Qubes installation hangs at 717/930

[interest...@gmail.com]

I have an ASUS computer, GTX 970M and an i7-6700, 8 GB RAM. Installation stops at 717/930 at installing some qubes-salts-mgmt (something along those lines). The circle keeps spinning, which indicates it is being installed, but it gets stuck there for a long time and just won't continue. I have Qubes installed and running on my HP desktop so I decided to try it on my ASUS laptop, and when I installed it on my desktop it did not hang at any particular step for more than a few minutes.

I tried googling the issue and read that it could be that Qubes takes a fairly long time to install on certain hardware but the reason I don't want to leave my computer on for too long during the installation process is because the fan is really loud, even though my computer doesn't get warm or anything.

Any idea what it could be and how I can go about resolving the issue?

[cooloutac]

you sure its not overheating? did you format the drive? try a diff iso?

[motech man]

Check my topic "Great Difficulties... 7th gen. i7". I noticed it took a very long time near the same spot, and there was no drive led activity or movement of the progress bar. 4 - 8 minutes. I was emailing a friend and when I looked up the installation was finally successfully completed.

May not be the same issue you're seeing but my suggestion is to be patient and give it more time. If no progress is made after 30 minutes I'd say you either have a very slow machine or something else is going on.

[Federico Armellini]

Same problem here.
ASUS with I7-7700HQ CPU.
Qubesos 4.0rc2, now I'm going to try 3.2

[haaber]

> Same problem here.
> ASUS with I7-7700HQ CPU.
> Qubesos 4.0rc2, now I'm going to try 3.2

Probably you are right. I admit that I have no precise memory about 717
from my install last week (sorry for that :)) However, I remember that
in the 700-750 the template vm-s are copied and appvm's created. They
are several GB each (after decompression) -- according to your usb speed
that can take dozens of minutes for one item ... have you been patient
enough? I guess so, but I still felt to mention this detail to you.
Bernhard

[Yuraeitha]

I've been there too, though here are some things to consider. This "freeze" can either be occasional (random), or UEFI settings caused, or permanent due to hardware/firmware issues.

Here are some causes, some I know can cause this issue, others I speculate by deduction, that it might be able to do so.

1) For example, first time it happened to me in Qubes 4 RC-1, no matter how many times I tried, or which settings I changed, it would not get past this specific package, again and again, froze at the same package.

2) Now in Qubes 4 RC-2, I once had a freeze at one of the packages, though this time a different one from Qubes 4 RC-2. I re-rebooted and tried again, same settings, no changes, I just tried again. This time it managed just fine, no issues. No overheating either, nothing was of obvious difference, it was simply random by all outward appearance.

3) Make absolutely sure you hash value check the USB, especially if you encounter this issue. It might be a bit error. You can do it with the hash values Qubes provides in the download section. Or you can use the integrity test that is skip-able during initial boot of the installer. If you skipped, then don't this time, make sure you get no errors. If your screen is black and you cant see the integrity test during early boot, i.e. due to HDMI TV monitor, then use the sha256sum terminal command, or other hash tools, to verify your Qubes installer wherever you can get access to a hash tool.

4) Make sure you got no bad UEFI settings. For example VT-D is an obvious given, make sure it's enabled. Also some motherboards have an extra "Virtualisation" disable/enable in addition to VT-D enable/disable, and located in a different menu too. For example one of my Asus motherboards have that. Be sure you didn't get a wrong setting in the UEFI. Sometimes it can be something pretty unlikely/unthinkable that causes the issue, and changing it fixes it.

5) It may be a long shot, but it remains a possibly that an UEFI update can fix any issues that cause Qubes to freeze. Just be sure you know what you're doing before updating your UEFI, so you don't brick your motherboard. In which case, it'll become an expensive Frisbee to throw for your dog to catch.

6) It can also be firmware or hardware issues on any hardware in the pc, like for example in some cases unsupported graphic cards, or some other hardware piece. While it get stuck on SALT; it might still be related to a hardware issue. For example if you got an extra graphic card in your machine, try disable it (especially if its nvidia), and then run on your onboard integrated graphics instead (Qubes runs pretty well on most intel graphics). If you got other hardware, try disable some wherever possible, see if it makes any differences.

Also that little circular thingy spinning around next to the installed package counter. In my experience, if it stops moving, then you it's frozen. But I dunno if it might be able to come out of this frozen state on its own if waiting long enough, but in the cases where I waited, it never did. Whenever I saw the circular animated icon freeze, on my machines at least, it was point of no return, even after 10-15 hours wait. When it worked, it installed easily in some 10-15 minutes on one my machines and some 30 minutes on my slower one, roughly.