Cannot install Qubes 3.2 - black screen of death
qubesn...@gmail.com
I am attempting to install Qubes, version 3.2, never having used any prior versions.
My computer is custom-built with the following components:
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K Quad-core 4.2 GHz LGA 1151 Processor
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Aorus GA-Z270X-Gaming 7 (rev 1.0)
RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB
Primary HDD: Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB 3-D Vertical Internal SSD
CD-ROM: Pioneer 16x BD-R Blu-ray Burner (BDR-209DBK)
I tried installing using the following types of media:
-ISO burned to DVD
-ISO burned to USB using Rufus in Windows and selecting dd mode
-ISO burned to USB using dd in Debian
When none of these worked, I started searching this newsgroup for similar problems. I found one suggestion that I tried, which was to add "GRUB_CMDLINUX_XEN_DEFAULT iommu-no-igfx" to grub.cfg - I could not do this one because I could not get the USB device out of read-only mode
I removed the "quiet" option from the install, but still no success
Afterward, I disabled VT-d in BIOS, but again, no success
Every time, I get the splash screen with the options for installation. For any option I pick, it gets to the point where I believe Xen is launching the graphics for the installer. At that point, the screen goes completely black. In the case where I use the DVD, the drive stops spinning, and nothing else happens.
I am at a loss, and any help would be greatly appreciated.
raah...@gmail.com
hmm tried a diff usb stick, checked the signatures of the downloaded iso, used only onboard gpu unplug pcie one. check gpu bios options, unplug all other usb devices, check mobo for options, update mobo bios, does the baremetal fedora 24 installer work?
That board looks like it should work good with qubes, if I can think of anything else I'll post back.
Also
raah...@gmail.com
oh and legacy boot mode. check usb controller options too.
qubesn...@gmail.com
Hi,
Thank you for writing back. I have not tried a different USB stick, as I don't have any others large enough for the image, however I have downloaded the ISO / checked all signatures & digests on two separate occasions. They checked out as good both times. I also burned the ISO to 2 different DVDs. I have only been using the on-board video, and don't have any separate PCI-E cards for the system. I only have the mouse & keyboard plugged in as USB when I am booting from the DVD.
I will check on the GPU BIOS options again, but I couldn't really find much to change...
As far as updating the BIOS, I went to the Gigabyte site and it looks like there's only 3 releases - the first release, and two beta releases, so I think I am good there.
I am downloading Fedora now, but it looks like they're up to version 25. I'll let you know if that boots up and installs.
I am trying to figure out how to boot into legacy mode, and will try that as well, and I didn't see much in the way of USB settings - I tinkered with a few of them and it didn't seem to help any.
I'll keep trying...
qubesn...@gmail.com
I followed your advice on Fedora and was able to easily install Fedora Workstation 25. Not sure how to progress from here. Perhaps the disk needed to be formatted prior to installing Qubes? I am guessing at this point.
qubesn...@gmail.com
Today I updated a few more settings in my BIOS (which for some reason got reset after the Fedora install), and I tried installing again. This time, I got sent to the text-based install after seeing a message about "X startup failed - falling back to text mode"
I repeatedly encountered the following messages when trying to select destination media (for all options available):
"Storage configuration failed: auto partition failed"
"Encryption requested for LUKS device but no encryption key specified"
I went down the road of investigating the "Rescue Qubes" option, but quickly discovered that's really only for an already installed OS, so I backed out of that.
I have a second PC that is older, and doesn't have an SSD drive so I knew it wouldn't work so well with Qubes but I tried installing anyway. I noticed a big difference in the startup routines between both systems. In the older system (which has a EVGA GeForce GTX780 Hydro Copper video card installed), when the installer started I had a nice graphical interface with a big "Q" on it. In the custom system, I see a varying colored blue bar crawling across the bottom of the screen with the text "Generic 23" on the bottom right.
At this point, I'm thinking my only option is to install a video card in the new system and try installing again. Does anyone have any suggestions for a card that will support a 4k monitor?
Thank you, I appreciate any and all responses.
qubesn...@gmail.com
After pilfering a spare AMD Radeon 5850 video card from one of my other computers and installing it into the new system, I was able to install Qubes 3.2 successfully. I saw some video anomalies with 4k, but once I downgraded to 2540x1600 resolution it worked like a charm. It looks like Qubes/Xen doesn't like the on-board INTEL graphics on my motherboard.
A new problem has surfaced, however. I was unable to enable the root account during setup even though I entered a password for it. I unchecked the "lock root account" checkbox, but it kept re-checking itself. I am unsure how to enable it, or if it's even possible.
Everything else seems to be working fine, but I am still planning to get a newer video card, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have read that AMD/Radeon cards work best, and I was looking at the AMD Radeon RX400 series or R9 300 series because they both offer Ubuntu/Linux drivers.
Thank you in advance for your responses.
Unman
I think that's the best route to take - there are issues with some cards
and with the text installer - what you've done is the accepted
workaround.
On the question of the root account, I assume you have seen the comment
I think that's the best route to take - there are issues with some cards
and with the text insta;ller - what you've done is the accepted
workaround.
On the question of the root account, I assume you have seen the comment
in the docs: www.qubes-os.org/doc/vm-sudo at bottom.
In a default install the root/user distinction is pretty meaningless, as
user has access to all the configuration of the Qubes machine, and has
full access to all the data held on it. This is really difficult for
some people to understand. (You can, of course, change this policy in
dom0 if you wish, trading convenience for a small gain
in security.)