Can't install any distro :(

Question

George.Storm 0 Light Poster

15 Years Ago

As above, they all get stuck on:

'waiting until /dev is fully populated'

A couple of lines above is something about line 71: stop_network: not found

But I think it's to do with the realtek network adaptor on the board (H55N-USB3) which isn't overly supported (had trouble getting freenas to work with it)
Any suggestions?

While I'm at it might aswell ask, what distro would you guys recommend for a media server/LAN pc?
(most of the time tis basically a file server, bu I also take it to LANs since it's small)
Currently it runs freenas and xp, but I want to only have a single OS, since I want all my stuff available to share at LANs
Been looking at Linuxmint debian, have fedora on my laptop, and am setting up an ubuntu server or two over the summer, so would like something new

linux:debian linux:ubuntu

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Latest Post 15 Years Ago Latest Post by Stefano Mtangoo

Dani AI

Generated 9 Months Ago

Short addendum to the thread. As reported a hang at "waiting until /dev is fully populated" together with a "stop_network" error, this usually means udev/initramfs is waiting for device events or an early network init script is failing. Onboard NIC modules that stall during probe are a common cause, so treat the LAN device as the first suspect.

Practical isolation steps - do them in order so the installer does less work: unplug the Ethernet cable or disable the onboard LAN in BIOS so network init never runs; boot a Live image in "try" mode or use a text/alternate installer to avoid starting all services; inspect installer logs or dmesg from a rescue shell to identify the module name. To block a suspect driver at boot, add a kernel parameter to blacklist it, for example:

modprobe.blacklist=<driver_name>

Replace <driver_name> after identifying it (from a Live session use lspci -k).

If install completes offline, the usual post-install fix is either the vendor driver or a DKMS package. From a Live USB the root partition can be mounted and chroot used to install and update initramfs:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt           # adjust to the root partition
for d in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys; do sudo mount --bind $d /mnt$d; done
sudo chroot /mnt
# install DKMS or build vendor driver here
update-initramfs -u
exit

About the Wine "0.00 GB" symptom: first verify actual disk space with df -h and check permissions on the home partition. Running winecfg creates a fresh prefix; on 64-bit installs enable 32-bit support / multiarch before installing Windows apps. For a media-server + occasional-gaming machine, a stable server base (Debian stable or an Ubuntu LTS) is sensible for Samba; a mainstream desktop flavor makes driver setup easier. Historically NVIDIA proprietary drivers were often simpler for gaming while AMD's open-source stack has improved — pick hardware with good support for the chosen distro and keep kernels/Mesa/drivers reasonably current.

was right about an offline install as a quick troubleshooting path, and 's point about Mint being Ubuntu-family is relevant when weighing driver availability. If problems persist, testing with a cheap PCIe NIC or disabling the onboard LAN in BIOS will quickly confirm whether the Realtek is the real culprit.