Linux Not Installing

• Check System Requirements: Ensure your system meets the minimum hardware requirements for the Linux distribution you're installing. Some distributions have more stringent requirements than others, and checking the documentation is crucial.
• Verify Installation Media: Confirm that the installation ISO file was downloaded correctly by checking the checksum. A good example of how this command is used can be found on Step 2 of the Installing PostmarketOS with a Pre-Built Image guide. You might also want to try a different USB port or a different USB stick to rule out potential hardware defects.
• Check your Internet Connection: Depending on the distribution you're attempting to install, an Internet connection might be required to install on the target machine. Try connecting your target machine to a wireless network, or connect your device to a wired Ethernet connection.

• Ensure that Secure Boot is disabled: Many Linux distributions do not support Secure Boot or IIRC by default. If Secure Boot is on, then you'll need to disable it in your BIOS/UEFI settings.
• Enable Legacy Boot: Depending on what your Linux distribution you might need to enable Legacy Boot or set the boot mode to UEFI.
• Adjust the boot order: If you're installing your OS via an external storage drive, or thumb stic, then you might need to change the boot over to prioritize the USB drive over the internal storage.
• RAID mode in BIOS: If installing on a modern system with RAID storage configurations, disable RAID mode in BIOS and switch to AHCI mode to prevent installer failures.

If all else fails try reseting your BIOS settings to default if encountering persistent issues.

Partitioning is the process of dividing a physical storage device (such as a hard drive or SSD) into separate sections, or allows for different operating systems to coexist on the same drive. In this instance, if your comptuer isn't seeing the partition your Linux distribution

• Use a live session and run GParted to manually create or check your partitions. The normal partitions for Linux are as follows...
  • Root (/) - The primary Linux installation directory.
  • Home (/home) - Stores user files and other personal data.
  • Swap - A dedicated space used for virtual memory.
  • Boot (/boot) - Stores bootloader files (GRUB).
  • EFI System Partition (ESP) - Required for UEFI-based systems.
• Ensure the installation drive is formatted correctly. The recommended format for Linux root partitions is ext4.
• If dual-booting with Windows, use Windows Disk Management to resize partitions before installation rather than doing it within the Linux installer.

It’s possible that your operating system is installing but not actually booting. iFixit does have a comprehensive troubleshooting guide for Linux Not Booting. To get you started, you might want to reinstall GRUB.

1. Boot from a Linux live USB.
2. Open the terminal program and use the following commands to identify the disk where your distribution’s GRUB is installed. This will be either lsblk or sudo fdisk -l. The path is normally labled as /dev/sda or /dev/sdb.
3. Install GRUB to the Master Boot Record using the command sudo grub-install /dev/sda, replacing /dev/sda with the appropriate path. If your system uses UEFI instead of a traditional BIOS then you are going to need to install GRUB to the EFI partition.
4. After GRUB finishes installing, you will need to generate the GRUB configuration file using either sudo update-grub, ''''or sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg, and reboot your system with sudo reboot.

In theroy GRUB should load properly and will present you with the boot menu.

A kernel panic is a critical error in the Linux kernel that causes the system to malfunction and fail to recover. It usually happens due to hardware failures, driver conflicts, or corrupted system files. Their are a couple of things you can try using Linux Live Boot.

• Check Logs: Boot into a live session and inspect logs with journalctl -xb or dmesg.
• Use Safe Boot Options: Try booting with the nomodeset or single parameter to bypass problematic drivers.
• Test Hardware: Use memtest86 to check for RAM issues and smartctl to diagnose disk health.
• Revert Kernel Changes: If a recent update caused the issue, boot into an older kernel from the GRUB menu.
• Reinstall Linux: If all else fails, backup your data and perform a fresh installation.