Hey everyone,

This is my first question on here so be gentle.

I've been trying to get Zorin OS 8 gaming to work on my new gaming rig; here are the spec:

Gigabyte 990xa-UD3
AMD 3.5ghz
Nvidia 750ti -- 2gb vram
Samsung SSD HDD 120 gb EVO
16gb ram
no cd/dvd drive

Originally it had a chinese version of Windows 7 installed. From my mac laptop I threw Zorin 8 Gaming onto a usb with UnetBootin.

Here I had some problems with usb recognition - apparently thats a thing with Gigabyte mbs. Fixed it with some BIOS shenanigans.

Then I had some issues with the video card; I was getting a black screen on boot. Fixed it with "nomodeset" in the edit commands.

Also had some keyboard and mouse issues - fixed with more BIOS shenanigans.

Then I finally got into the Zorin install. Installed it, and after reboot I got thrown into the Grub shell - again -which I have no idea how to manage. I fixed it by essentially reinstalling until with every permutation of installer options I could think of. I think the answer came from the partitioning section.

Then I manage to get it to boot into Zorin but I get a black screen error before the UI comes up:

ALERT! dev/disk/by-uuid/XXX... does not exist
Dropping into a shell!

BusyBox v1.20.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.20.0-8.1ubuntu) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' ….

(initramfs)

Also, at this point my keyboard stops working.

I tried booting it in recovery mode and everything. I essentially get the same error, just different load times.

I'm so frustrated guys. Please help.

Also, I know almost nothing about linux or programming or typing out these cmd lines. This is my first foray into Linux.

The dropping to a shell and busybox look like an emergency type rescue mode. This is the problemWhat is wrong is that the kernel cannot access the disk driver for the motherboard chipset.

It sounds like you need to be loading their initrd but you are not. I don't know how Zorin boots, but the usual boot configuration has
A Label(= the name it offers you.
A kernel with a 'root=/dev/disk/bu-uuid<blah>'.
A Ramdisk or initrd which provides modules & drivers.