Stuck on "Creating ext4 file system for /home"

[Valeria]

Hi,

Issue:
Whenever I open the virtual machine and click on "Install Linux" and go through all the prompts, it starts creating the different partitions, however it gets stuck here. I have left it loading for even two days with no progress.

How I install the machine:
I am trying to install a guest "linuxmint-20.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso" onto an external hard drive, which has 2TB. I have the .iso file on my laptop in the Download's folder, and the "machine folder" is placed on the external hard drive. I go to "New", select type as Linux, version as Ubuntu (64-bit), memory of 4096 MB, create a new virtual disk now, select vdi, dynamically allocate, set to 500GB, click start, where I am prompted for the start up disk. Then, I navigate to my downloads folder and select the mentioned .iso file.

The machine:
Once the above is done, I am presented different options of how to boot up "Start Linux Mint, Start in compatibility mode, OEM install, integrity check, Hardware detection, boot from local drive." I select the Start Linux Mint option. Suddenly, a very quick error message appears reading "[drm:vmw_host_log [vmwgfx]] *ERROR* Failed to send host log message." but it quickly disappears. After a couple of seconds, I am greeted with the desktop appearance of Linux Mint, and an icon on the left appears as "Install Linux Mint". I select that and am prompted for language (english), keyboard type (US), I select the "install multimedia codecs", then the prompt for installation type appears. I select the "Erase Disk and Install Linux Mint" then click "Install Now". Then (attached) I am prompted as to how certain partitions will be formatted. I click continue, fill out location, and username info, and then it starts "creating ext4 file system" and gets stuck.

Specs on laptop:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3250U with Radeon Graphics
RAM: 8GB

If I need to post or add anything else please let me know, any help is appreciated!

[mpack]

Provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

[Valeria]

Log file is attached

[mpack]

Your host does not have enough RAM to create the VM you specified.

00:00:28.342573 Host RAM: 6093MB (5.9GB) total, 2456MB (2.3GB) available
...
00:00:28.620604 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000100000000 (4 294 967 296, 4 096 MB, 4.0 GB)
00:00:28.621001 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000001000000 (16 777 216, 16 MB)

I'm afraid this recipe is wanting in several ways. First, your host doesn't really have enough resources to do a good job of running two 64bit OSs'. Second, a desktop OS will usually require more than 1 core and a lot more than 16MB graphics RAM.

I suggest you reduce VM RAM to 1024MB (you can up this to 2048MB if you are prepared to shut down any memory hogs you have running on the host). Increase graphics RAM to 128MB, CPU cores to 2.

p.s. Note that host RAM is ~6GB, not 8GB. I would guess that your notebook hardware grabs 2GB RAM for graphics use.

[mpack]

Looking a bit closer, on a host with such modest hardware resources, did you truly intend to give the VM a 500GB hard drive? I find it hard to believe that your notebook host can afford that much lost disk space.

I would start the VM again, this time don't make the main hard disk larger than 50GB. Personally I use 32GB as the default unless I intend to do a lot inside the VM.

Also, what kind of drive is host drive D? E.g. if this was a USB or network drive then taking an eternity to do anything (given a 500GB drive surface) is not a surprise.

[Valeria]

The D drive is an external hard drive that has 2TB of space connected via USB. The 500GB was intentional, but I shall change that.

Will set storage to 32GB, RAM to 2048MB, cores to 2, VRAM to 128MB.

I will let you know the results of your suggestions when I can test them.

[Valeria]

It has been stuck on the "creating ext4 file system" for about 24hrs now. Should I leave it running or posts another log file?

[scottgus1]

Please close the VM window. Then zip and post the log again, please.

I'd also suggest trying a smaller VM drive. Make it 20GB for now, it can be expanded later (How to Resize a Drive).

The D drive is an external hard drive that has 2TB of space connected via USB

It isn't possibly connected through a USB 1 hub or port?

[Valeria]

Log file is attached.

It isn't possibly connected through a USB 1 hub or port?

How do I check this?

[fth0]

27:10:11.716451 /Public/Storage/AHCI0/Port0/BytesRead       22,430,208 bytes
27:10:11.716465 /Public/Storage/AHCI0/Port0/BytesWritten 1,718,153,728 bytes
27:10:11.716579 /Public/Storage/PIIX3IDE0/Port2/BytesRead  566,740,992 bytes

FWIW, the VirtualBox statistics shows that during the runtime of the VM ~1.7 GB have been written to the virtual disk image. Since the Linux Mint installer has to copy ~10 GB from the ISO image to the (virtual) hard disk during the installation, this can mean one of two things: Either the copying was very slow and still in progress, or it stopped somewhere "in the middle". You can check this by opening a Windows Command Prompt and executing the following command a few times during the installation:

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox"
VBoxManage debugvm "Minty" statistics --pattern="/Public/Storage/*/*/Bytes*"

[scottgus1]

In addition to fth0's thoughts above,

00:00:03.720702 Host RAM: 6093MB (5.9GB) total, 1855MB available
00:00:03.940488 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000080000000 (2 147 483 648, 2 048 MB)

RAM is still too tight, though it's probably not causing the trouble this time. Try starting the VM first after booting the host.

The VM 'hardware' seems to be running well.

How do I check this?

I'm not really certain. A web-search like "check if USB device is on USB 1, 2 or 3 port" or some such might help.

You might also do a copy of a several-GB-large file from the host's main drive to the external drive, time it with a stopwatch, and post the copy time and file size. Someone might be able to deduce the USB #.

[Valeria]

I'm not really certain. A web-search like "check if USB device is on USB 1, 2 or 3 port" or some such might help.

I figured it out. I used the Windows Dev Kit and opened USB Device Viewer. It was connected to a USB 2.0. If needed I can use the USB 3.0, but I would need to run and buy the cable since it is a different plug.

Either the copying was very slow and still in progress, or it stopped somewhere "in the middle". You can check this by opening a Windows Command Prompt and executing the following command a few times during the installation:

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox"
VBoxManage debugvm "Minty" statistics --pattern="/Public/Storage/*/*/Bytes*"

I will try this on the next attempt, what would be an expected outcome of it still being in progress vs stopping in the middle?

New attempt:
20GB of storage, RAM to 2048MB, cores to 2, VRAM to 128MB, new cable as well to connect to the USB 3.0 port.
If I notice it gets stuck again I will run the previously suggested windows command and post its output here in a .txt file if necessary along with the log file.

Update:
I will restart the host computer and immediately run the VM to cut down on any additional background processes.
I should also clarify that the port for the USB 3 that the host laptop uses is a USB-C cable, hence why I needed to go and buy a new one.
The new cable didn't work, I'll exchange it for another one tomorrow. I will just run the current test using the other USB ports (so still USB 2.0).
I realized that the windows command will show how many bytes have been read/written. I made a python script that will log every hour the current bytes written/read. I will post that .txt in the morning. It will be titled "BytesReadOrWrittenLog.txt"
Just noticed that there is a button that shows a console when it is downloading the .iso. I can try to upload that as well if necessary and if I notice that the "bytes written" section from the previously mentioned log doesn't change. Shall be called "MintyDownloadConsole.txt"

[fth0]

I will try this on the next attempt, what would be an expected outcome of it still being in progress vs stopping in the middle?

After you press the Continue button shown in your screenshot, the Linux Mint installer usually copies ~10 GB of files from the ISO image to the (virtual) hard disk. In my own setup with a USB 3.0 SSD, this takes about 1 or 2 minutes, and the BytesWrittten counter is increasing accordingly. If you query the counter every 15 or 60 or 3600 seconds, you should be able to calculate the copying rate in your case.

[Valeria]

Small update. Decided to buy a new external hard drive to test and see if it is just an issue with the hard drive. I will let you guys know the outcome of that. The new hard drive is a 1TB SSD external drive with USB3 port.

If you query the counter every 15 or 60 or 3600 seconds, you should be able to calculate the copying rate in your case.

I made it query every about 10 minutes for 15 hours. I haven't had the time to go over the outputs though, work has been keeping me busy.

[mpack]

The new hard drive is a 1TB SSD external drive with USB3 port.

To get the benefit of that you need to connect it to a USB3 port on the host PC (ideally avoid hubs to begin with), using a USB3 full spec cable.