Thinkpad p50: Qubes installs but won't boot

[5n3sjd+a8d...@guerrillamail.com]

I've installed Qubes before, but never had this amount of trouble. I've been battling with it for the past two days and cannot get it to work, so I'm unfortunately having to bother some of you for help.

## What I've tried so far:
- vanilla Qubes 3.1 install
- vanilla Qubes 3.2 install
- Followed all instructions in Qubes UEFI troubleshooting => installs, no boot
- Installing Lubuntu 16.10 => doesn't work either: installer crashes with grub-efi-amd64-signed package failed to install
- fresh installs with various combinations of the following BIOS settings (UEFI only, UEFI + CMS, legacy first, legacy only, secure boot, hyperthreading
- creating own EFI partition, then install => still same issue
- updating the BIOS => no change

## Computer characteristics
- Thinkpad p50
- nvme drive
- 64gb RAM
- originally win10. Now gone, and trying to install Qubes as only OS.
- BIOS version 1.35

I don't know what's wrong, but the Lubuntu installation error and the fact that I never get to see Grub either when installing Qubes, points me in that direction. What I'm trying to achieve now involves using a LiveCD to check whether/where GRUB was installed and what the config looks like, but I'm in uncharted territory for me. Any thoughts? other ideas?

Please, note that while I've been tinkering with computers for a while, I have no formal education and my knowledge is merely user level. I will definitely help and provide logs and other details if possible, but I may need instructions on how to obtain them. Thanks for the help!

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[5n3sjd+a8d...@guerrillamail.com]

My idea of resolving this by browsing to the Qubes partitions in the drive with a Lubuntu live CD doesn't seem like it's going to work: When I unencrypt the LUKS partition (virtual drive?), it seems to be unreadable.

Also, another point that I didn't bring up before, but has me scratching my head is the warning GParted gives me every time I open it:
> The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 bytes, but Linux says it is 512 bytes.

It sounds like a bad warning, but it may be fine and I'm just grasping at straws. Note that his has been so since the moment I first got the computer.

[Andrew David Wong]

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On 2016-12-20 06:59, 5n3sjd+a8dtbz87x13a0 via qubes-users wrote:
> My idea of resolving this by browsing to the Qubes partitions in
> the drive with a Lubuntu live CD doesn't seem like it's going to
> work: When I unencrypt the LUKS partition (virtual drive?), it
> seems to be unreadable.
>
> Also, another point that I didn't bring up before, but has me
> scratching my head is the warning GParted gives me every time I
> open it:
>> The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 bytes,
>> but Linux says it is 512 bytes.
>
> It sounds like a bad warning, but it may be fine and I'm just
> grasping at straws. Note that his has been so since the moment I
> first got the computer.
>

Are you sure your Qubes installation medium isn't corrupted? Did you
verify the ISO beforehand?

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[5n5mmm+ead...@guerrillamail.com]

Thanks for your help, Andrew. I did indeed check and the signature says its good and signed on Sep 2016.

[5nh54b+1lz...@guerrillamail.com]

In the end, I made it work and Qubes boots now on the P50. It's taken way more effort than I'd have thought though, but the cause was my lack of knowledge on how to get there; the necessary changes were in the Documentation.

In case anyone else hits a similar wall with a P50 in the near future, the missing part for me was the boot device not being recognized [1]. The detail that may not be super well explained in the documentation (probably because its too basic) is that in order to cp and mv the necessary files we need to access the LUKS partition by using the Qubes installation device and selecting the *repair* option. As I explained in a previous email, I had tried to do this before through a Lubuntu LiveCD and couldn't get access (Lubuntu said unreadable).

Now that it boots and seems that at least the basics work, I will look into any hardware issues.

[1] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/#boot-device-not-recognized-after-installing

[elimi...@gmail.com]

I'm interested in any updates you have re: how well the P50 is working on Qubes; there are some great deals online for these machines, but they're not worth it if I can't get the most out of Qubes :-). Thanks!