You are not logged in.

#1 2021-04-17 09:38:28

LostMikely
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2021-04-17
Posts: 5

[SOLVED] Installation shell freezes

I've been trying to install Arch Linux, but it keeps freezing after random amounts of time without any error message. I'm booting it from a USB stick in EFI mode.

Is there a way that I can see what is causing the freezing or is this a common issue that you might know the solution for?

Oh and my computer is a Dell laptop with an Intel i5 processor and only integrated gpu.

Last edited by LostMikely (2021-04-19 07:53:05)

Offline

#2 2021-04-17 09:46:38

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,422

Re: [SOLVED] Installation shell freezes

Welcome to the boards,

Is it actually freezing or are you able to switch VTs with Ctrl+Alt+F2 or so? Is "random amount of time" while doing any specific operation? Which exact Dell laptop and i5 model?

Assuming no inherent incompatibility here, what can often be an issue is an incorrectly flashed stick, did you verify the image you download and verify the written result? What did you use to flash the stick?

Offline

#3 2021-04-17 09:58:24

LostMikely
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2021-04-17
Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] Installation shell freezes

V1del wrote:

Welcome to the boards,

Is it actually freezing or are you able to switch VTs with Ctrl+Alt+F2 or so? Is "random amount of time" while doing any specific operation? Which exact Dell laptop and i5 model?

Assuming no inherent incompatibility here, what can often be an issue is an incorrectly flashed stick, did you verify the image you download and verify the written result? What did you use to flash the stick?

I am not able to switch VTs at all when it freezes. It freezes even if I haven't done anything. It's a Dell Latitude 7490 with Intel i5-8250U.

I used Rufus on Windows to flash the stick and I did it twice, first using GPT, then MBR (with "BIOS or UEFI" as target system). I also did it with a different stick the second time.

I have been able to install Arch on this computer a few months ago using an older version.

Could this be related: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=262283 or would that only impact an installed system?

Last edited by LostMikely (2021-04-17 10:02:37)

Offline

#4 2021-04-17 16:09:10

Wild Penguin
Member
Registered: 2015-03-19
Posts: 319

Re: [SOLVED] Installation shell freezes

What kind of time period (roughly) does the "random amounts of time" mean? Does it mean after 1-30 seconds? Or after 1-5 minutes? Longer?

Does it happen while / during you are typing on the laptop? I would think this may be some kind of power management feature kicking in - but the Arch live instance should not have any PM features enabled AFAIK. Perhaps BIOS is trying some PM features, and those cause a lock-up?

Does SysRQ work at all before freeze? If it does, can you use SysRq (sync, reboot) after the freeze?

If you can do anything at all with the laptop after booting up, I would try either or both of the following before it freezes:

  1. Enable sshd. Try to ssh into the computer after it has frozen (we can rule out UI/keyboard issues).

  2. Try to enable any persistent storage and divert all kernel messages to a file on the persistent storage. That way you can examine the log file, in case it has any tips as to the cause of the freeze  (optimally somewhere where you can risk the filesystem getting corrupted, in case the Kernel freezes mid-write ... but the risk of corruption should be very small) .

Just my 2 cents!

EDIT: TYPOs

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2021-04-17 16:11:27)

Offline

#5 2021-04-18 18:01:41

LostMikely
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2021-04-17
Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] Installation shell freezes

I've finally gotten around to try again and I didn't see anything special while watching "dmesg --follow". I did however try it with nomodeset and now it's been running without freezing for like 15 minutes.

UPDATE: nomodeset fixed the freezing problems in the live environment, so I was able to install it. The installed system works flawlessly without that parameter though.

Last edited by LostMikely (2021-04-19 07:55:29)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB