0

This is after 4 days of hell, trying to find a solution for a thing that I anticipated would take 30 minutes. Kindly help me.

I have a project on ROS (robot operating system). ROS works only with trusty Ubuntu, and its indigo version is best suitable for Ubuntu 14.04. I have a HP zbook 15 G2 with core i7, 64 bit, 512GB SSD and 16 GB RAM. It had windows 7 pre-installed.

I tried to first do a dual boot with Ubuntu 14 64 bit amd, but I got an error that ext4 cant be mounted.Then it gave an fsyncing error.

I then tried to run as VM in windows 7. That gave issues too.

Upon contact with my IT team at work, they told me that UEFI could be causing the problem. I decided to start from the scratch and get ubuntu installed on a clean PC

Therefore I formatted everything. I tried to install Ubuntu 14 and ubsequently Ubuntu 16. Both failed. The file system ext4, 3, 2 all fail to mount. Then they give the fsyncing error.

I started googling about the problem. Someone suggested, that I should try another distribution of Ubuntu. So I went for Ubuntu mate and it installed seamlessly. Later on Windows 7 installed seamlessly too. My hard disk has no errors. But sadly both of the above dont support ROS.

So I am back to zero. I have tried everything I could to run ubuntu 14 or 16 on this PC. The ubuntu website says that this computer model has even an option of pre-installed ubuntu. Someone in my IT team, emailed me that he was able to install ubuntu 14 on the same model of the PC without a problem.

Can someone help me in perhaps identifying a ubuntu version that can be installed on this PC. I have seen some posts of guys with the same computer model having issues that I am having right now. None of them were solved. I would highly appreciate any help.

Viper Maverick
  • 1
  • 1
    Why isn't MATE compatible? Did you actually try it? It's just Ubuntu with a different skin. – TheWanderer Aug 28 '16 at 18:51
  • This is very strange for me as well. As MATE is just a different skin. However, no package of ROS is found when I try to install it. Here is something from the ROS wiki.

    "Setup your computer to accept software from packages.ros.org. ROS Indigo ONLY supports Saucy (13.10) and Trusty (14.04) for debian packages. "

     – Viper Maverick Aug 28 '16 at 19:00
  • 1
    Oh. You need to try installing 14.04 then. ROS won't work even if you get normal 16.04 installed. – TheWanderer Aug 28 '16 at 19:05
  • That is what I am trying to do for the last four days but I have never encountered a PC so powerful that can do so less. I spent a big buck on getting my hands on something with so much power. And I am surprised that installing ubuntu has taken me so much time.

    There is a ROS version for ubuntu 16. I am thinking of installing ubuntu mate 16 and see if the new version works with Mate. Is the mate not just a skin for trusty dist?

     – Viper Maverick Aug 28 '16 at 19:09
  • MATE is a different flavor of Ubuntu. It's just a DE and a few packages and themes. – TheWanderer Aug 28 '16 at 19:14
  • Can we say that mate is just a skin for Ubuntu 14.04 "Trusty" LTS. Since ROS indigo is supported only for TRUSTY.

    And lasty, why the hell is this machine not installing ubuntu 14.04 when it says on their website that if requested it ships with ubuntu pre-installed?

     – Viper Maverick Aug 28 '16 at 19:17
  • Trusty is the codename for Ubuntu 14.04. 14.04 == Trusty. 14.04 can be running Unity, MATE, XFCE, LXDE, etc. Trusty isn't a version of 14.04, it is 14.04, just like 12.04 is Precise, and 16.04 is Xenial. – TheWanderer Aug 28 '16 at 19:20
  • @ViperMaverick MATE is just example of desktop environment aka graphic shell. The reality is that any OS has text console ( even Windows ). – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Aug 28 '16 at 19:22
  • @ViperMaverick We need the exact fsync error to help. – Kaz Wolfe Aug 28 '16 at 19:23
  • Thank you Zacharee, this is useful information. Kaz here is the error tree It start with ext4 file system failed to mount. This happens even if you create a new partition tree or try to install on the existing one. Then it asks if you want to continue, which after a long try by installer lead to. Error fsyncing/closing/dev/sda1: Input/Output error. multiple try again options lead to nothing. pressing ignore many times lead to: Input/output error during read on /dev/sda – Viper Maverick Aug 28 '16 at 19:43

1 Answers1

0

It appears that packages.ros.org covers all currently supported Ubuntu Operating systems. You should be able to install the appropriate version of these packages on virtually any flavor of currently supported Ubuntu you desire. You don't mention any details, but I would not be surprised to discover that your installations that failed were due to a corrupt ISO. I base this theory on the fact that you were able to successfully install Mate (which would indicate hardware is unlikely to be the issue)

Elder Geek
  • 36,023
  • 25
  • 98
  • 183