LMDE 6 (32 bit) installation error [Errno 2] No such file or directory
 

No such file or directory: "/run/live/medium/live/filesystem.packages-remove"

I get this when trying to install LMDE 6 (32 bit) from a bootable USB on to an internal HDD in an old Toshiba laptop, running Windows Vista on a different internal HDD.
I burnt the ISO (LMDE 6 32 bit 'Faye') using UNETBOOTIN. Running as a live session booted from that same USB drive looks all fine. So I wanted to do a full install on to an internal HDD. I want to keep that old laptop, which HW-wise is still very fine, alive. Just because.

What does the above error message mean, i.e. what is that missing file/directory all about, and how can that error be avoided/fixed?

My 1st post here, new to the 'modern' Linux distros, a bit on-the-job experience with Linux, but decades ago, in the command line world.

When does that message occur? What leads up to it, the context?

What are the specifications of that laptop? When was it made? Are both HDDs in it at the same time as you are booted to the USB installation media when the message occurs?

It is a Toshiba Satellite from 2006 (I think), BIOS, not UEFI. Old, for sure, but running fine.

I had booted from the Life USB and started the installation from there, pressing "Install LMDE" on the life LMDE desktop.
The message occurs in the late part of the installation, at about 90% done, when all the questions the installer asked
were answered (partitioning, for example) and the installation proceeded without further dialog, until that error message window came up.
Both internal HDDs were in. HDD1 (sda) containing (but not running at that time, of course) Windows Vista, HDD2 (sdb) has, first, a data partition and ,second, one that I prepared (gparted) as the target of the LMDE installation (sdb6).

What is this "/run/live/medium/live/filesystem.packages-remove" file, and where is it supposed to be found by the installer?

I see the following things going wrong:
1) Bad ISO.
2) Bad unetbootin

Are both 1) and 2) unlikely, because the life session from the USB drive runs fine?
But likely because the error message was about a missing file?
It would be nice if 1) and 2) could be excluded.

3) I fouled up the installation per the partitioning part (that is the only part of the installation process where
one can make a mistake). I can give details about what I did there, once 1) and 2) can be excluded.

Addendum:

That error message window had an OK button, which I pressed. The installation proceeded a bit further and then silently finished, without telling success or failure.

I removed the USB stick and then tried to boot from that 2nd HDD (sdb6), which failed. Choosing Vista on sda still works fine. It tells me that sdb6 is a partition 'used by a different OS'.

Then I booted the life LMDE USB session again and could see all (?) the usual suspects of a Linux installation on that sdb6 partition, which however did not boot. So, at least a lot had been copied into that partition.

It's possible for it to matter whether the internal disks are both PATA, both SATA, or one of each, which should have been part of the specifications you didn't bother to provide.

I don't know what "/run/live/medium/live/filesystem.packages-remove" means, but it sounds like part of a shutdown or reboot process to clear downloaded packages off their download location.

It might be worth booting whatever you can, mounting the target /, and looking in its /var/log/ for logs with clues, and in /boot/ to see if both kernel and initrd are present, and if there is a /boot/grub/grub.cfg that isn't empty, and same for /etc/default/grub.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtoic.php?t=404778 (from web-searching the error)

p. s. Maybe consider Ventoy (to create USB)

Welcome to LQ! https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2408247

You might also try antiX. I'd be interested in how they compare on your 2006 Toshiba. (1 or 2 GB ram?)

Can not imagine how differing storage protocols have anything to do with this problem, but:
The 2 HDDs are both ATA, not SATA.

There are no clues (that I can find) in the logs.
In /boot there is no Kernel and initrd contains a initrd.img directory
In /boot/grub/ there is no grub.cfg
Same for /etc/default/grub

This installation clearly and not gracefully failed and, believing that error message saying
"No such file or directory: "/run/live/medium/live/filesystem.packages-remove"",
it failed because it was looking for that file in that location and did not find it.

So, the immediate questions would be what that file in that directory is and why it is not there.

/run/live/... indicates to me that the location is on the bootable USB drive, true?
If true, wouldn't that mean that there is a problem with the ISO, or its burning to the USB drive?

One of the two - based on the comments at //forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=404778 and //github.com/linuxmint/live-installer/issues/152 which one depends on who you ask.

Short answer: a Ventoy bootable USB solves it; failing that, try the comments in the second post of the above Mint thread. (Which I have entered correctly and verified doesn't 404...)

Yes, and I agree that it could be due to either a bad download or something went wrong with writing the ISO file to the USB drive. I successfully created a LMDE virtual machine which just uses the ISO file as a CD which basically confirms the above.

Thanks much, I will try the recommendations (Ventoy / work-around)

Device enumeration order among BIOS, Grub and kernel for PATA, SATA and USB is subject to variances. They commonly caused boot failures, and were a big part of why fstabs and grub configuration in most distros were changed to use UUIDs or LABELs instead of device names years ago.

It is supposed to be found exactly where it is indicated so a simple way to find out is to boot the 'live' usb and use the ls command to see if it is there. If that is the actual output then you would do:

That should show you if the file is there. Probably a bad download or burn to usb as suggested but I've not used LMDE. I don't know if you will have problems installing the latest release on such an old machine but the only way to find out is to try.