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MysticLord

Member

Registered: 2019-02-23

Posts: 27  

[solved]Paused at installing grub?

I'm at the point where the installer terminal spits out 2 formatted notifications about updating grub. It says there's a menu but nothing is coming up. Did I screw something up?

Live cd amd64.

Edit

after waiting 10 minutes, I exited the terminal and rebooted to find that grub was not found. How long does it take to install grub?

Edit

Choose copy file option on 2nd install attempt, same thing happened. Could really use help.

Edit

Do I have to install grub manually?

Help

edit

I've installed Mint Debian 3 but I am seriously annoyed by how much ram it uses (1.1 GB with just a web browser open). I only have 4 GB and I'm afraid to use swap on a machine with such an old hard drive. Someone please help me figure out what I'm doing wrong so I can use devuan instead and get my ram usage down to a more reasonable 300 or so megabytes.

If you need me to answer clarifying questions I am happy to do so.

Last edited by MysticLord (2019-05-18 18:53:30)

PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 272  

Website

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

I don't know about your GRUB issue, sorry; but, could be installing LILO an option for you? You can try if you can boot your sistem with LILO (I do).

Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 288  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

If memory use is an issue for you, don't use Devuan or any other main distro. Instead, switch to a lean system like LFS (Linux from scratch). Having said that, I'd recommend updating your hardware, starting with the old harddrive. Refurbished drives don't cost a lot and even new ones don't break the bank anymore. BTW: Linux uses as much RAM as it can find and has pretty good memory-housekeeping in the kernel.

As for Grub: yes, it takes time, especially on older hardware (which you implicate you have).

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

You should not have to install grub manually. If you saw a "copy files" button, then that was the right one to pick. That causes the grub-pc package to be installed and gives you the blue debconf windows for choosing the location.

When it hangs, take a look in /var/log/refractainstaller.log (or refractainstaller_error(s).log depending on the version) or post/paste it somewhere for me to see.

Does your hard drive have msdos or gpt partition table?

MysticLord

Member

Registered: 2019-02-23

Posts: 27  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

msdos partition table, booting in legacy mode.

The blue windows for choosing the location never appeared, instead the installation terminal gave a message formatted to look like a dialog box which did not respond to clicks (what I expected) or clicking into the terminal and hitting Enter. I didn't think to Ctrl C or Ctrl Z in the terminal so I'll try that the next time I attempt to install later today.

Panopticon

Member

Registered: 2018-01-27

Posts: 306  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

What version of devuan are you installing, what did you download and put to usb stick or dvd/cd  ?
Are you dual/multi booting?

I am a bit confused as fsmithread seems to think you are using refracta installer but i dont think pure devuan uses refracta installer?

Last edited by Panopticon (2019-05-18 15:44:02)

MysticLord

Member

Registered: 2019-02-23

Posts: 27  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

ASCII, desktop live. The laptop I just got came with Linux Mint installed so I used the mint USB image formatter and writer to create a bootable USB drive, as I don't have a dvd or cd drive. I'm not dual/multibooting, I just got installed Mint again so I would have a functional OS to post on the internet.

Downloaded from here, the amd64 version:
https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/devu … ktop-live/

PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 272  

Website

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

ASCII, desktop live.

I would try standard Devuan ASCII instalation.

MysticLord

Member

Registered: 2019-02-23

Posts: 27  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

Is it possible to run that from a flash drive?

edit

I'll find out!

Last edited by MysticLord (2019-05-18 15:56:43)

Panopticon

Member

Registered: 2018-01-27

Posts: 306  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

Use the installer iso's located here https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/devu … aller-iso/

Have a read of this https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/devu … README.txt

Im assuming you have a 64bit computer, if so choose the first iso amd64_cd_1.iso

The default desktop is XFCE4. Just go with that, it is a good lean desktop that will be easy on memory.

Last edited by Panopticon (2019-05-18 16:18:49)

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,345  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

There are also install guides with screenshots posted on the website that might be helpful. And on the index page a description of what the various installers provide.

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PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 272  

Website

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

I only have 4 GB

I don't know the uses you are planning for you computer, but in my use cases 4 GB is a lot of memory. (I'm kind of a heavy user).

My main laptop has 1 GB and run Devuan ASCII 64 bits very easily.

MysticLord

Member

Registered: 2019-02-23

Posts: 27  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

I only have 4 GB

I don't know the uses you are planning for you computer, but in my use cases 4 GB is a lot of memory. (I'm kind of a heavy user).

My main laptop has 1 GB and run Devuan ASCII 64 bits very easily.

I have a poorly-thought-out print-differences script I use that regularly eats up 7/8 of available memory. Diff-ing two 700 MB disc images is relatively memory intensive. Some of that may be because I use java.

Other than that I want to teach myself C and I figure I'll extra RAM will come in handy for when I screw up and a process eats O(n) memory in O(n) time... A few extra seconds to hit Ctrl + Z before my OS does who knows what when it runs out of memory.

I'm mostly self-taught and not well off at all, hence my weak hardware and paranoia about my hard drive failing if I have a swap partition that gets use periodically when something goes wrong. My hope is to get a job as a C programmer in a few years and move overseas.

On topic, I opted to install the DVD here:
https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/devu … _dvd-1.iso

I'm doing this because this (https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/devu … README.txt) recommends I use the DVD for an offline install. I'll burn it to a USB in a few minutes and let you know if I have any errors.

PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 272  

Website

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

Diff-ing two 700 MB disc images is relatively memory intensive.

Agreed.

I want to teach myself C and I figure I'll extra RAM will come in handy for when I screw up and a process eats O(n) memory in O(n) time...

I have no direct experience about this, but this info could be relevant: http://coldattic.info/post/40/

I'm mostly self-taught ... My hope is to get a job as a C programmer

So, be prepared to the more bizarre behaviour of your programs (I've been there)

On topic, I opted to install the DVD ... in a few minutes and let you know if I have any errors.

Looking forward. Best luck

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

That thing that looked like a dialog box was a dialog box. It won't respond to clicks. Use arrows and tab to navigate, space bar to select/unselect and enter to confirm an OK.

Future releases will have a real graphical debconf frontend. (thanks, miyo!)

MysticLord

Member

Registered: 2019-02-23

Posts: 27  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

Installation is working, thanks for the help everyone!

That thing that looked like a dialog box was a dialog box. It won't respond to clicks. Use arrows and tab to navigate, space bar to select/unselect and enter to confirm an OK.

Future releases will have a real graphical debconf frontend. (thanks, miyo!)

It would let me select an drive to install grub and then nothing would happen. I left it alone for 45 minutes last night and nothing happened.

PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 272  

Website

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

Installation is working

Glad to know

Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 288  

Re: [solved]Paused at installing grub?

I'm mostly self-taught and not well off at all, hence my weak hardware and paranoia about my hard drive failing

Unfortunately, this forum doesn't have a private message function, so I'd have to ask here instead. Sorry.

Where are you located and is your hard-drive (what size/capacity?) SATA or IDE? I may have a spare drive available if shipping costs don't spiral out of control. (as I'm also not well off, but probably better then yourself, judging from your description)

PS: for ease of mind, install Gsmartcontrol and have it run a short self-test on your disk. SMART is the tool interface for monitoring disk-health.