I'm new and trying to install Fedora 42 kde plasma and got an error

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After the Windows 11 installation on my desktop had run into an unrecoverable error, (none of the recovery methods have allowed me to repair the install and boot back into Windows, and I have therefore concluded that I must reinstall the OS) I decided to setup a dual-boot configuration with a new Windows 11 installation (replacing the old one) and an installation of Fedora 42 KDE Plasma. (Each with its own 1TB M.2 SSD) That way, I can have each one serve as a backup OS for the other, and maybe I can move over to using fedora for daily use.

I have created three different installation flash drives for Fedora 42, once I took an old flash drive and used Rufus to put Fedora-KDE-Desktop-Live-42-1.1x86_64.iso using DD mode, once I took another flash drive and used Rufus to put the download onto it using .iso mode, and then I bought some brand new (cheap) drives and used fedora media writer to put the same install on on of them. I plug the flash drive into my pc, get to my bios configuration utility, set UEFI boot mode and select my the installation media, and the following seems to have happened with all three different install sticks:

I get a selection screen that lets me choose between three options:
“Start Fedora-KDE-Desktop-Live”
“Test this media & start Fedora-KDE-Desktop-Live” and
“Troubleshooting -->”

The first two options give me and error:
../../grub-core/kern/mm.c:552:out of memory installing fedora 42
Press any key to continue.

then the next screen has the Linux penguin and a large exclamation mark depicted using ascii characters and the following text in the middle of the screen:
KERNEL PANIC!
Please reboot your computer.
VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown block(0,0)

The third gives me another screen which gives the option:

Start Fedora-KDE-Desktop-Live in basic graphics mode. This option will result in the same error screens as the other two options from the previous options screen.

When making my selections, I can also press “e” to edit the commands before booting, and I can also press “c” for a command line.

It should be noted that the selection screens show that my installation media has Grub version 2.12.

My Pc’s hardware specs are far more than the requirements for fedora 42 kde plasma in every category.

What is the problem?

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Welcome to Fedora @bp77742

Did you go thru the computers bios checking if it allows you to boot from EFI ? I bet if Windows already worked on it, it is on?! Maybe you have to switch Legacy boot off in bios so that it just uses EFI and not Legacy.

Have you found the secure boot options and checked with on/off state?

That sounds nice :slight_smile: I do not know if gparted is on the KDE iso? If yes also check the partition table if it is on GPT.
Carfully, be aware that if you have to set a new one, it will make the data on the disk unreadable. Backup if needed.

If you not get further with this instructions you might download the ISO again and check, it if it is ok before making a pen drive out of it. And yes, I would use the Fedora Media Writer for this task.
Maybe test a other boot iso like Xfce. To get the tools I mentioned above.

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I went into the bios configuration utility and switched it to uefi boot mode and got the following screen after selecting the “test this media” option:

1000000052
10000000521920Ă—1440 366 KB

Did I actually get further this time or the other times?
Also, I tried again with the same settings and got the previous error screens; and again with a different usb port and no change.

Have I gotten farther? Do I need a new flash drive? Or to use a different usb port? Or both?

Gparted? KDE iso? Partition table?
As for problems of making data unreadable, I now have a set of cheap brand new flash drives which I can turn into install media so that should not be a problem.

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This looks like that you not passed the media check. If you are on Windows you can check the media in a different way, please check here:

Gparted is a linux tool to check your Harddisk, too see if it is formatet correctly etc.

The KDE ISO is the file you create the pen-drive off. DKE Plasma it is called nowadays. Sorry for that.

Partition Table is used to boot your boot disk/ssd/nvmd.

Can you tell us if your Laptop has a Nvidia GPU (Graphics Processor Unit)?

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The failure at 4.8% is a common issue, unfortunately without a common single solution.

That page suggests:

If all your attempts still fail with the media check error at 4.8% specifically, you can skip the media check in the medium boot menu by selecting “Start Fedora…” option instead of the default “Test this media & Start Fedora…” option. If the installation image starts fine and everything looks functional, hopefully the image is not corrupt, and you’ve just stumbled on this problem as described here. Perform the installation.

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My secondary computer is my old desktop, running windows 10 and it has an old nvidia gtx card.
Fyi, I do not have access to any other functional installs of any OS, myself, or through any friends.

I will create another install stick in a bit, with fedora media writer.

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If that gives the same problem, then you could try the suggestion in the link above, i.e. skip the media test, go into the live environment and start the install.

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Update:

After creating my fourth installation media, (two brand new flash drives and two old ones)
I booted up through the bios utility and got the original error. (“.. /../grub-core/kern/mm.c:552:out of memory” then the “kernel panic” screen)

I tried both the “test this media” and the plain “Start Fedora-KDE-Desktop-Live” options and got the same error set.

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This history, combined with the failures from the Fedora Live USB installer indicate a hardware issue. Some vendors provide hardware tests in BIOS or as bootable disk images. Since the Fedora installer reports a memory issue, you should run Memtest86+ bootable image.

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Do you mean a hardware issue with my main computer (only a year, two months and change old) or with my backup computer that I am actually using right now? (purchased in july 2016 and used up until I started using the new one)

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You said you didn’t have any other functional computer, so I assume the Fedora installer problem:

is the one where Windows 11 had an unrecoverable error.

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Running the test now. 11 hours in. I am running just the normal set of tests and the normal number of passes. So far, 0 errors. I am guessing that there are 0 errors when it finishes. If there are 0 errors at end, should I run it again with a more intensive configuration? I will post results when it finshes reguardless.

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Not sure where you found “normal” settings. The default: all cores, all tests, run continuously until stopped are recommended. One problem for memory testing is that system temperatures are often lower than encountered in normal processing, especially if the system has a high-end GPU, but I wouldn’t expect the installer to push temperatures up.

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Some web search results like this (from Ubuntu, but probably generic to anything that uses GRUB) suggest that this is not a RAM hardware issue per se, but a failure of GRUB to properly initialise a loopback device from the .iso.

In the case in the link, the fix was to change a BIOS setting for video memory allocation, but I imagine that’s not the only potential cause.

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In case anyone was still wondering about my RAM health, these are the results of the Memtest86+ test:

1000000060
10000000601920Ă—1440 284 KB

I could run some additional tests in another run if that would be helpful: (tests 10, 13 and 14)

1000000061
10000000611920Ă—1440 300 KB

Exactly how would I fix this? (I REALLY don’t want to go changing settings in the BIOS configuration utility without EXACT instructions)

If this is it, I’m going to need FAR more detailed instructions on how to find the issue and fix it.

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I skimmed through some of this, and there was a lot I didn’t understand but I recognized that their solution was to decrease the ammount of video memory. My main pc has a gpu with 24 Gb of video memory. Could this be it? Is there a way I can verify that it in fact is the problem? Can I set it back to 24 Gb? Once Fedora is installed, will I be able to boot up with all 24gb?

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I don’t think it’s possible to give definitive, device-agnostic instructions I’m afraid. Video memory allocation isn’t the only potential cause - for example, a user in one of the replies to that Ubuntu thread had an Alienware PC, and there the fix was to disable SGX, nothing to do with video memory.

In fact, as you say you have a discrete GPU, it’s probably not video memory that is the issue - that would be more likely on iGPU systems where some of the system RAM is shared with the integrated graphics.

The other thing that is still a bit puzzling is what happened on the occasion when you did the media check that failed at 4.8%. Because in that case, the system did get past GRUB.

You could try searches for the GRUB error message and including the name of your motherboard / BIOS vendor to see if others have solved the problem on the same hardware that you have.

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re Media check failure: Could this be some USB controller HW problem? Maybe try booting from other USB ports if possible.

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You skimped on the RAM test by not using the default parallel option, but given that the error occurs when booting, your test is probably enough to indicate that we look elsewhere for the issue. If the issue is with the BIOS configuration, you will have to rely on the vendor’s support or other users with the same hardware.

One thing worth trying is a BIOS update in the form of a bootable USB image from your vendor. If the vendor has a support forum you can search for reports for similar issues with linux. The LHDB collects “probes” of linux systems and sometimes users add comments saying how they were able to get linux running.

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I THINK this worked… Though I have run into some new issues.