I’m trying to install Parrot OS on an old laptop. I used Balena Etcher to burn the latest Parrot OS iso file onto a USB drive. I’m installing the security version. I’m not trying to do anything fancy, just want to install Parrot on an old laptop. I keep running into issues with the installer.
Tried what they suggested and still didn’t work. Got a little bit further in the installation, but then got a python error and this is where I’m stuck. Screenshots are provided.
what do you consider to be old, if its post 2010 it should be UEFI, prior to this it would have been BIOS and will need to be loaded as legacy boot., if its a late W8 or newer, you will need to disable windows quick-start [fast boot] and depending on make of machine secure boot
These were added to later versions of W8 so it may not be there,
so its a not so old machine,
main reasons Linux fails to install [generic]
corrupt download [try using a different mirror]
bad burn of the ISO to the pen-drive [try again]
Defective pen-drive [try in a different machine]
Defective pen-drive and yes there are such things, cheap unbranded and old drives may work fine for storage but are known to be problematic at times [use a good quality new pen-drive]
if all else fails you could try installing the home edition, yes it’s a bit bulky, but you can still use the “Tools”
Yeah I’ve tried burning the iso again and still same thing. Unfortunately I don’t have another machine to try installing it on. The USB drive should be good, just bought it yesterday. I will try installing the Home edition and see if that works.
EDIT: no go on the home edition, same error as I had in the screenshot
the model number you gave is actually the code for the Wi-Fi
so if its the I3 or I5 processor, I can’t think of any mechanical reasons for it not to install , if however it has the Rockchip processor then make sure you’re using the version for ARM processors
Check you don’t have any EFI issues, from a running ‘live’ booted system, install efi boot manager;
sudo apt install efibootmgr
and then run it, and ensure there are no entries present, if there are, delete them!
You could also try manually partitioning the disk, and creating the needed EFI boot partition (FAT32 format at least 512 MB size typically), in GParted, set the ‘boot’ flag, and then format whats left on the drive as EXT4 and then when installing, point the installer at them.
just a thought, on some laptops I have had to set the NVRAM parameters to boot GRUB and this is probable given it was previously windblows…
And if your still having issues after that, you will probably have to install from a terminal, when you boot, choose text installer not calameres, then there is no python involved like in calameres installer, there is only the shell interactions.
So, I don’t know how to run efibootmgr. I just tried entering in “efibootmgr” into the command line after installing it and it just says that the command doesn’t exist. Also partitioned my drive using gparted and tried running the grub-install command you provided and it said that “grub-install” command not found. Not sure if I need to be doing something different when trying to install grub.
Also, I don’t know how to install manually through the command line.
In GParted, from the Menu,
Select Device → Create Partition Table → gpt type (the UEFI format) → Apply (note warning).
From Menu,
Select Partition → New → Set up three partitions; #1: 2MiB (unformatted, at very bottom of drop down menu); #2: 512MiB (format fat32 and set Boot / ESP flag) #3: [remaining space] (format ext4) → Apply all changes.
When partition creation and formatting complete, right-click Partition #1 and set flag as bios-grub…
Close GParted.
