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I used to run Ubuntu 14.04, but a lot of my hardware died in an unlucky accident (the video card burned, taking motherboard and two HDDs with it).

So I bought a used motherboard and installed Mint on my SSD (on Ubuntu I used it only for root partition, so it didn't suffer from excessive input). I'd been using Mint for a month while growing tired of its bugs and then one day it crashed and I decided to install Xubuntu.

I have created a bootable USB drive with UNetbootin and tried to install Xubuntu from it. After a couple dozen installations this is where I stand:

  • I switched off UEFI and I'm installing Xubuntu only in Legacy mode
  • The SSD is healthy, or at least the Disk Utility extensive self-test says so
  • The installation media is OK, or at least the self-check from UNetbootin menu says so
  • I use three partitions, all in ext4: /boot, / and /home, boot loader is installed on the first one
  • I format these partitions (either with gparted or with installer itself) every time I try to make a new install, or even create a new MBR partition table
  • I've tried running fstrim on the new partitions after creating them with gparted (before installation itself) in case it matters (it doesn't)
  • I've tried creating a GPT partition table, but the only difference was the need of an additional BIOS partition
  • I've tried to install without /boot partition, the install is sometimes successful but it doesn't load, that's how I came to creating this partition: What to do when I get an "attempt to read or write outside of disk 'hd0'" error and Boot Repair does not solve the problem?
  • The most common reason of installation failure is "read-only filesystem", while there are also "installer crashed" and "unable to configure GRUB"
  • Once it just hanged while trying to format the /boot partition
  • If the installation succeeds against all odds, after rebooting I get fsck from util-linux 2.26.2 /dev/sda5: clean, 164701/2752512 files, 1043962/11000832 blocks or even this and this.
  • Despite it all, Mint did work for a month on my PC

What could be the source of my problems? How can I promptly diagnose and correct them?

Community
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wintermute
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  • Have you tried just having a black partition table. and running though the auto set-up and letting it do the partitioning for you. I have installed Xubuntu on alot of my PCs and I have never make /boot and a /home partition. – Neil Oct 24 '15 at 12:08
  • what other devices do you have plug into your computer. – Neil Oct 24 '15 at 12:11
  • I have tried installing without /boot, but it doesn't load. I had same issue on Mint, and creating this partition helped. But on Gigabyte motherboard it all worked without such a partition, so I think it's a motherboard related issue. – wintermute Oct 24 '15 at 12:31
  • I have a video card, a dead PCI USB controller (died with the old motherboard, but I only discovered it after changing the MB and haven't bothered with removing it yet), a PCI FireWire controller, and USB devices: KB, mouse, UPS, audio card, webcam. – wintermute Oct 24 '15 at 12:33
  • let me know if my Answer gets you any where or no where. – Neil Oct 24 '15 at 12:37

2 Answers2

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Go to your Bios settings and change your SATA mode from AHCI mode to RAID mode.

check you cables connect to your SSD see if the cables damaged

found the same problem Here

If it fails to install. You might want to Download UBCD burn it to a CD then boot from it then go to /HDD/Diagnosis/ViVARD press enter to select the drive and then run a Surface test with remap. This will remap the bad sectors if it can. This might fix your problem but I have no idea if it will work on SSDs

Try the SSD in another computer.

Neil
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  • I've switched from AHCI to RAID. For now the only difference I had was seeing the screen flash a glitched picture two times before the good old fsck output appeared. I guess I'll try to change the cable and then reinstall Xubuntu booted in RAID mode from the start. – wintermute Oct 24 '15 at 12:38
  • Well, changing the cable didn't help too. I move forward to the reinstallation stage. – wintermute Oct 24 '15 at 12:48
  • Hope it works in raid mode. – Neil Oct 24 '15 at 12:52
  • The installer hangs when formatting /boot again. That's really strange. I have to delete the partition table and start it all over to prevent it. – wintermute Oct 24 '15 at 13:01
  • Oh well, even it doesn't help. I guess I'll have to create a partition with gparted. What's even stranger, the second partition (I've switched from separate root and home partitions to one root partition to simplify the issue) doesn't cause any problems despite being ~250 times bigger. – wintermute Oct 24 '15 at 13:07
  • The installer fails again and again. I will try to give my SSD to a friend for checking it in his PC. – wintermute Oct 24 '15 at 13:51
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Turns out the SATA controller on my new motherboard was dying. Bought another motherboard and everything went smoothly.

Gavin Youker
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wintermute
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