Handbook

Troubleshooting

When the installer refuses, an upgrade was cut short, or files are damaged.

The installer doesn’t go on

Its welcome page says which check failed: the machine needs UEFI, enough disk and enough memory (what it needs). On a machine with UEFI, check that it started the stick in UEFI mode, not in its legacy (BIOS) mode: the stick boots both ways, but only installs from UEFI.

The machine doesn’t start the stick

Switch off Secure Boot in the firmware’s settings: neither the image’s boot loader nor the installed system’s is signed.

The installation had no network

Then the new system is as new as the image. Bring it up to date:

zp update
zp upgrade

An upgrade was cut short

A crash, a power loss or a full disk in the middle of a change loses nothing: zenpac records what it’s about to do before it changes a file. The next change refuses to start until you choose:

zp recover            # what the interrupted change installs and removes
zp recover finish     # carry on where it stopped
zp recover rollback   # put every file back as it was

Files are damaged or missing

zp audit    # the installed packages' files that changed or are gone
zp fix      # reinstall the damaged packages, and install what's missing

Config files you changed don’t count as damaged.

Reporting a problem

Report it as an issue where it belongs, with what you did and what happened:

For the installer, add its log: /var/log/calamares-install.log on the new system.