I didn't work when I tried, I believe running dpkg beforehand put the disk into read/write mode, and fsck requires the disk to be in read-only.
Boot Repair was already installed, I just looked it up in the launcher.
Yes, I suspected that. Can you try using the method in the link I posted above, instead?
If it fails, it gives an output with a log file. If so, please post that here.
The screen isn't black, it's just stuck on the Dell startup logo. I don't think it's a matter of GPU drivers, the OS just won't start.
Regarding your second post, some issues are similar, but the thread ends by the original poster saying his problem magically disappeared after a few days, which is strange.
So I first tried fsck in recovery mode, and it simply said something along the lines of "e2fsck : Cannot continue, stopping now".
Then I booted into the live version, and followed the method you linked to.
Since it pointed to a specific repository and Boot Repair was already installed, I first removed it then reinstalled it just in case that repository contained a slightly different version.
Boot Repair proceeded as before, stopping because of "Locked NVram".
Here's the pastebin of the log file : boot repair - Pastebin.com
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Are you set in BIOS settings to RAID or to AHCI?
You should be set to RAID in order to install Zorin OS.
Welp, that might be an issue.
My computer uses Intel RST, which prevents Zorin from installing.
I actually went through some trouble, and a few Windows Safe Boot loops to set my computer to AHCI because I couldn't install Zorin otherwise.
The Zorin installer itself stopped early on and directly pointed to the Ubuntu help page with instructions on how to switch to AHCI.
This gets complicated.
Generally, yes - it should be set to AHCI.
However, I could see in the pastebin log that you are using nVME - for which it must be set to RAID.
I just did some cross checking on various sources to be sure...
I think... you may be in for a hard time of it. You have a situation where each works against the other.
There was a time, not too long ago even, when the general agreement was that Linux cannot properly be installed on eMMC or nVME at all. Things have improved in the last two years.
But RST plus Nvme is a bigger problem.
Well that's a shame.
It's especially strange since Zorin worked just fine for a while, and booted on and off multiple times.
There must be something that Windows has done while starting up that messed up the install.
I know very little about Windows 10 - and I hesitate to speculatively try to help as it may mislead you.
I understand this might be out of the scope of this forum.
I might try and ask on general purpose Ubuntu forum, and see what they say.
I assume switching back to RST after Zorin was installed in AHCI isn't a good idea.
And I don't believe enabling RAID without RST is possible.
I know that trying to enable RAID without RST is beyond my scope, at least. And even if possible, may be like balancing a ball on the end of your nose. Unstable.
In hindsight - I wonder if this is that the IT guys were thinking about when they made their comment...
I don't think they're even aware of the type of computer I'm using, let alone details like this one.
I also checked my personal computer last night, on which I was planning to install Zorin as well, and it made me think of this :
That laptop uses nVME, and is configured in AHCI out of the box.
Windows?
Yes. Is the nVME/RAID requirement strictly for Linux ?
I couldn't vouch for Mac OS.
But setting to RAID in order to install Linux on an nvme drive is pretty standard. I am not the nvme, emmc, RAID / AHCI guru, though. All I know is the frequency of troubles with emmc and nvme.
Both are more akin to an SD card than they are to SSD. They operate differently.
I see. I'll have to look into that if I decide to install Zorin on my personal computer as well.
Looking into different options, I found this software to add boot options directly from Windows, could booting on the grubx64.efi file itself work ?
For now, as I understand it, the GRUB is located within my Zorin partition itself.
It places files in /boot and in the EFI partition.
Remember that zorin is based on Ubuntu. Seeing Ubuntu in the efi partition shouldn't be a surprise. This is the files Zorin uses to boot.
You could always do a reinstall, choose the something else method. Choose the windows efi boot partition (100mb) and overwrite it. In the parroting window above that dropdown, choose the ext4 partition that will be zorin root. Select the gear next to the plus and minus Uber the left corner of the window. Change from do not use to ext4 fs, but do not format it, leave it unchecked, and mount it on root (/). Choose the swap partition (also am ext4 partition but same size as your ram, mount in /swap, ext4 fs, no format. Any other partitions that you want to mount, change them to their respective fs, no format and mount location. Once done hit install. It will install grub, ignore everything else and complete. Reboot and you should be able to get back into zorin without having to recustomize or reinstall any apps.
Thank you for the very detailed intructions.
I assume that could theoretically pose a risk to Windows booting normally ?
Again, I'm assuming that means the Windows partition ? I don't have a separated partition for data, but I have a few other that I don't really know about.
In total there's :
- a 260 mb FAT32 partition called SYSTEM
- a 128 mb of unknown (according to Windows) format and without any name
- the main NTFS C: partition named "Windows"
- a 694 mb NTFS partition without any name (I assume that's for Windows recovery ?)
- a 50 gb partition that I cleared for Zorin
Yes, you will overwrite the boot partition but it shouldn't cause issues with booting windows. Most of the people that do have issues is with booting zorin, not windows. Any issues with booting windows has turned out to be corruption in the drive due to hardware failure. Make sure you choose that partition, not the drive (ex. sda1 vs sda).
The 700 MB partition is your recovery partition. I was referring to any partition you may use to share info between OS's. I do this, but it is an optional thing, You will still be able to see and mount the windows partition in Zorin. You won't be able to mount the Zorin partition in windows (Windows doesn't understand the ext* series of filesystems).
You should be good to go. Remember, anything that can be broken can be fixed. Be sure to backup personal data prior to install and dive in. Nothing gets accomplished by worry or procrastination. Relax and it will be ok.