[SOLVED Strange I/O Error] Cannot install Sparky 7.3

ENTPRESTIGIOUS · March 24, 2024, 11:49:21 PM

I am trying to dual-boot Sparky with Windows 10. Win 10 has Bitlocker enabled for no reason. I created a partition. My USB drive was originally flashed with Zorin using BalenaEtcher which failed to format but I used Rufus to restore it into a non-bootable USB. Then, I flashed my drive using Rufus with MBR by mistake and did it again with GPT with no errors. Then, I restarted to BIOS. I disabled fast boot so I can boot from the USB drive. However, I keep having I/O errors. I don't think it's the hard drive or USB issue since Win 10 works and the USB drive can be read.

Yes, I've tried changing SATA options and disabling secure boot but neither of them works.

Error messages (I shared with a friend on Discord that's why it's a Discord link): https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/747559265694384250/1221581061171974264/20240324_150640.jpg?ex=66131904&is=6600a404&hm=8e31866d4e243485cd56a385b2a115a91ee2e8a0d2d94b5467d5be7e0a59acf6&;

duststuff · March 25, 2024, 01:17:18 AM

It looks like the I/O errors are for device 'sda', so you'll probably first want to confirm what device that is referring to. I'm assuming it's likely that it is the drive where you are attempting to do the dual-boot. Also, you didn't mention this, but I'm assuming the errors you're getting are during the process of trying to boot a live Sparky USB flash drive (UFD) so that you can install Sparky from there. I don't know a lot about Windows 10 and Bitlocker, but I'm assuming you're getting the errors because Bitlocker is enabled as you mentioned. If it is set up to encrypt your drive and require a password to get access to the drive, then it would make perfect sense to me that it's not going to allow anything / anyone else to access the drive, thus giving you the READ / I/O errors. If all of the above is true, then probably the next thing I would look at if I were you is how to disable Bitlocker and see if that helps. I'm not sure if it's possible to have a Linux / Windows dual-boot setup if someone wants to use Bitlocker with Windows, but I'm guessing one or more online searches on these topics would provide some helpful information. Hope some of these thoughts help and you'll figure out something that works for you.

ENTPRESTIGIOUS · March 25, 2024, 02:42:18 AM

Quote from: duststuff on March 25, 2024, 01:17:18 AMIt looks like the I/O errors are for device 'sda', so you'll probably first want to confirm what device that is referring to. I'm assuming it's likely that it is the drive where you are attempting to do the dual-boot. Also, you didn't mention this, but I'm assuming the errors you're getting are during the process of trying to boot a live Sparky USB flash drive (UFD) so that you can install Sparky from there. I don't know a lot about Windows 10 and Bitlocker, but I'm assuming you're getting the errors because Bitlocker is enabled as you mentioned. If it is set up to encrypt your drive and require a password to get access to the drive, then it would make perfect sense to me that it's not going to allow anything / anyone else to access the drive, thus giving you the READ / I/O errors. If all of the above is true, then probably the next thing I would look at if I were you is how to disable Bitlocker and see if that helps. I'm not sure if it's possible to have a Linux / Windows dual-boot setup if someone wants to use Bitlocker with Windows, but I'm guessing one or more online searches on these topics would provide some helpful information. Hope some of these thoughts help and you'll figure out something that works for you.

I disabled BitLocker by turning off device encryption in update and security settings. Unfortunately, that didn't do anything and the errors still persist.

duststuff · March 25, 2024, 03:47:31 AM

Does the drive itself and/or your BIOS have any sort of security / passwords set / active? I think TPM (Trusted Platform Module) can also be an issue. And perhaps whether you are booting the UFD in legacy or UEFI mode. Disabling the fast startup in Windows may also help. Have you confirmed that the live Sparky UFD you're trying to use is bootable? That would also be worth confirming. A lot of these ideas I've just gotten from a quick online search on some key words related to this topic. Dual-booting Linux and Windows can be pretty tricky as there are multiple variables / settings and not all systems are the same, so sometimes you have to do some trial-and-error to figure things out. But I'm guessing it's highly likely this is not something specific to Sparky Linux. I think your specific target for trouble-shooting at this point is trying to figure out what is blocking access to your hard drive -- if you can figure that out, then that should help you figure out next steps. That's about all the ideas I can think of. Hope you'll be able to figure something out.

ENTPRESTIGIOUS · March 25, 2024, 07:28:51 AM

Quote from: duststuff on March 25, 2024, 03:47:31 AMDoes the drive itself and/or your BIOS have any sort of security / passwords set / active? I think TPM (Trusted Platform Module) can also be an issue. And perhaps whether you are booting the UFD in legacy or UEFI mode. Disabling the fast startup in Windows may also help. Have you confirmed that the live Sparky UFD you're trying to use is bootable? That would also be worth confirming. A lot of these ideas I've just gotten from a quick online search on some key words related to this topic. Dual-booting Linux and Windows can be pretty tricky as there are multiple variables / settings and not all systems are the same, so sometimes you have to do some trial-and-error to figure things out. But I'm guessing it's highly likely this is not something specific to Sparky Linux. I think your specific target for trouble-shooting at this point is trying to figure out what is blocking access to your hard drive -- if you can figure that out, then that should help you figure out next steps. That's about all the ideas I can think of. Hope you'll be able to figure something out.

There are no passwords setup. TPM? I don't have that in BIOS but I know it's a Windows feature. It starts up as UEFI mode so I flashed it with GPT. Fast boot is disabled for the USB to work. It should be bootable and I just re-flashed the USB again. It just hangs after selecting Sparky US English with the Sparky blue background and loading infinitely. I did numerous searches on I/O error but I don't think it has to do with hardware as I've already ran crystaldiskmark and the HDD is fine. Yes, I am definitely sure that this isn't specific to Sparky Linux but I'm asking here anyways because I am not sure where else to ask. I have no clue what is blocking my drive. It's just a 2020 ASUS laptop and I barely changed any settings.

The .iso works fine on Virtualbox.

Could it be an OEM thing? I have a similar laptop to them. https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/15ac3j3/why_does_asus_hate_linux_first_experience_with/

The truth is, it is very likely. I also had ACPI issues when I booted it up as well ("Asus went out of their way to make not include their bios in APCI format. essentially it means its hardcoded into windows and has to be manually patched into your linux kernel by yourself. ok, cool. Even after doing this its still very finnicky and buggy, multiple people report the quality sounding worse or cutting off at certain volumes"). So yeah, I don't think my laptop plays nice with Linux so I won't be able to install it anytime soon.

ENTPRESTIGIOUS · March 25, 2024, 07:38:09 AM

I just tried booting from the USB on my PC and it works completely fine. So this is not a USB issue. I had no partitions on my PC. This is definitely something to do with the laptop itself.

duststuff · March 25, 2024, 08:50:56 AM

Yeah, I'm guessing either the laptop or the drive; if you wanted to know for sure, you could pull the drive and hook it up to another system to test, etc. The other thing you could try is searching with the key word 'Debian' (since that is what Sparky is based on, and is more common; I think Sparky 7 is built on Debian 12) along with the make and model of your laptop to see if others have had issues and if there are any workarounds / fixes. If you had a spare laptop drive you could also try that in your laptop and see if you can do a clean Sparky-only install on that. Or another thing to try that might give you some helpful info is to pull the laptop drive and see if your laptop will then boot the live Sparky UFD. Both of these last two might help you figure out whether it's an issue with the laptop / BIOS itself or whether it has to do with the drive and/or Windows interfering in some way.

ENTPRESTIGIOUS · March 25, 2024, 07:41:23 PM

I don't know what happened today but the installer seems to working. All I did was just plug the USB in before startup to another USB port and the I/O error went away. Since it couldn't read my SSD, I changed the SATA configuration to AHCI or whatever and it works now. However, whenever I switch to Windows I need to change my SATA configuration to Intel RST every time.

duststuff · March 26, 2024, 02:30:11 AM

Glad to hear it's working and that you seem to have found a workable solution. I've read online that AHCI is the best setting for SSD's. If I remember right, Intel RST is a feature that uses caching to help Windows boot and/or run faster. It may be possible to set your Windows up so it will work with the AHCI setting, but not sure what that would involve (maybe a re-install of Windows?), how much it would affect Windows performance, and whether it's worth the trouble for your use case. If you won't be doing a lot of switching back and forth, the present workaround is probably easiest / best.

If you feel like this issue's been resolved for you, it would be great if you could edit the title of this topic to include '[Solved]', as this will help others in the future who are searching for solutions.

ENTPRESTIGIOUS · March 26, 2024, 08:51:48 PM

Quote from: duststuff on March 26, 2024, 02:30:11 AMGlad to hear it's working and that you seem to have found a workable solution. I've read online that AHCI is the best setting for SSD's. If I remember right, Intel RST is a feature that uses caching to help Windows boot and/or run faster. It may be possible to set your Windows up so it will work with the AHCI setting, but not sure what that would involve (maybe a re-install of Windows?), how much it would affect Windows performance, and whether it's worth the trouble for your use case. If you won't be doing a lot of switching back and forth, the present workaround is probably easiest / best.

If you feel like this issue's been resolved for you, it would be great if you could edit the title of this topic to include '[Solved]', as this will help others in the future who are searching for solutions.

I did look over it and saw something related to booting Windows in safe mode and then configuring it back to AHCI. Intel RST from what I heard is a gimmick and it's more of a marketing thing. But yeah, it's fine for me since I'll be using Sparky most of the time.