Well at least you won't need to upgrade the RAM again.
Can you please run the installer Adrian mentioned above, and post the terminal output? Use: sudo -E minstall > installation.txt
There's a new release about to come out, and if there is a bug I may be able to fix it.
Ok, thank you for advice, I will try this beta installer this evening (and post here terminal output).
The drive is WD800 (WD Caviar) Western Digital 80.0 GB - ATA. Drive is ok, it was tested with GSmartControl - all tests run fine.
Computer has (in specification) 512 MB RAM, but inxi -F shows only 367 MB.
Other USB drive (pendrive) - 1 GB with SWAP (partition)
Another USB is MX 18.2 32 bit Live-USB (remastered).
I've tested WD800 with gpt and ms-dos partion table - both the same results - 72.5 GB SWAP.
Also, it is remastered MX 18.2 Live-USB (only current updates and AnyDesk and TeamViewer installed), so I'll try installing (for test) with 18.2 ISO without remastering as well.
Ok, I think I can say the problem is solved. Actually it is maybe not even a problem - well, bad luck.
TL;DR
I think MX Installer is fine. The possible problem/cause was my specific (rare, low RAM) configuration with 1GB SWAP partition on USB.
Actually, I didn't test suggested 'beta' version of installer.
Explanation:
The possible cause could be initially (I suppose) my USB drive with 1 GB SWAP partition.
When Minstall starts formating partitions, at the beginning there is swapoff process. Because this exact computer had only 367 MB physical RAM and AnyDesk was running (I don't remember, but RAM + SWAP could have together 400-500 MB or more) - something went wrong.
Minstall formated WD 80GB drive and there were some labels (probably in Partition Table).
Later in cfdisk I saw:
Filesystem LABEL: swap
Filesystem: SWAP
Mountpoint: SWAP
(or something like that)
Reformatting partition (removing, changing etc.) in GParted didn't help at the beginning. There were still such labels, so next minstall and formatting gave the same results (72.5 GB SWAP).
I don't know what worked, but I did many things and trials (in GParted, cfdisk, changing UUID, reformatting, removing swap entry from /etc/fstab etc.) - at the end there was WD 80GB drive without any labels.
Then I tested minstall (installation on hard drive) with two different MX 18.2 Live-USB - with option A) 1 GB SWAP partition on USB, and option B) without that 1GB SWAP on USB - everything went ok. (about 270-280 MB RAM was enough for running installation and auto-formatting, and after a few seconds freshly created SWAP was started) (and I didn't run AnyDesk this time)
To sum up: average, new user should be fine with auto-install. My configuration is really rare (low RAM plus SWAP on USB), experimental and unusual. At the moment I cannot repeat install with similar result (error) so...
Anyway, I'll try later that 'beta' installer to see how it works.
In this new installer the "swapoff -a" occurs as soon as you click Next the first time (on the terms page), so relevant issues will be picked up way before the install process starts.
I thought about disabling it just for the drive it was being installed on, but that would mean you'd likely end up in the same mess because this would have to happen right before the partitioning stage after the disk selections are made.
In this new installer the "swapoff -a" occurs as soon as you click Next the first time (on the terms page), so relevant issues will be picked up way before the install process starts.
I thought about disabling it just for the drive it was being installed on, but that would mean you'd likely end up in the same mess because this would have to happen right before the partitioning stage after the disk selections are made.
Ok, thank you, I'll use these two and test with installations.
Actually, I did try another installation and manage to install without initial SWAP on USB, with some unneeded services/processes killed, with AnyDesk running and transmitting screen to another computer - and maximum RAM usage was from 270 to 275 MB (and then SWAP was created on hard drive by minstall, so computer could use it).
I need that AnyDesk running during installation(s) because I'm making some screencasts/tutorials from these installations, so another computer is recording the process.
By the way, it's fascinating, spectacular and beautiful that MX can be installed in GUI with such a low RAM consumption It's real pleasure to observe that process.
It's real pleasure to observe that process.
