u/GrayPartyOfCanada

Acer Aspire 3 hard drive not found issue needs assistance

Hi, all... I've been trying to install Mint now for weeks with precious little success. No matter what I do, I can't get my machine (Acer Aspire A317-52) to boot without the installation media. After a lot of trial-and-error, it looks like a weird laptop-specific issue where the hard drive doesn't wake on boot without being prompted. Someone has developed a script for this on an Arch site, here.

It looks something like this:

>Add an early custom hook to put the laptop to sleep before the step to mount the filesystems:

/etc/initcpio/install/suspend-to-ram

#!/bin/bash
build() { 
        add_binary date
        add_runscript
}
help() {
        echo "Suspend to RAM before filesystems get mounted so the initial ramdisk can see the internal storage"
}

/etc/initcpio/install/suspend-to-ram

#!/bin/bash
run_hook() {
        FILE='/sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm'
        EPOCH_TIME="$(date '+%s')"
        if ! echo 0 > "$FILE"; then
                reboot -f
        elif ! echo "$((EPOCH_TIME + 2))" > "$FILE"; then
                reboot -f
        elif ! echo mem > /sys/power/state; then
                reboot -f
        fi
}

>This custom hook will reset the RTC alarm clock and set an alarm 2 seconds into the future for device wake-up, so you do not have to manually wake-up the laptop.

>Add it the mkinitcpio HOOKS:

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

...
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block filesystems suspend-to-ram fsck)
...

>Finally regenerate the initramfs.

As someone new and really struggling with this, I don't see these directories or files on my machine. What might I need to do to adapt this from Arch to Mint? Do the scripts hold up fine? Where should I put them instead? Any insights that you can provide would be appreciated!

EDIT: Also crossposted to r/linux4noobs, here: Linux Mint boots to initrd prompt

reddit.com
u/GrayPartyOfCanada — 6 days ago

So, I tried installing Linux Mint 22.3 alongside Windows 11 in a dual boot configuration on my 5-year old Acer Aspire A317-52. It has gone spectacularly poorly, but I am still committed to the bit. I have had to reinstall Windows, and I am slowly reinstalling my software on it.

However, I still cannot get Linux to work. I have tried lots of tips and tricks from various Linux forms, including:

  • Turning on/off Secure Boot
  • Turning on/off Fast Boot
  • Updating the boatloader
  • Setting the hard drive to ACHI mode
  • Booting in Safe Mode
  • Ensuring that partitions are correctly selected
  • Reinstalling Mint

(I'm sure I've tried a few other things in there too. It's been a bit of an ordeal.)

The issue that I'm facing, per the title, is that booting on my machine brings me to the initrd prompt. I can force the machine to boot to the Grub prompt via the boot menu, but it is unable to load a number of commands (ls works, but lsblk is not found). I can also boot to Mint live via the installation media, but in there, I can't find the hard drive (as opposed to the installation media).

At some point, I realized that the hard drive doesn't load on boot. However, in Mint live, I can close the computer lid, then reopen, and suddenly Mint can see my hard drive.

This is all too involved for me to figure out as a Linux noob. What do I need to do to diagnose and fix this? I know this seems to be an issue on many Acer Aspire machines, but everyone else seems to get it fixed with the steps I've already tried above. How can I get the machine to recognize the hard drive on Linux boot (it works just fine in Windows)?

reddit.com
u/GrayPartyOfCanada — 8 days ago