[Bug 2131958] Re: Installer doesn't seem to recogneize hybrid HDD + SSD harddrive - installs on itself
Erwin Goodman
2131958 at bugs.launchpad.net
Fri Nov 28 12:37:24 UTC 2025
** Description changed:
See this Reddit thread for reference:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1oyhl0o/critical_install_error_what_do/
...and this thread on the Linux Mint forum:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2708861#p2708861
linux mint GitHub bug report I created before this: https://github.com/inuxmint/cinnamon/issues/13203
(I thought the GitHub for Linux Mint was the right place to post it. Apparently it wasn't as the Ubiquity installer has this separate hub)
The most noteworthy pieces of information have been added here:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=457750
I was told to report this here.
I tried to install Linux Mint on an old laptop. It was released when
SSDs started to become mainstream. It was sold with a weird "hybrid"
hard drive that has a 500GB HDD and a 32GB SSD section.
Model:______________Dell Inspiron 14 7437
BIOS/UEFI:__________Dell A12
CPU:________________Intel i7-4510U, 2 cores @ 2.0 to 3.1 GHz
RAM:________________2×4 GiB DDR3-1600 Hynix HMT851S6AMR6R-PB
GPU:________________Intel HD Graphics 4400
Display:____________14" 1920×1080
Hard Drive 0:_______ATA ST500LT032-1E9142 500 GB (scsi),
____________________revision 0003SDM1, S/N W3N0FEM1, type SATA, PPID CN0D8V362123244S00ARA02
Hard Drive 1:_______ATA Lite-OnIT LMS-32L6M mSATA 32 GB (scsi),
____________________revision DM5110E, S/N TW0H9R7V550854555507, type SSD, PPID TW0H9R7V550854555507A02
X.Org:______________21.1.11
+ partition after install attempt according to Linux Mint output:
+
+ Model: ATA ST500LT032-1E914 (scsi)
+ Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
+ Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
+ Partition table: unknown
+ Disk flags:
+
|Start_|End__|Size_|FileS|Name________________________|Flags_________________|
- |------+-----+-----+-----+----------------------------+----------------------|
+ |------+-----+-----+-----+----------------------------+----------------------|
1|1049kB|420MB|419MB|ntfs_|Basic data partition________| diag,no_automount
2|420 MB|525MB|105MB|fat32|EFI system partition________|boot,esp,no_automount
3|525 MB|660MB|134MB|—____|Microsoft reserved partition|msftres,no_automount
4|660 MB|500GB|499GB|ntfs_|Basic data partition________|msftdata
5|500 GB|500GB|576MB|ntfs_|— (hidden)__________________|hidden,diag,no_automount
- |------+-----+-----+-----+----------------------------+----------------------|
+ |------+-----+-----+-----+----------------------------+----------------------|
+
+ Model: ATA LITEONIT LMS-32L (scsi)
+ Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0GB
+ Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
+ Partition table: msdos
+ Disk Flags:
+
+ |Start_|End___|Size__|File System|Name_____________|Flags_________________|
+ |------+------+------+-----------+-----------------+----------------------|
+ 1|1049kB|12.0GB|12.0GB|primary____|_________________|irst__________________|
+ |------+------+------+-----------+-----------------+----------------------|
The laptop had Win10 installed before I tried to put the new install on
it. I used the newest 1.1.07 version of Ventoy to put the newest Mint
.iso on an 16GB Kingston Data Traveler 2.0 USB stick as boot medium.
The install program seemingly didn't correctly automatically detect any
part of the internal harddrive(s).
When I ran the install, it had somehow seemingly erased both sides of
the internal harddrive and/or failed to detect them and/or therefore
automatically selected the USB stick as the harddrive for the
installation instead, but didn't notify and/or warn me of that that in
the install program.
The install program should tell people on which storage medium the boot
install software wants to install the software on, especially on the
default option (= no custom partition selected).
It then proceeded to try to install Linux Mint on the very same stick
the install software was stored upon. The program then displayed the
error message you can see as the first picture in the Reddit thread.
After that, nothing worked. The pc wouldn't boot into the Linux Mint OS
and I couldn't boot from the stick again. The stick was seemingly broken
or wiped as it wouldn't show as a hard drive anymore in the hard drive
overview on my parallely used Win11 test/control laptop. It was
detectable with the Windows device manager though.
After downloading another .iso of linux mint and Ventoy on my
test/control laptop, I realized that the stick was indeed not broken at
all, but that the ISO was just erased or corrupted. After reconfiguring
the USB stick with Ventoy and the new .iso, I was able to boot linux
mint from the stick on the old laptop again.
This time I selected the custom ROM partition option to see what the
program was suggesting to install upon. This was when I realized that
the installation program tries to install linux mint on the very same
stick the iso is stored upon, because it can't really detect the
harddrive.
My best guess is that it's because the harddrive is such a weird piece
of hardware, but I really don't know.
I only have access to this laptop on the weekends so I can't post the
syslog and partman files here.
Harddrive 0 info: www.disctech.com/Seagate-ST500LT032-500GB-SATA-
Harddrive 1 info: www.disctech.com/Lite-On-LMS-32L6M-717771-001-1.8-in-32GB-6gbps-MLC-mSATA-SSD
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2131958
Title:
Installer doesn't seem to recogneize hybrid HDD + SSD harddrive -
installs on itself
Status in ubiquity package in Ubuntu:
New
Bug description:
See this Reddit thread for reference:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1oyhl0o/critical_install_error_what_do/
...and this thread on the Linux Mint forum:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2708861#p2708861
linux mint GitHub bug report I created before this: https://github.com/inuxmint/cinnamon/issues/13203
(I thought the GitHub for Linux Mint was the right place to post it. Apparently it wasn't as the Ubiquity installer has this separate hub)
The most noteworthy pieces of information have been added here:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=457750
I was told to report this here.
I tried to install Linux Mint on an old laptop. It was released when
SSDs started to become mainstream. It was sold with a weird "hybrid"
hard drive that has a 500GB HDD and a 32GB SSD section.
Model:______________Dell Inspiron 14 7437
BIOS/UEFI:__________Dell A12
CPU:________________Intel i7-4510U, 2 cores @ 2.0 to 3.1 GHz
RAM:________________2×4 GiB DDR3-1600 Hynix HMT851S6AMR6R-PB
GPU:________________Intel HD Graphics 4400
Display:____________14" 1920×1080
Hard Drive 0:_______ATA ST500LT032-1E9142 500 GB (scsi),
____________________revision 0003SDM1, S/N W3N0FEM1, type SATA, PPID CN0D8V362123244S00ARA02
Hard Drive 1:_______ATA Lite-OnIT LMS-32L6M mSATA 32 GB (scsi),
____________________revision DM5110E, S/N TW0H9R7V550854555507, type SSD, PPID TW0H9R7V550854555507A02
X.Org:______________21.1.11
partition after install attempt according to Linux Mint output:
Model: ATA ST500LT032-1E914 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition table: unknown
Disk flags:
|Start_|End__|Size_|FileS|Name________________________|Flags_________________|
|------+-----+-----+-----+----------------------------+----------------------|
1|1049kB|420MB|419MB|ntfs_|Basic data partition________| diag,no_automount
2|420 MB|525MB|105MB|fat32|EFI system partition________|boot,esp,no_automount
3|525 MB|660MB|134MB|—____|Microsoft reserved partition|msftres,no_automount
4|660 MB|500GB|499GB|ntfs_|Basic data partition________|msftdata
5|500 GB|500GB|576MB|ntfs_|— (hidden)__________________|hidden,diag,no_automount
|------+-----+-----+-----+----------------------------+----------------------|
Model: ATA LITEONIT LMS-32L (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition table: msdos
Disk Flags:
|Start_|End___|Size__|File System|Name_____________|Flags_________________|
|------+------+------+-----------+-----------------+----------------------|
1|1049kB|12.0GB|12.0GB|primary____|_________________|irst__________________|
|------+------+------+-----------+-----------------+----------------------|
The laptop had Win10 installed before I tried to put the new install
on it. I used the newest 1.1.07 version of Ventoy to put the newest
Mint .iso on an 16GB Kingston Data Traveler 2.0 USB stick as boot
medium.
The install program seemingly didn't correctly automatically detect
any part of the internal harddrive(s).
When I ran the install, it had somehow seemingly erased both sides of
the internal harddrive and/or failed to detect them and/or therefore
automatically selected the USB stick as the harddrive for the
installation instead, but didn't notify and/or warn me of that that in
the install program.
The install program should tell people on which storage medium the
boot install software wants to install the software on, especially on
the default option (= no custom partition selected).
It then proceeded to try to install Linux Mint on the very same stick
the install software was stored upon. The program then displayed the
error message you can see as the first picture in the Reddit thread.
After that, nothing worked. The pc wouldn't boot into the Linux Mint
OS and I couldn't boot from the stick again. The stick was seemingly
broken or wiped as it wouldn't show as a hard drive anymore in the
hard drive overview on my parallely used Win11 test/control laptop. It
was detectable with the Windows device manager though.
After downloading another .iso of linux mint and Ventoy on my
test/control laptop, I realized that the stick was indeed not broken
at all, but that the ISO was just erased or corrupted. After
reconfiguring the USB stick with Ventoy and the new .iso, I was able
to boot linux mint from the stick on the old laptop again.
This time I selected the custom ROM partition option to see what the
program was suggesting to install upon. This was when I realized that
the installation program tries to install linux mint on the very same
stick the iso is stored upon, because it can't really detect the
harddrive.
My best guess is that it's because the harddrive is such a weird piece
of hardware, but I really don't know.
I only have access to this laptop on the weekends so I can't post the
syslog and partman files here.
Harddrive 0 info: www.disctech.com/Seagate-ST500LT032-500GB-SATA-
Harddrive 1 info: www.disctech.com/Lite-On-LMS-32L6M-717771-001-1.8-in-32GB-6gbps-MLC-mSATA-SSD
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