Guide to Reporting Installation Issues

When you run into problems installing MX Linux XFCE
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AK-47
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Guide to Reporting Installation Issues

#1 Post by AK-47 »

If you have any issues with installation, it is important that we have as much information as you can give us about the installation so that we can properly diagnose the issue. The following applies to both MX Linux and antiX Linux.

By following this guide, you can write a good report that will help us resolve the issue which you are experiencing.


Make sure you are reporting on the right components

Consult the guide on how to ask for help before posting. It complements this guide to reporting installation issues.

In particular, make sure the thread title and content is perfectly clear on what component(s) you are facing issues with. For instance, the MX Installer is not the same thing as the MX Package Installer.


Make sure the installer you have is up to date

If you are experiencing an installation issue such as freezing or the installer not behaving the way it should, try and update to the latest installer code to see if your problem has been fixed. You can do this by using the MX Updater in the live system, or using apt:

Code: Select all

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mx-installer
If you decided not to upgrade the installer, please provide a reason for not upgrading before reporting.

:exclamation: Please ensure all important data and files (including snapshots) are backed up before using an upgraded installer. While the upgraded installer includes many improvements from the original installer present on the MX and antiX release media, it may contain new bugs and has not received as much testing as the installer on the official MX and antiX releases.

Image A developer or guide may point you to a link that allows you to download a .deb file for your system. Such a file can be opened using the Deb Installer (or with sudo dpkg -i <name-of-deb-file>) on the live system to update the installer, and may contain specifically tailored fixes or debugging code for your situation. If you want your issue resolved in a timely manner, please follow such requests.

If upgrading the installer works for you, please let us know! Likewise, please advise if the upgrade made the issue worse.


Describe the components of your system

While in the live media, use the Quick System Info (QSI) tool and include its output in your post. Also give us some information about anything such as RAID controllers, drives with special interfaces, or any other relevant information.

Please describe the components of your system in addition to posting the Quick System Info, how old the system is, etc. Although it seems like you'll be repeating what the Quick System Info will point out, we need to know if there's any hardware that isn't being detected by the operating system, or is being detected as something else.

Image The Quick System Info utility on MX Linux 21 and later can save both the Quick System Info and minstall.log in a zip file, which can be attached to your post. If using this method, there is no need to paste the output into the post itself. On antiX you can use inxi -Fxzrs > sysinfo.txt and provide the sysinfo.txt file that is created.


Tell us what kind of configuration you are trying to achieve

Are you trying to quad-boot with Windows, Android, MX Linux, and QNX Neutrino RTOS all onto a single SSD?
Are you trying to dual-boot MX Linux and Fedora with a shared swap, and some shared data drive?
Or perhaps you're just trying to do a standard, regular installation of MX Linux on a single drive using the defaults?

Whatever configuration you're trying to achieve, we need to know about it before we can help you out. This is especially important if you have existing partitions or pre-formatted disk drives that become corrupted during the installation.


Provide as much detail as you can, about what happened.

Saying "it didn't install" without giving us much information to work with will not help very much. Remember, when we test the installer, it works for us, but we can't always test things in your exact circumstances. It is not possible for developers to have the hardware and software that every single user has. By providing as much information as you can about what happened and the circumstances behind what happened, this will help us figure out what is going on.


Provide us with the installation logs

The installer will create a log of the last installation, stored in /var/log/minstall.log.
If the installation is not complete and you can't boot into the new MX Linux system, include the contents of /var/log/minstall.log in your post.

The log file is important for us to diagnose problems, but it is still important for you to give us the information listed above. We require both the log as well as the above information to help us solve your problem. On MX Linux 21 and later, this can all be obtained using the Quick System Info utility.


Additional instructions and requests for information

Depending on your circumstances, we may request additional information from you, even if you have provided all the requested information. It is important for you to provide us the information that we request in order to help us resolve the problem you are experiencing.

We may eventually advise you to test out updated or unreleased versions of the installer in order to determine if your issue is successfully resolved with updated code. These versions will typically arrive in the form of Debian packages which can be used to upgrade the installer on the running live system using gdebi or dpkg -i <deb-file>.

Please be patient and cooperate with the development team as well as regular users who are trying to help. Resolving installation problems (and in fact, any problem) can take some time, depending on the circumstances.


About private messages

If you have to send a private message to developers regarding your issue, please also add the Development Team user group to the list of recipients (CC) so that the entire development team can receive your message.

Please do not send private messages about the issue you are having, unless a developer has told you to do so, or the information is of a sensitive nature.

:exclamation: It is your responsibility to ensure what you provide is not sensitive. The installer should never save user names and passwords (including disk encryption passwords) in the log or configuration files, nor should it be in the system info.
Please review all this carefully before posting. If you see this information in any of the files or output you are about to post, please do not post it and report this immediately to the Development Team.


Patience is a virtue

Although we try to get issues resolved in a timely manner, please remember that the developers are all volunteers, and both antiX and MX Linux are projects that rely on donations and volunteer time.
Again, by following this guide and writing a good report of the issues, we can often resolve these problems quicker.

A lot of time is spent asking more information and waiting for a response, so the more information you provide about the problems, the better. Even if you do not think it will be useful, it's better than having too little information and missing out on important details.

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