I am trying to install Manjaro Openbox from a USB stick on an Asus X200CA laptop, using Manjaro's built in installer Calamares. I have tried different ISO downloads written to different USB sticks but I keep getting this message:

Installation Failed
The installer failed to create a partition table on HGST545050A7E680
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Create a new partition table (type: gpt) on 'dev/sda’
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Job: Create new partition table on device "/dev/sda’
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Command: sfdisk /dev/sda

Any advice on how to resolve this?

If it has windows installed go into settings>power>advance-settings turn off fast-boot, There maybe a fast-boot setting in bios that needs to be turned off also.

It currently has Parabola Linux installed with Enlightenment DE.

the installer maybe activating the swap partition, if so run swap off if this is happening and make sure all other partitions on the drive are not mounted.

Swap was on so I turned it off and now get this.
Is that forward slash of significance?

It means that is where the root filesystem is mounted, on the first partition of the drive. It appears that everything is on one partition, except for the swap. Did you actually boot from the installer, or is that info from booting into the Parabola installation?

That terminal print out is from the Parabola install. What is so puzzling about this is that I have previously installed other OS on this laptop, including Parabola, in exactly the same way that won't work now - i.e. I download an ISO, write it to a USB and install.

When booted into the installer, make sure no partitions are mounted and the swap partition isn't being used by the installer.

OK I will try that. Note that the Calamares installer:

- prompts me to choose either auto partitioning or manual;
- when I choose auto, I am prompted to select "no swap" or "swap, no hibernate" or "swap, with hibernate";
- I have been choosing "swap, no hibernate"
- it then does something called "Scanning partitions" for a few minutes before beginning the actual install attempt.

The swap choices determine the size of the swap partition. Hibernating takes more space, so that will make the largest swap partition, at least the size of the RAM installed. No hibernate should make ~4GB of swap. Which to choose is your decision. I don't know why the installer would be having problems, unless there is a problem with the drive.

manjaro@manjaro-openbox Linux 5.6.6-1-MANJARO x86_64 20.0 Lysia
~ >>> swapon --show
~ >>> lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0 7:0 0 70M 1 loop /run/miso/sfs/livefs
loop1 7:1 0 306.4M 1 loop /run/miso/sfs/mhwdfs
loop2 7:2 0 556.2M 1 loop /run/miso/sfs/desktopfs
loop3 7:3 0 586.1M 1 loop /run/miso/sfs/rootfs
sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 457.5G 0 part
└─sda2 8:2 0 8.2G 0 part
sdb 8:16 1 7.5G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 1 1.6G 0 part /run/miso/bootmnt
└─sdb2 8:18 1 4M 0 part
~ >>>

The above tells me that there in not enough free space on sda to create a new partition unless sda1 i resized or deleted. Alternatively, you can tell the installer to use the existing partitions and overwrite the existing install. I am not familiar with the installer you are using, but most of them offer an option for "custom" or "manual" partitioning.

Not sure what you mean by this. Are you booting the usb clicking the install button and following the prompts, attempting to install from the running installation on your internal drive, something else?

Did a test in a vm, had same problem What I did was use gparted on the iso to create a new partition table before starting the installer. What I don't understand is why the installer is attempting to create a new gpt table instead of msdos when there is no efi partition or bios-grub partition in the original partition layout. Post the output of

Yes, the Calamares installer does allow me to do manual partitioning but, never having done that in the past, I am at a loss as to what partitions to make. I guess I need to do some more Linux reading