I am trying to install PureOS on my desktop. At the very end of the install procedure from my live USB boot drive, I get the following error (see picture):
It is important to note that I am currently using Linux Mint and Windows 10 in dual boot mode. I just wanted to try out PureOS on my system and see if I could get it to work properly. I have a 2TB SSD so space is not an issue here.
I assigned 50 GB for PureOS to make its own partition, which was successfully created. I was hoping to be able to boot to PureOS by simply selecting its boot partition in BIOS (not through the GRUB bootloader menu). Unfortunately I am still stuck at the installation phase. Not sure if the problem comes from Windows or from Linux Mint, which already uses GRUB.
Any help?
Edit: I have deleted my Linux Mint install as well as GRUB and the problem persists. I guess PureOS doesn’t like the Windows EFI partition?
@Daumer welcome to the forum.
To put it simple PureOS does not work with (U)EFI at all and needs a BIOS boot partition should be around 500Mb with the /boot mount point set.
But even if you get PureOS to boot it’ll probably not work well with your Hardware, due to the non free driver issue with most new Hardware components. See this Thread for example.
I think I already fixed the UEFI incompatibility issue by enabling Compatibility Support Module which allows booting in legacy BIOS mode instead of UEFI. Without CSM, the PureOS live boot USB drive wouldn’t even show up among the boot options in BIOS. Windows still has its own EFI partition, though.
I am aware of the hardware compatibility issues, I had already planned to get the necessary microcode for stuff like my Intel Wi-Fi card from the linux-firmware package. Not sure if it will work of course, but it’s worth giving it a try. However, if I can’t even install PureOS in the first place, then I’ll never know, right?
Can you tell me more about /boot mount point? I’m actually kind of a Linux noob but I like fiddling with stuff. I was looking for a clean Linux distro with frequent security updates for light tasks like browsing and office stuff, while using Windows for gaming only. If I can’t get PureOS to work then I’ll just go with Ubuntu. Mint unfortunately was giving me some strange bugs here and there.
I think the main point that error message points to is that your harddrive is configured as GPT compared to MBT used in the old Bios Systems. You might be able to change that but it could break your Windows System which I don’t think you want to happen. For the actual Installation with partitioning and everything you can find the information necessary for PureOS in the install instructions
If you just want to try out Linux on your PC you might want to try for example Pop OS created by System76 for their Linux PCs and Laptops which in designed to interface with most if the modern Hardware components including GPUs and so on.
Just to make sure that I don’t leave you with a false impression you don’t need to change the GPT Boot config if you use another Linux Distribution like Pop OS or for example Fedora which in my experience works really well with most hardware components.
It’s just Pure OS that requires a lot off special considerations due to it’s “pure” Nature meaning no binary Blobs. And with a typical PC hardware and a little bit of hardening they can be as secure as Pure OS, since it’s just a derivative of Debian with Gnome as Desktop environment with all the binary Drivers removed
If it were me, I would put the extra install on an external drive. Then you can give the entire external drive to the install and the installer can partition and format the external drive however it needs.
Do you have a spare external drive?
It is true that it may not run as quickly when running from an external drive but you are just trying it out, right?
Nothing that includes blobs can be provably secure. Security is an article of faith, in the presence of blobs.
However, as you imply, the kernel and the core application software need be no more and no less secure.
hello and welcome !
when i installed my PureOS on the Librem-Mini i took these steps :
create a new partition table > GPT (not really necessary for a thin client with 512 GB SSD < MBR should do fine)
create a 64 MB partition at the start of the disk space as unformated with bios-grub flag enabled
create a 465 GB partition with the mount point as / < ext4 encrypted LUKS - no flags set
create a 512 MB partition as ext4 not-encrypted with mount point set to /boot
the rest is a 34 GB unallocated disk space at the end of the drive ( since this machine has 32GB RAM < i might use it to enable swap at some point if required or for other purposes like setting up benchmark partition etc.)
the BOOT LOADER is set to the disk NOT in any particular partition because i don’t plan to share this internal drive with other BARE-METAL OS installations
so like kieran pointed above if you are all about sharing the disk space with other (potentially HOSTILE OSes) do consider MOVING the BOOT-LOADER someplace SAFE.
