Re-install stuck on “who are you page”

Kt.risor · July 20, 2026, 4:01pm

After having issues with zorin being stuck in a boot loop, i decided to start from scratch and reinstall on my lenovo T15 thinkpad. Now it’s been stuck on the “Who are you?” Page for about 30 minutes. Is it safe to force a restart with the power button and try again?

I choose to connect to the internet and install the extra drivers and updates, and it let me move on so I assumed it was connected, but maybe not. Installing from a usb, single boot, i choose the top “install zorin” option.

Backstory: i bought this laptop as my first foray into linux shenanigans. So i am a novice with computing stuff. I had no problem installing zorin and it worked great for a couple weeks, but an update or something caused it to start being stuck on the logo start screen. It would only open zorin if i went to the boot menu. I tried a bunch of troubleshooting to no avail, and since I didn’t have much on the pc yet I decided to just start over. Any advice is appreciated. Apologies in advance for my novice-ness. Also, i tried to add a photo of my screen, but the forum keeps giving me an error.

Forpli · July 20, 2026, 4:13pm

And you have entered your password a second time to confirm it?

swarfendor437 · July 20, 2026, 4:18pm

Hi and welcome.

The forum limits images to 1 Mb. If you are using your smartphone camera with High Res, edit it in 'Photo Editor' if using Android:

As for install, the usual recommendation is to install updates and codecs post install.

Nourpon · July 20, 2026, 4:18pm

Hello and welcome,
Bad timing there was a kernel update and it broke some computers boot, So you have 2 choices:

if your install was done, boot to Older kernel

Restart the PC and press Escape during boot to access the GRUB menu (may also be accessed with Shift)
Select "Advanced options for Zorin OS"
Here, you can see the available kernels to boot into. Choose the older one (without recovery option) maybe for you 6.17.0-20

if the install was not done, try to make another fresh one without installing extra drivers and updates (and better without internet connection)

if you succeed booting we will see what next

Kt.risor · July 20, 2026, 4:23pm

So is it ok to restart the computer from this point and try again?

Also, before this I did try booting from older kernels but it would still not restart fully after unless I used the boot menu. Not sure if I used that one or not tho.

Kt.risor · July 20, 2026, 4:24pm

Yes, filled out everything on the form and have checkmarks.

Nourpon · July 20, 2026, 4:25pm

you need to reboot to try my 2 options, try the better for you case

Kt.risor · July 20, 2026, 4:43pm

Okay, forced a reboot and it didnt explode. Decided to reinstall and did not connect to internet. Now ive got this error:

An error occurred while removing packages:

E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

The following packages are in a broken state:

This may be due to using an old installer image, or it may be due to a bug in some of the packages listed above. More details may be found in /var/log/syslog. The installer will try to continue anyway, but may fall at a later point, and will not be able to install or remove other packages (possibly including itself) from the installed system. You should first look for newer versions of your installer image, or falling that report the problem to your distributor.

Nourpon · July 20, 2026, 4:46pm

Did you erase the disk when the installer asked you?

Kt.risor · July 20, 2026, 4:47pm

Yes I did

Nourpon · July 20, 2026, 4:49pm

Maybe try to make another usb boot stick because your installer may be corrupted.

Kt.risor · July 20, 2026, 4:50pm

So i should not click “ok” on this error box, right?

Nourpon · July 20, 2026, 4:53pm

you can but you would not have a stable install

swarfendor437 · July 20, 2026, 5:08pm

Also I would go for latest Ventoy release for USB installation media creation. If using Windows on a different machine, then use Rufus.

Avoid Balena Etcher.

Ponce-De-Leon · July 20, 2026, 5:32pm

You could in Live Mode from the Bootstick open GParted and delete every Partition on the Drive where You want install Zorin and then try the Installation again.

Also:

Are Secure Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS disabled?
Does Your BIOS run in UEFI or Legacy Mode?
What Tool did You use to create the Bootstick?
Did You checked the Checksum of the ISO?

Aravisian · July 20, 2026, 8:08pm

If you are performing a fresh install, you can be fearless.
You cannot fear messing up the operating system, since it is not installed.

I do recommend leaving the net disconnected at that prompt and performing updates after the install. Doing so during is usually fine... But if you want the least troubleshooting, getting the chunk of the install out of the way first makes good sense.

And, as @Nourpon pointed out - timing is a factor. The current upgrade packages include a kernel that is hairy all over and has daddy issues.

Once you have Zorin OS installed, you can annotate your readiness to lock that kernel out before it starts whispering to the more easily influenced modules in your /sys folder.

With that said:

There are a couple of things that are a little bit concerning.
During install, the process froze. You needed to force a restart.
Then, you got a dpkg error when the installer needed to remove the residual leftovers.
One event is not major, but two in a row can be indicative. I would first suspect a bad burn of the .iso.
So, best practice is to redownload the Zorin OS .iso, then reburn it to the USB stick, to make sure all is clean. Then test running a full installation.
If it balks again - I would run a S.M.A.R.T. test on the drive itself, to see if bad sectors or blocks are what is causing read/write or i/o errors during install.