Possible R3.1 incompatibility with Samsung T3 portable SSD

[Cory Nelson]

Hello,

I'm trying to install Qubes 3.1 to a 512GB Samsung T3 (external USB
3.1 SSD with UAS). May have identified an incompatibility.

Qubes errors out while creating partitions. Not the UI to reclaim or
manually partition, but the step afterward when you finally start the
install.

I've run a full test of the drive verifying no bad blocks and even
installed Ubuntu on it to ensure it's in working order. I then tried
to install Qubes to a 64GB thumb drive on the same PC and it worked
fine there.

--
Cory Nelson
http://int64.org

[semimatter]

I think it will probably be useful for the devs to know what platform you are on -- ie, is this a Skylake system?

[Axon]

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Cory Nelson:

Some users have reported problems when using USB 3 ports. If that's
what you were using, can you try using a USB 2 port instead?
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[almigh...@gmail.com]

Hi,

I am also having problems installing Qubes R3.1 to the Samsung T3 External SSD 500GB. Using a pgp and hash verified iso that passes the media verification test. Running on a Intel Core i5-4570 @ 3.20GHz.

The install fails on the "creating swap" step with an "unknown error". devices.py line 788 is at the top of the error.

Also, manual partitioning doesn't work. Trying to create the "/" or "/boot" parition results in the error "cannot create aligned partition" or something. Clicking the "automatically create partitions" link in the partition page gives an error along the lines of "the root / partition does not exist" and "the boot partition does not exist".

I have tried switching the external SSD from a 3.0 port to a 2.0 port to avail.

[almigh...@gmail.com]

Update:

I tried the text installation by pressing ctrl+alt+f2 and typing 'anaconda'. The results were as follows:

Progress
Setting up the installation environment
.
Creating disklabel on /dev/sdc
.
Creating efi on /dev/sdc1
.
Creating ext4 on /dev/sdc2
.
Creating luks on /dev/sdc3

(anaconda:1277): Gdk-ERROR **: error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment.

Trace/breakpoint trap

(It then goes back to the shell)

[Andrew David Wong]

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Thanks for the report. Tracking here:

https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/2097

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[almigh...@gmail.com]

Update:

I have invented a temporary workaround.

Requirements:
Another usb or harddrive of 32gb (qubes system requirement)
Qubes installer or another *nix system

1. Install normally onto a USB or harddrive

2. Use the qubes installer (ctrl+alt+f2) or another *nix system to dd the installed OS to the Samsung T3 Portable SSD
Use lsblk -f to find the appropriate drive letters.

Example: dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/sdd bs=1M
/dev/sdc being the installed OS, /dev/sdd being the portable SSD.

I haven't tested the copy extensively, but it's able to boot and run VMs normally.

[mjint...@gmail.com]

Cory,

In your original post about the Qubes 3.1 install, you indicate success installing ubuntu on the Samsung SSD T3. How? I have ubuntu installed on a Samsung 850 SSD, externally mounted and connected via USB, but I cannot get any of the ubuntu 16.04 installers (server or desktop) to see the Samsung T3. Get to the partition step and it comes back with no disks found.
Can you share the steps to get ubuntu on the T3?

Mark Jackson