04 seems to have taken all those options away and seems to have no way of visualizing or adjusting any volumes. Wish I could have the alsamixer from 18.04 that was so much more useful. Here is what alsamixer used to look like:

I have a 64GB micro sdcard which was removed from an android phone without unmounting (could not find unmount after upgrade to android 7.1,they tried to make it easy and intuitive - it is an eject icon, 6 levels deep in the menu, so cannot be found by search for "unmount")

now the sdcard can be mounted and unmounted, data can be copied from it, but writing to it, deleting files or formatting it or writing new partition table is no longer possible; deleting files appears to work, but after unmount and mount again, everything is back to the way it was when it first started erroring out while copying files to the micro sdcard from linux; so writing to the card worked for a few mount/unmount cycles after taking the card out of the android phone without unmount;

trying to format it in the android phone errors out; in a camera, it says memory card locked; in ubuntu 18.04:

lsblk
mmcblk1      179:24   0 59.5G  0 disk 
└─mmcblk1p1  179:25   0 59.5G  0 part 

Create Partition Table

sudo gparted
Input/output error during write on /dev/mmcblk1


sudo hdparm -I /dev/mmcblk1p1
/dev/mmcblk1p1:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid argument


sudo hdparm -I /dev/mmcblk1
/dev/mmcblk1:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid argument


sudo hdparm -v /dev/mmcblk1
/dev/mmcblk1:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid argument
 readonly      =  0 (off)
 readahead     = 256 (on)
 geometry      = 1949664/4/16, sectors = 124778496, start = 0


sudo hdparm -L 0 /dev/mmcblk1p1
/dev/mmcblk1p1:
 setting drive doorlock to 0 (off)
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(doorlock) failed: Invalid argument


sudo gnome-disks
Error while repairing filesystem
on dev/mmcblk1p1
Process reported exit code 1: fsck.fat 4.1(2017-01-24) (udisks-error-quark, 0)


sudo fsck /dev/mmcblk1p1
fsck from util-linux 2.31.1
fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
1) Remove dirty bit
2) No action
? 1
Perform changes ? (y/n) y

fsck does not error out, but running it again, everything is back as before.

sudo mkfs.vfat -n 64 /dev/mmcblk1p1 
mkfs.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)

format does not error out, but when mounting again, everything is back as before.

testdisk
Disk /dev/mmcblk1 - 63 GB / 59 GiB - CHS 1949664 4 16
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors
 1 * FAT32 LBA               32   0  1 1949663   3 16  124776448 [64d]
Warning: Bad starting sector (CHS and LBA don't match)


sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk1 bs=512 seek=1

stopped it by control-c after 4GB, still no changes, files are still there, cannot write to micro sdcard

Basically, it seems that formatting, gparted writing a new partition table, fsck clearing the dirty bit, even writing with dd, all have no effect. The micro sdcard is not physically damaged, mount/unmounts just fine, which is why I thought that formatting it, and if not, then using gparted to write a new partition table should totally clear it and make it like new again. What am I missing? Why can't I format it? Is there something else I can try? It is as if it has some settings in there which cannot be accessed by these tools; it is a transcend micro sdcard

edit: tried to format the micro sdcard on windows xp, it said the card is read-only; connected with a usb micro sdcard adapter which showed the card as 32GB, and then with a multicard reader (micro sdcard into sdcard adapter into reader, usb out of reader) which showed 60GB and read-only; the problem is not the adapter, as I inserted the card in a laptop with ubuntu 18.04 that has a micro sdcard slot, so no adapter, and also in an android phone, again, no adapter;

tried mkusb-dus, but it refuses to wipe or reset the card

tried dd to overwrite entire card, but after mounting it again, everything is still there; files can be copied but not deleted; cannot create partition table to reset sdcard

I read there is a read-only diskwide attribute I will try to see if I can reset that

I have a 16.04 install with / and /home on separate partitions; I would like to install Ubuntu server 18.04 on the / partition without wiping out the /home partition; this is possible with a xubuntu desktop iso installer, but apparently not with the Ubuntu live server 18.04 iso; it just deletes all partitions as if the disk is empty; on the positive side, it correctly partitions a new disk and installs the efi partition correctly and it is actually bootable; no need to run sudo grub-install after the install from a live USB to make the new install boot.

I use xfce4 desktop environment, and when installing kdiff3 it pulls 173 packages(116 MB of archives) with sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends kdiff3 and 251 packages (131 MB of archives) with sudo apt-get install kdiff3 a lot of the packages appear to be from kde desktop; is there a version of kdiff3 without kde dependencies? kdiff3 is a great diff tool but it would be nice if it didn't require 508 MB of disk space to install

ubuntu with xfce (xubuntu) or lxde (lubuntu) on virtualbox and guest additions installed and clipboard sharing set to bidirectional does not allow plain text to be copied/pasted to/from the virtual and the host system; what else needs to be configured?

note - this is an issue across multiple releases of ubuntu; on some it appears to work partially; I have not found a lubuntu where it works; as if something basic in lubuntu causes copy/paste of plain text to not work