Ubuntu

Ubuntu 20.04 installer can't find partitions

Asked by Viktor Karlsson on 2024-11-26

I am trying to install Ubuntu 20.04 via USB.
The goal is to have dual boot with windows 11(installed on disk 0) and ubuntu 20.04(supposed to be installed on disk 1).
I have previously succeeded in doing the same for ubuntu 24 on the same PC, so now i am trying to replace 24 with 20 due to a project not working with Ubuntu 24.
So i downloaded the 20.04 iso and flashed it onto a USB-drive and ran the installer. During the step "Installation type" i can see no partitions/hard drives. If i press the +/-/Change buttons it(ubiquity) crashes.
I cannot see the drives with lsblk either, but they show up and work properly if i boot into windows.

This worked with Ubuntu 24.04 as previously mentioned, so i know my machine has the capability of doing dual-boot.

Any thoughts why i cannot see the disks?

Additional info:
Fast boot = Disabled
Secure boot = Disabled
Disk to install on is cleared and unallocated through windows.

Question information

Language:: English Edit question

Status:: Answered

For:: Ubuntu Edit question

Assignee:: No assignee Edit question

Last query:: 2024-11-29

Last reply:: 2024-11-30

Link existing bug

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Viktor Karlsson (zartock) said on 2024-11-26:

Edit:
I tried booting the ubuntu24 iso, and the disks can be found with lsblk and during installation setup.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said on 2024-11-27:

Did you hibernate or suspend Windows before the install? This can cause issues.
You may also want to run a quick chkdsk in Windows to make sure the file system is complete and consistent. You can even resize the NTFS partition in Windows to leave unassigned space for the Ubuntu installer to use, rather than use the Ubuntu disk resizer.
NTFS is proprietary to Microsoft and only they know how it really works.

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Viktor Karlsson (zartock) said on 2024-11-28:

No hibernation or sleeping what i can see, just "pure" shutdown.

chkdsk outout:

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows.

WARNING! /F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
  546048 file records processed.
File verification completed.
Phase duration (File record verification): 4.10 seconds.
  25664 large file records processed.
Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 9.21 milliseconds.
  0 bad file records processed.
Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.24 milliseconds.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
  246 reparse records processed.
  725486 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
Phase duration (Index verification): 9.18 seconds.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 417.74 milliseconds.
  0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 0.28 milliseconds.
  246 reparse records processed.
Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 2.14 milliseconds.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 78.52 milliseconds.
89720 data files processed.
Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 0.30 milliseconds.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
40715424 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Phase duration (USN journal verification): 114.13 milliseconds.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

999763967 KB total disk space.
374253348 KB in 314188 files.
    287936 KB in 89721 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    691111 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
624531572 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
249940991 total allocation units on disk.
156132893 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 13.91 seconds (13914 ms).

Resizing the NTFS partitions seems unnecessary to me given that the Ubuntu24 could manage without an issue when installed via bootable USB.
I have since writing the original question also tried installing other distros which has worked fine.

Image of disk manager:
https://gyazo.com/d0642e4ebba54218d5c11f7370ecc104

Disk 0 = Windows
Disk 1 = RHEL9 (just for test, but this is where i want Ubuntu 20 to be)

No hibernation or sleeping what i can see, just "pure" shutdown.

chkdsk outout:

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows.

WARNING!  /F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
  546048 file records processed.
File verification completed.
 Phase duration (File record verification): 4.10 seconds.
  25664 large file records processed.
 Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 9.21 milliseconds.
  0 bad file records processed.
 Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.24 milliseconds.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
  246 reparse records processed.
  725486 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
 Phase duration (Index verification): 9.18 seconds.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
 Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 417.74 milliseconds.
  0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
 Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 0.28 milliseconds.
  246 reparse records processed.
 Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 2.14 milliseconds.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
 Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 78.52 milliseconds.
  89720 data files processed.
 Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 0.30 milliseconds.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  40715424 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
 Phase duration (USN journal verification): 114.13 milliseconds.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

999763967 KB total disk space.
 374253348 KB in 314188 files.
    287936 KB in 89721 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    691111 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 624531572 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 249940991 total allocation units on disk.
 156132893 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 13.91 seconds (13914 ms).

Image of disk manager:
https://gyazo.com/d0642e4ebba54218d5c11f7370ecc104

Disk 0 = Windows
Disk 1 = RHEL9 (just for test, but this is where i want Ubuntu 20 to be)

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said on 2024-11-28:

Which Ubuntu 20.04 installer ISO file did you use (the original 20.04 or the updated 20.04.6)?

There were some bug reports about problems with installing on NVME disks, so which kind of disk is the one that you want to install Ubuntu on?

Revision history for this message

Viktor Karlsson (zartock) said on 2024-11-28 (last edit on 2024-11-28):

I use the desktop image found here:
https://releases.ubuntu.com/focal/
So 20.04.6

And both my hard drives are NVME disks

Revision history for this message

Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said on 2024-11-29:

This may be a weird idea and I do not know whether that is really possible to do, but it may be worth trying:

Boot the Ubuntu 24.04 installer from an USB stick it in the "Try Ubuntu without installing" mode.
Load the Ubuntu 20.04.6 iso and mount it.
Start the Ubuntu installer from the 20.04.6 directory

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Viktor Karlsson (zartock) said on 2024-11-29:

I fail to find anything that i can start in the mounted directory or any subdirectory:

ubuntu@ubuntu:/mnt/iso$ sudo mount -o loop /mnt/usb/ubuntu-20.04.6-desktop-amd64.iso /mnt/iso
mount: /mnt/iso: WARNING: source write-protected, mounted read-only.

ubuntu@ubuntu:/mnt/iso$ ls -a
. .disk boot dists isolinux pool ubuntu
.. EFI casper install md5sum.txt preseed

ubuntu@ubuntu:/mnt/iso$ find . -type f -executable
ubuntu@ubuntu:/mnt/iso$

Revision history for this message

Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said on 2024-11-29:

Finally I was able to test my idea myself, and it is far more complicated than I expected.
The installer is hidden in filesystem.squashfs, which has to be mounted separately.
So this seems not feasible, sorry.

The next idea that I have, is trying to install a server system (and to add the desktop functions later).

Revision history for this message

Viktor Karlsson (zartock) said on 2024-11-29:

This is turning out to be quite the little side project
I will try it out after the weekend and get back to you

Revision history for this message

Viktor Karlsson (zartock) said on 2024-11-29:

#10

I found time and tried it now, but didn't get very far.
Got error during installation of the likes:
"Block probing did not discover any disks."

Entering the shell and running lsblk gives the same output as it did from the live USB.

Revision history for this message

Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said on 2024-11-30:

#11

I am sorry, I am running out of ideas.

I suggest that you create a bug report. I assume that you best use ubiquity on Ubuntu as the target.

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Ubuntu 20.04 installer can't find partitions

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