Sparky iso downloas

[handy1912]

Running Sparky stable on my Asus x453m  keyboard gone not charging . Want to put Sparky on new laptop. Can not get any of official Sparky iso's to boot using Sparky live USB creator. Never had a problem before. What is going on?

[Thomas]

handy1912,

So you have Sparkylinux on the Asus x453m laptop already and are trying to install Sparkylinux on to a different laptop? What model laptop? Have you tried any other distro live boot cd to see if it works?

I have had issues with UEFI and Safeboot on my laptops with different distros and ended up having to go into the bios and disable them to get it to install. Even using the usb live boot with distros that supported UEFI, I could never get it to boot and install correctly. It might be good to try a different distro or https://unetbootin.github.io/ to try a different program that will create the live boot usb for you to see if that helps.

[handy1912]

Hello Thomas,
Just trying to get it onto a stick before I shell out for the new laptop.
I have tried Unetbootin and the usb live maker on Sparky. Neither will boot.
I seem to remember having to make a uefi boot partition on the usb but can find nothing anywhere about it.
It is hardly surprising Windows is still dominant in spite of all its shortcomings.

[Thomas]

Hi Handy,

Maybe you will have better luck with https://rufus.akeo.ie/ if you want to leave the UEFI enabled. I know some ubuntu ISOs support UEFI and believe they have an EFI image only ISO also.  I am just getting started with Debian but it may be something not included by default in the Debian as it seems to be geared more to open source and I think Ubuntu uses a Microsoft signed driver for UEFI support. I am by no means a Linux expert and still relatively new to using Linux. I do know from trying different machines and distros I usually just ended up turning secure boot and UEFI off in the bios.

This may help also - https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI

[paxmark1]

Someone posted before I was done.  YES - look at the Debian uefi page.  Also look at the pages on what computers work with Debian, see if your intended computer is on that list. 
...

Many people over the years have said harsh dreadful things about unetbootin.  Are you writing to your sticks in a windows or linux enviroment?
https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/create_live_usb

Debian and others have gone to just using "cp"    Myself I like dd   Verify your stick.


Let's review tactics.

1. You have tried several Sparky iso's on a particular computer
    0.1 Info on that computer and any searches for similar problems with linux distros. Specific search for UEF of that model.  Is it one of the crippled 32 bit UEFI's with a 64 bit system.  Baytrail springs to mind. 

2.  Sparky installation process.  It is a pita to have paper and scribble your steps down while installing a system, I am speaking from personal experience, but I have changed and do that now.  Which of the 2 installation processes did you use (advanced or calamares)?  Which flavours of Sparky (DE's)?   Was it Sparky4 or 5? My advice, if you are new, go with 4. 

3.  Did you perform md5sum or sha1  tests on your "sticks"?
https://sparkylinux.org/wiki/doku.php/verify_iso

4.  Try something else, at least to get a "live" system up.  Knoppix, Ubuntu, the non-free Debian stable iso,  there are over a hundred options.   
peace out.


   

[Thomas]

Many people over the years have said harsh dreadful things about unetbootin.  Are you writing to your sticks in a window or Linux environment?

paxmark1, I had not read anything bad about unetbootin but have only used it once or twice. Is there still issues with it that you know of? I am happy to use Create Live USB or Rufus as well. They are all tools and whatever gets the job done is good with me.

Handy,

I saw this while testing out the Sparky Backup System. Maybe it will help with needed files and placement for adding UEFI support.
https://s22.postimg.cc/i2u9yf45d/gscreenshot_sparky_backup.png

[paxmark1]

CrunchBang forums, Bunsen, Siduction, Debian - people with more experience than me dislike unetbootin.  That was in the past. Maybe the bugs are gone now. 

However, it does not matter - if the checksum from md5sum or sha1sum matches what is listed - it should boot.      Howto do that is in the verifyiso page in the Sparky wiki.   

The wiki item about Sparkybackup is not about installing.  I do live in the past sometimes.  They have probably fixed the Baytrail problems that numerous distros had problems with. 

Checksum your sticks. 

[Thomas]

paxmark1, perhaps as you have stated, it is fixed. I used it on my laptop to install Sparkylinux because my cdrom drive does not work. I am happy using any tool that can get the job done. I was not questioning whether you were right about unetbootin being disliked as I only read about it on the site that referred it to me and mentioned it as an alternative that worked for me.

[manyroads]

Have you tried (or similar)?

The following command needs to be run in terminal mode, be sure to 'fix' the [distro-name]

dd if= [distro-name].iso of=/dev/sdb bs=16M && sync

dd if= [distro-name].iso of=/dev/sdc bs=4M && sync