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I recently bought an Acer Aspire 3 A315-56-323J. I tried to install Ubuntu Linux on the device through a USB device. Apparently, Linux isn't detecting my HDD controller for some weird reason.

I tried:

  1. Disabling secure boot.
  2. Disabling fast boot in BIOS.
  3. Changing the Optate without RAID mode to AHCI.

I only have 1TB 5400rpm HDD so it's the only option for me to install Linux.

Image of the Ubuntu live CD boot screen which I noticed.

A similar question I found (all the steps in those answers didn't work for me and I still ended up with the same issue): https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/589603/linux-live-usb-doesnt-detect-hdd-on-aspire-3-a315-56

ngrpthomas
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  • May be this? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1167506/the-installation-window-dont-show-a-root-file-system-for-choose-in-the-installa If RAID mode has written info onto drive, then that also has to be removed. – oldfred Aug 18 '20 at 14:50
  • @oldfred Hi, thank you for the suggestion. Can you please let me know how to remove the raid mode info? Also, please check the picture from the Ubuntu Live USB boot screen which I noticed popping up as an error (I could still boot into it but HDD wasn't recognized). – ngrpthomas Aug 18 '20 at 15:34
  • Link shows the dmraid command which I believe still works. But dmraid has been replaced with mdadm. You can see if this shows anything ( you may have to install mdadm) sudo mdadm --detail-platform and then sudo mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sda if drive is sda. – oldfred Aug 18 '20 at 16:02
  • @oldfred so basically I have to boot into live USB of Ubuntu and use that command in the terminal? Also only sda1 (USB) is shown in commands like ldisk and all the other commands found in the original link. I'm not sure what my HDD.

    Also the image (link) I provided in the OP from booting live Ubuntu.

     – ngrpthomas Aug 18 '20 at 17:04
  • Running the commands to remove RAID data on drive, should not harm anything as data is in area not otherwise used. But some just need nomodeset or this: acer predator helios 300 PH 315-51 i5 8th gen nouveau.modeset=0 https://askubuntu.com/questions/1118751/has-anyone-successfully-dual-booted-ubuntu-18-04-lts-on-their-acer-predator-heli – oldfred Aug 18 '20 at 18:13
  • @oldfred the command isn't found in terminal when I tried it from live USB. My model is just a 10th gen i3 with no GPU or SSD. It came with Windows 10 and a 1TB HDD. I'm trying to install a custom version of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS for my students in school. How do I remove RAID data properly? I'm a newbie with Linux. – ngrpthomas Aug 18 '20 at 19:03
  • Install either dmraid or mdadm. sudo apt install dmraid. Then command will work. – oldfred Aug 18 '20 at 19:50
  • I did try to install it and run the specified commands but I got this: Imgur – ngrpthomas Aug 19 '20 at 15:44
  • Problem seems to be my disk not even being read as SDA or SDB. SDA is the USB driive! There's no other disks in GParted or anyother command line tools. – ngrpthomas Aug 19 '20 at 16:41
  • If not seen at all, then back to UEFI settings. If drive is in AHCI mode & enabled, it should be at least seen. – oldfred Aug 19 '20 at 17:18
  • @oldfred It is AHCI mode and when I used lspci | grep SATA it said I was in AHCI mode.When searching online for solutions, I encountered someone with the EXACT SAME problem here: Acer Community. A lot of commands were run on the terminal and they gave up midway during the discussion. – ngrpthomas Aug 19 '20 at 19:59
  • @oldfred Do you think you can move this to chat (since I don't have enough reps) or help me out on discord if you have it please? – ngrpthomas Aug 19 '20 at 20:04
  • I am out of ideas. But have not seen drives that could not work if AHCI on & UEFI & SSD firmware updated. Not sure about HDD and if firmware updates even available. – oldfred Aug 19 '20 at 21:22
  • About only other alternative is a full install to an external drive. I have multiple larger flash drives with full install, but mostly for emergency boot and data backup. But I also have SSD & M.2 SSD as external drives & they work well. But you have to partition in advance and may have issues to get Ubiquity to install grub to external drive. But if internal not seen then it should work. – oldfred Aug 19 '20 at 22:26
  • @oldfred There's no use so far. It just doesn't detect the drives. Do you think I should try to completely wipe the drive and reinstall windows and then try Linux? – ngrpthomas Aug 23 '20 at 13:56
  • I do not think that would change whether drive is seen or not. Normally issue is Intel RAID or RST and change to AHCI in UEFI resolves it. Or UEFI and SSD firmware update resolves it. – oldfred Aug 23 '20 at 15:21
  • @oldfred I don't have an SSD. I did the UEFI update to the latest version already from this page (https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/8191?b=1). The HDD mode is AHCI in bios too.

    I'm getting this weird error message when booting into Live USB though -- not sure if it helps identify the problem (https://imgur.com/dvuJCso)

     – ngrpthomas Aug 28 '20 at 06:39
  • Do you have this setting? Change UEFI settings from custom to standard https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2380700 & https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2407705 – oldfred Aug 28 '20 at 14:31
  • @oldfred No use. My HDD isn't being detected at all. – ngrpthomas Sep 08 '20 at 18:27
  • Is Windows fast start up off? http://askubuntu.com/questions/843153/ubuntu-16-showing-windows-10-partitions & https://askubuntu.com/questions/145902/unable-to-mount-windows-ntfs-filesystem-due-to-hibernation – oldfred Sep 08 '20 at 19:33
  • @oldfred yes, fast boot and secure boot are off. everything in the original post has been tried! – ngrpthomas Sep 11 '20 at 17:19
  • Do not know if then your Acer has some unique UEFI setting to lock drive. Check your manual, as some UEFI have had that type of issue. – oldfred Sep 11 '20 at 18:00
  • @oldfred I've scouted through all options available in the BIOS for an HDD lock. There's only an option for HDD password. – ngrpthomas Sep 21 '20 at 11:11
  • @oldfred Hi, I saw your comment on a similar thread - https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/604716/can-see-my-hdd-in-windows-but-not-from-linux-live-boot?newreg=4ce2c54d31664580ae82d80abceeda4c

    This is exactly the problem I'm facing!

     – ngrpthomas Sep 21 '20 at 11:17
  • I would contact Acer. Probably an UEFI issue. Acer has needed updates before to work with Linux. Some used to downgrade UEFI. Acer Very latest UEFI/BIOS works, downgrade not required if no trust screens, you must now upgrade: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2298380&p=13419141#post13419141 – oldfred Sep 21 '20 at 14:09
  • did you got any solution? – OmaL Nov 05 '21 at 19:49
  • I have the same laptop. I connected my live USB, to install Ubuntu, it was only listing the usb drive. then I accidently closed the lid and opened. Now it is showing HDD, so i done the partition and installed the os successfully. I can see the grub is loaded with option to select the ubuntu, windows and UEFI firmware settings. but no luck ubuntu will load to initramfs screen. windows option works fine – OmaL Nov 06 '21 at 09:30

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