(help) Calamares is the problem and thus is the cure

#1

I heard that the installation method ‘thus’ is no longer being used replaced by ‘calamares’ which for me is a problem. My PC is a Dell Dimension 9100 and does not like calamares. Whenever I have tried to use it, I would get to the part where the next step would be to start the installation but I find myself booted back to the Start screen. No reason why, but there I am. Previously I could continue to install using Thus except now that is not an option. I did not get any warnings as I was following the same steps I would have been using with Thus.

The obvious option I will be told is to use the CLI method to install Manjaro. True, however, I have never been able to get over feeling intimidated by that method. Also, I have two other Linux distros on my machine; openSUSE Leap (42.1) and LinuxMint 18. I have googled for a method using the CLI with two already installed distros but have been unable to find it.

A question, if I have an installation disc which still has Thus as one of the installation methods could I use it to safely install that Manjaro?

How can I phrase my search question to get a better response?

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#2

Not sure if this will help, but I’ve had issues in the past with the partitioning section of Calamares to the point where I now pre-partition my disk using Gparted and select the mount point for each in the installer. Maybe give that a go before you try anything else?

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#3

I’m beginner also but my guess would be, sure it should be OK. Luckily Manjaro is rolling distro, you can use two years old distro, install it and update it. Updating will take longer of course.

That being said I would second what @sothis6881 said. I had the same problem, first time I tried to install Manjaro I got stuck and after someone told me to use gParted for partitioning, since then I always use gParted first. Maybe this will help you also, who knows

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#4

You can help us to debug calamares, open a terminal in the live session and run calamares -d
Post the verbose output in our bug trucker
www.bugs.manjaro.org or open in calamares trucker. Thus is deprecated it is in our repo but the future is calamares.

#5

@Mithraidates Have you tried Calamares recently? It has been greatly improved since it was first introduced into Manjaro. I previously had issues with it, but the version included with the newest installation media worked flawlessly on my laptop. The Manjaro developers are confident enough in it to no longer include Thus as a backup plan.

#6

I have the info from ‘calamares -d’, now I need i know specifically where to post it?

#7

I did try Calamares with a new Manjaro XFCE 16.08 DVD, and it did the same thing sent me right back to back to square one. I even used Gparted and had a partition ready but it did no good.

#8

the latest in kde version did not improve… i had to resort to Thus to install KDE on my friend’s HP laptop [dont remember the model, though… but it was around 6 yrs old]… just pitching my observations on calamares

EDIT: installed some 15 to 20 days back i think…

#9

I searched tnrough the installation discs I ahve those I burned and those that came from ‘OSDisc.com’ and found a ‘Manjaro Cinnamon’ installation disc from ‘OSDisc.com’ It had ‘Thus’ and as a result I was able to install tht version of Manjarro.

While that is good and I am glad I again have Manjaro on my PC. I am still in somewhat of a quandrary when it come to the newer Manjaro’s that do not have ‘Thus’.

‘Ste74’ I hvae the information saved and have been to “www.bugs.manjaro.org”. I could post the info I have if I knew where? I googled ‘Calamares Tracker’ and its page was equally confusing.

#10

Calamares web site
Calamares bug tracker (need registration)

#11

I will check it out as soon as I return from the Hospital, where I am schedule for surgery 9/22/16

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#12

Hope the surgery went well @Mithraidates. I must agree, with Calamares I have issues with the bootloader not working no matter what I choose, and with Thus things just worked. I trued setting my bios to UEFI, then non-UEFI, got the HDD set as first boot, tried all options for bootloader in Calamares and nothing, I always get the non-bootable disc error after install. I will go back to when we used Thus, but Calamares just does not work. I am using an HP Probook 6470b laptop for reference.

#13

Calamares for me worked first time but I did notice some issues during the disk partitioning stage where it seems to want to install grub onto the USB device, obviously a bad choice. You can change it and then go to create the partitions and have to change it again.

If I hadn’t noticed it had changed back to the USB device it could very well have failed to install. Must be the way the disk devices are numbered in that it always selects the first device until you update the selection.

@Mithraidates, possibly this is what is causing your install to fail and return you to the start screen?

Installation problem
#14

I am still having issues, I can not install any flavor of Manjaro on the laptop, and I never had this issue with Thus. The bootloader is set to the hard drive, everything looks right, but when it restarts I get a “no operating system found” error. Fastboot is off and the BIOS is even set to non-UEFI. though I tried it with UEFI enabled. I don’t understand why we dropped Thus, it just worked.

#15

I’ve been using Linux since the first version of Slackware, so I’ve seen a bit. Calamares sure didn’t work for me. It failed with a variety of messages, “Can’t write the MBR,” “Can’t read an image,” “partition doesn’t exist,” and a couple of others. So I tried Thus and presto, first time it installed with no problems. I realize the difficulties in creating a general purpose installer, but at the very least, it has to be able to partition a disk, write to it and handle things that aren’t quite right.

I have a simple WD 2 TB hard drive that had been partitioned previously. I repartitioned it, but once Calamares failed to write the MBR, which may have hosed the partition table, it couldn’t seem to get past that.

#16

Had a weird experience.
I installed 16.10.2 on my friends netbook with no problem. Have had no problems with my laptop as well. Used Calamares on both.
So we started to install it on his latop and it wouldn’t boot after install. Did this 4 times. Chroot into the drive and it was fine, grub was fine. So i went back and got the 16.06.1 with Thus. Loaded it and installed and it now boots no problem. I like calamares but Thus would be a solid option to have just in in case.

#17

It seems that you are facing issue in installing manjaro from disc. So here i want to share complete setup for you which i get from Dell Dimension 9100 Manual::point_down:

  1. Insert a Blank disc into system.
  2. Start the Brasero software burner
  3. Click the Burn Image
  4. Click the button beneath the title Select a disc image to write to open up your file manager, double-click the downloaded ISO file to load it. .
  5. Select a disc to write to the blank CD/DVD inserted should already have been automatically listed. Otherwise, click the button to select it manually.
  6. Click the properties button to open the properties window, and then click the button beneath the title Burning Speed. Again, it is strongly recommended to select the slowest speed available. Once selected, click the Close button.
  7. Click the Burn button to start the burning process. If necessary, follow any on-screen instructions provided.

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