HP 6910p and installing Kali Linux 1.0.4 amd64

[JTD121]

Hey all, newb here, to Kali, but have used BT4/5 previously!

I have made a thread on Ars Technica's forum, which didn't really help. I post it here for further information, so I don't necessarily have to type it all up again.

I have myself an HP 6910p, with Radeon Mobility X2300, 64MB w/Hypermemory (128MB total). The problem seems to be, one, the installer doesn't always detect all my hardware (Intel WiFi is hit/miss); doesn't seem to like my WPA2 passphrase (will connect to a neighbors' just fine, though); most importantly, will not boot after install.

Possibly important facts: (1)There is a Kingston 60GB SSD installed. Not sure if there's an issue there, but it does seem to see it and install to it. (2) I am a Linux internals newbie, so articles that explain how to install the Radeon blob drivers, assume I am already in a working Linux system. As it is, I have left the system 'booting' for about half an hour a couple times.

I have tried vanilla Debian 7.1.0, and Ubuntu (recent release), and those both detected everything, installed, and booted just fine, first time. I have also burned the Kali ISO to DVD+RW, in case that might have been the case. Swapped around USB sticks, made absolutely sure the checksum included in the torrent was the same, and valid.

Used Rufus and UNetBootin to put the ISO to USB sticks.

Any suggestions?

[maverik35]

Yes, one suggestion, a big one, if using USB, read here: http://docs.kali.org/installation/ka...ve-usb-install

I don't know why you are using Rufus or any other software to write an ISO to a USB stick..Clearly the USB install states ONLY 2 methods: Win32 Disk Imager and dd command...

First try installing as stated in Kali Documentation and then if any issue merges, we can help..

[JTD121]

Thanks for the reply full of snark. However, that doesn't at all address the issue of the DVD+RW 'version' also not booting, and that being before I attempted to boot/install with a USB stick.

I will definitely use the Win32 Disk Imager when I get home, though.

[JTD121]

Right, so I went through Win32 Disk Imager, and my problem still persists, getting stuck on 'Waiting for /dev to be fully populated', specifically at '[drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query' regardless of the 'nomodeset' in the GRUB edited boot, or using the recovery option.

I mentioned I used Rufus and UNetBootin because they worked perfectly fine for the other two distros I mentioned using (vanilla Debian 7.1.0 and Ubuntu). They installed and booted fine using either method of USB install.

Neither of them had this problem booting, though, and you haven't really helped regardless of my method of installing Kali Linux. It has nothing to to with the method of install, whether is be a disc, or a USB drive. This is a post-install issue. Please treat it as such.

[charonsecurity]

maverik35 has often great advice. You didn't mention the issue of "waiting for /dev" in the first post, that would have been a great help. Using a RW may have issues depending of the drives or bios firmware or settings. As for where you are hanging, it maybe some hardware is holding up the process, ie external webcam or storage device. You may want to disconnect everything non essential for the install. Also try to see if it works in live mode. nomodeset is for graphics.

[JTD121]

Thanks for the reply, but I did link to a previous unhelpful thread I put up on the Ars Technica forums. That had all the technical information that should have pointed out this is a post-install hangup problem.

You may also recall, this is a laptop, do the few things I can disconnect are the optical drive, and battery. And I did tell you what the device is, it's being halted by drm, which is the Direct Rendering Manager, according to a few articles I've read on replacing/upgrading the Radeon driver in Linux.

So other than the extremely unhelpful 'Use the officially supported USB install method', I am still stuck with an un-bootable system. I might as well go with vanilla Debian and just install some of the Kali packages I want to use.

[herroldj]

I'm also having the exact same issue. If I run the 64bit verison it hangs at waiting to populate /dev. The 32bit version hangs at the drm screen. I have tried burning the iso's with iso recorder, iso usb burner to do the usb install, and dd command under backtrack 5r3. I am able to install Debian Wheezy 32 and 64 without any issues. I have tried pulling the the cd drive. I can try pulling the intel wlan card and report back I know it needs a driver pack to work wheezy. It does have a wwan port but I have it disabled in bios. Anymore ideas?

[Shpiip]

I have the exact same computer and probably the same problem too. I checked out the other thread and noticed you have that problem, have you tried installing instead of a live boot? I tried a live boot and got stuck too, then I tried installing on a HDD and it worked perfectly. Not perfectly tho, now I have Kali on my HDD but I can't boot this **** because I'm getting: waiting to populate /dev. I'll post here again if I find a solution.

[barry99705]

I have the exact same computer and probably the same problem too. I checked out the other thread and noticed you have that problem, have you tried installing instead of a live boot? I tried a live boot and got stuck too, then I tried installing on a HDD and it worked perfectly. Not perfectly tho, now I have Kali on my HDD but I can't boot this **** because I'm getting: waiting to populate /dev. I'll post here again if I find a solution.

1.0 will work if installed. Once you upgrade to 1.5 you're ****. Mine has been working great until the 1.0.5 update. Wanted to install that so I could play around with the software defined radio stuff.

[JTD121]

That's not helpful at all. And I think you mean the 1.0.5 release? Unless there has been some kind of fork or 'bleeding edge' release I'm not aware of.

Currently this laptop is running CrunchBang (#!) Linux, and beautifully at that. Even have upgraded AMD drivers and better CPU thermal throttle control! :-)

[barry99705]

That's not helpful at all. And I think you mean the 1.0.5 release? Unless there has been some kind of fork or 'bleeding edge' release I'm not aware of.

Currently this laptop is running CrunchBang (#!) Linux, and beautifully at that. Even have upgraded AMD drivers and better CPU thermal throttle control! :-)

Yea, I meant 1.0.5... My laptop which is the 6910p freezes with "udev specified group pcscd unknown" and "waiting for /dev to populate" errors. Until whatever got changed for the udev rules that cause the error gets fixed, upgrading to 1.0.5 will break the install.

[blackMORE]

You may also recall, this is a laptop, do the few things I can disconnect are the optical drive, and battery. And I did tell you what the device is, it's being halted by drm, which is the Direct Rendering Manager, according to a few articles I've read on replacing/upgrading the Radeon driver in Linux.

You should be able to disable SSD drive in BIOS. I've got a different laptop, apparently if I have "Fastboot" options turned on in BIOS, USB doesn't even boot. Another options is to load SAFE Settings in BIOS (most BIOS got it these days) and work backwards.
I used both Kali's official dd method, DVD-RW disk, and Universal USB Installer. Except for few instances when I downloaded new ISO from Kali Website using HTTP, it got corrupted. Kali website doesn't do too well resuming downloads and often download gets cut off at random %.
My final download was via torrent for 1.0.5-x64 and it worked fine with Universal USB Installer. (apparently they included Kali, so there's that good thing going).

[barry99705]

What's really annoying is the latest version of Ubuntu 13.10 works just fine.

[JTD121]

You should be able to disable SSD drive in BIOS. I've got a different laptop, apparently if I have "Fastboot" options turned on in BIOS, USB doesn't even boot. Another options is to load SAFE Settings in BIOS (most BIOS got it these days) and work backwards.
I used both Kali's official dd method, DVD-RW disk, and Universal USB Installer. Except for few instances when I downloaded new ISO from Kali Website using HTTP, it got corrupted. Kali website doesn't do too well resuming downloads and often download gets cut off at random %.
My final download was via torrent for 1.0.5-x64 and it worked fine with Universal USB Installer. (apparently they included Kali, so there's that good thing going).

While I understand you are attempting to help, this is not at all helpful.

Disabling the SSD? Why would that possibly help? The SSD in the laptop is the main drive to install things upon.

And you can use the torrent, and check the SHA1 checksum. Much faster to download, plus you get to give back!

Again, it's NOT the installation that's the issue. I can install fine. I can't get Kali to BOOT after installing. Even running the Live version, doesn't work. At all.

And yeah, Ubuntu works, vanilla Debian works (both Ubuntu and Kali are Deb-based). Mint, SuSE, Fedora. All install and run fine.

[maverik35]

You need to be more humble when trying to get some help from members. First, we the community are not forced to help, but we do invest our free time helping others when we could be enjoying that time.

If you do not like the help that some members are giving you for FREE, just try to do it yourself, on your won. Perhaps you will answer yourself the same way you reply to others when trying to help you.

Who needs the help????? The one who ask for it.

Honestly, I do not want to waste my time as well as other's trying to help you.

[JTD121]

Sweet deal, then! I wasn't getting any help. As much as you might think you've been helping me, while avoiding the problem I'm having altogether, I have moved on to another distro.

But again, thanks for whatever help you've given, regardless of its worth to the solution to my problem.

[barry99705]

The problem is, your "help" isn't helping. If the only drive on the laptop is a solid state drive, "disabling the ssd in bios" is useless(which isn't really an option on the Hp's bios anyway). It's not a hardware or bios problem anyway, it's a kernel problem.