minstall problem and a Question

[AK-47]

rs55, While I understand your frustration, in order for us to help you with this problem this requires some co-operation on your end also. The 19.4 installer is not supported on MX 18.3 and may end up making your situation worse.

Yes, you provided the minstall.log, but I need the rest of the information as well.
Now, from the log you provided, it looks as if the installer had trouble picking up the user accounts on your particular setup.

Here are the commands I need you to run while inside the live snapshot:

Code: Select all

ls -als /home
grep -E '^UID_MIN|^UID_MAX' /etc/login.defs
getent passwd {1000..60000}

I need the output of all three of these commands so that I can work out why the installer isn't picking up your user accounts.

If you're having trouble copying from the terminal directly, you can save this to a script file (eg. script.sh) and run:

Code: Select all

sh script.sh > userout.txt

You can copy and attach the userout.txt file here the same way you did the log file.

You have now been requested 3 times to provide this information, so I won't be responding further unless this is provided.
The only exception is if you are having any trouble getting this information, in which case, please let me know.

[dolphin_oracle]

R55, you should input your original name and password in the text fields to get the error, and hopefully that will be recorded in the logs.

Its getting late here - Iam going to call it a night! Will try and get you this info over the next day or so. In the meantime maybe you can try installing a Personal Snapshot - burned on to usb with LUM. And try the installer. This feels like a design issue to me - highly unlikely to be specific to my thinkpad .

FWIW, that is exactly what I spent yesterday doing.

i don't think its specific to your thinkpad but it might be specific to some combination of stuff for your username or perhaps something else. It certainly bears investigating.

[dolphin_oracle]

I want to say here that I've been working with several snapshots and personal snapshots today, and so far the latest version of the installer is working as intended. the user creation screen has not been offerred on personal snapshot installations, from either iso files or from live-USBs, on several different machines.

so maybe the bug rs55 encountered has been fixed.

dolphin - could you check what version of minstall you have? Thanks a lot.

19.5.2 is the one I used. I thought it was one of the 19.6's but it wasn't.

[Paul..]

@rs55, can you give us some example usernames you have tried to enter on that page that have failed...possibly use a camera or the 'screenshot' app to capture the error message(s) that are generated when the usernames are rejected?

[dolphin_oracle]

quick question...does the demo account still exist on your personal snapshot?

[rs55]

rs55, While I understand your frustration, in order for us to help you with this problem this requires some co-operation on your end also. The 19.4 installer is not supported on MX 18.3 and may end up making your situation worse.

Yes, you provided the minstall.log, but I need the rest of the information as well.
Now, from the log you provided, it looks as if the installer had trouble picking up the user accounts on your particular setup.

Here are the commands I need you to run while inside the live snapshot:

Code: Select all

ls -als /home
grep -E '^UID_MIN|^UID_MAX' /etc/login.defs
getent passwd {1000..60000}

I need the output of all three of these commands so that I can work out why the installer isn't picking up your user accounts.

If you're having trouble copying from the terminal directly, you can save this to a script file (eg. script.sh) and run:

Code: Select all

sh script.sh > userout.txt

You can copy and attach the userout.txt file here the same way you did the log file.

You have now been requested 3 times to provide this information, so I won't be responding further unless this is provided.
The only exception is if you are having any trouble getting this information, in which case, please let me know.

OK attached is the file with your requests:

userout.txt

[rs55]

quick question...does the demo account still exist on your personal snapshot?

No - no Demo - just root and rs

[rs55]

quick question...does the demo account still exist on your personal snapshot?

One other thing: I dont check the box that says "preserve data in /home....". I dont have a separate /home partition . I am not exactly sure what this does - but I dont check the box.

[rs55]

quick question...does the demo account still exist on your personal snapshot?

One other thing: I dont check the box that says "preserve data in /home....". I dont have a separate /home partition . I am not exactly sure what this does - but I dont check the box.

My logic: My new snapshot/LUM may have included many changes to /home , which I want to install on the new machine. So , I dont want to preserve whatever old /home was on the new machine.

[Artim]

MX has a huge opportunity in front of it. <snipped for brevity> It is important to define your audience as you make changes to key components of the system - like the installer. After all if the installer is finicky - new users will just move on and miss out on the great MX experience.

<snippeted>

... if you make design choices that makes life a teeny bit easier for them while breaking important functionality for the average home user - you will be missing out on a huge potential audience. When it comes to trade-offs, I would suggest making it foolproof and consistent for the home user. The enthusiast crowd is in any event more sophisticated and probably don't need hand-holding.

The installer, in particular, is the main reason why I have promoted Linux Mint or Linux Lite for newbies who will be installing it themselves. When I do the installation on a newbie's computer myself, I choose MX!

I was one of those newbies who missed out on the great MX experience for a while precisely because of the installer being a confusing and scary thing. Granted I'm a technophobe anyway, from a race of technophobes (see my profile). But even people who are not so easily put off by technology are scared off by complicated stuff with warnings about wiping out the known universe if you make a bad choice, lol.