Ubuntu 14/16/18 install to ASUS T100 fails with I/O error, dumps to initramfs

I have an ASUS T100 on which I am trying to install Ubuntu. I have tried 14, 16, and 18 with similar non-result. Windows 8.1 on this T100 became corrupted, factory reset and windows restore failed, so I decided to make the machine usable again.

I am installing from a bootable Patriot memory USB key. The T100 does not seem to recognize any other USB keys, but I had the Patriot on the system under Windows, so it seems that the BIOS recognizes it? The Patriot dosfscks without problems and boots on other systems.

The following should be obvious, but I will include just to avoid having someone suggest these :-) : safe boot is disabled, my install medium has file EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi

Ubuntu gets to the "wait" screen and fails out. Moving by F1 back to the console shows stdin I/O errors until failure to BusyBox. I have tried unplugging and replugging the USB key during the wait stage, as some have suggested, but this does not change anything.

Here is the dmesg dump, starting at initramfs unpack - sorry for the long text, but I am including it all, in case someone sees something useful here (I can share the full dump from 0 if it would be helpful):

[ 0.337991] Unpacking initramfs... [ 13.902262] Freeing initrd memory: 26208K [ 13.902653] Scanning for low memory corruption every 60 seconds [ 13.903718] audit: initializing netlink subsys (disabled) [ 13.903764] audit: type=2000 audit(1600084811.620:1): initialized [ 13.904704] Initialise system trusted keyring [ 13.904992] HugeTLB registered 2 MB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages [ 13.910020] zbud: loaded [ 13.910856] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.6.0 [ 13.910972] VFS: Dquot-cache hash table entries: 512 (order 0, 4096 bytes) [ 13.911883] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher [ 13.912689] fuse init (API version 7.23) [ 13.913113] Key type big_key registered [ 13.913171] Allocating IMA MOK and blacklist keyrings. [ 13.914406] Key type asymmetric registered [ 13.914417] Asymmetric key parser 'x509' registered [ 13.914549] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 249) [ 13.914650] io scheduler noop registered [ 13.914661] io scheduler deadline registered (default) [ 13.914765] io scheduler cfq registered [ 13.915090] pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5 [ 13.915111] pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.4 [ 13.915227] efifb: probing for efifb [ 13.915282] efifb: framebuffer at 0x80000000, mapped to 0xffffc90000800000, using 4160k, total 4160k [ 13.915288] efifb: mode is 1366x768x32, linelength=5504, pages=1 [ 13.915291] efifb: scrolling: redraw [ 13.915297] efifb: Truecolor: size=8:8:8:8, shift=24:16:8:0 [ 13.925853] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 170x48 [ 13.936018] fb0: EFI VGA frame buffer device [ 13.936048] intel_idle: MWAIT substates: 0x33000020 [ 13.936053] intel_idle: v0.4.1 model 0x37 [ 13.936057] intel_idle: lapic_timer_reliable_states 0xffffffff [ 13.936840] ACPI: AC Adapter [ADP1] (on-line) [ 13.937056] input: Lid Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input0 [ 13.937220] ACPI: Lid Switch [LID] [ 13.937352] input: Sleep Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input1 [ 13.937362] ACPI: Sleep Button [SLPB] [ 13.941933] [Firmware Bug]: No valid trip found [ 13.942097] GHES: HEST is not enabled! [ 13.942397] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 32 ports, IRQ sharing enabled [ 13.962618] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A [ 13.967306] hpet: number irqs doesn't agree with number of timers [ 13.967479] Linux agpgart interface v0.103 [ 14.021916] loop: module loaded [ 14.022630] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed [ 14.022641] tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6 [ 14.022645] tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <> [ 14.022774] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2 [ 14.022964] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver [ 14.022980] ehci-pci: EHCI PCI platform driver [ 14.023251] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: EHCI Host Controller [ 14.023269] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 [ 14.023293] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: debug port 2 [ 14.027224] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: cache line size of 64 is not supported [ 14.027262] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: irq 203, io mem 0x9080d000 [ 14.037623] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00 [ 14.037747] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002 [ 14.037754] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1 [ 14.037760] usb usb1: Product: EHCI Host Controller [ 14.037766] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 4.4.0-142-generic ehci_hcd [ 14.037771] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 0000:00:1d.0 [ 14.038127] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found [ 14.038158] hub 1-0:1.0: 8 ports detected [ 14.038829] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver [ 14.038898] ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver [ 14.038914] ohci-pci: OHCI PCI platform driver [ 14.038949] ohci-platform: OHCI generic platform driver [ 14.038993] uhci_hcd: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver [ 14.039160] i8042: PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly. [ 14.714873] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci [ 14.817445] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=8087, idProduct=07e6 [ 14.817453] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0 [ 14.817910] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found [ 14.818087] hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected [ 15.033602] usb 1-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci [ 15.074602] i8042: No controller found [ 15.074628] clocksource: tsc: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x13303f810e3, max_idle_ns: 440795235405 ns [ 15.074803] clocksource: Switched to clocksource tsc [ 15.075023] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice [ 15.075862] rtc_cmos 00:00: rtc core: registered rtc_cmos as rtc0 [ 15.075879] rtc_cmos 00:00: no alarms, 242 bytes nvram [ 15.075902] i2c /dev entries driver [ 15.076080] device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3 [ 15.076614] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.34.0-ioctl (2015-10-28) initialised: [ 15.076646] Intel P-state driver initializing. [ 15.077102] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs [ 15.077114] EFI Variables Facility v0.08 2004-May-17 [ 15.086446] NET: Registered protocol family 10 [ 15.087647] NET: Registered protocol family 17 [ 15.087679] Key type dns_resolver registered [ 15.088851] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x30678, pf=0x2, revision=0x824 [ 15.088972] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x30678, pf=0x2, revision=0x824 [ 15.088997] microcode: CPU2 sig=0x30678, pf=0x2, revision=0x824 [ 15.089144] microcode: CPU3 sig=0x30678, pf=0x2, revision=0x824 [ 15.089502] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.01 <>, Peter Oruba [ 15.091158] registered taskstats version 1 [ 15.091199] Loading compiled-in X.509 certificates [ 15.093376] Loaded X.509 cert 'Build time autogenerated kernel key: 196df9006c77aed2ee3d80d8cb8bc0fc33590e01' [ 15.093422] zswap: loaded using pool lzo/zbud [ 15.102476] Key type trusted registered [ 15.120574] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=12d1, idProduct=15bb [ 15.120584] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=6, Product=5, SerialNumber=0 [ 15.120590] usb 1-1.1: Product: HUAWEI Mobile Broadband Module [ 15.120595] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. [ 15.121347] Key type encrypted registered [ 15.121367] AppArmor: AppArmor sha1 policy hashing enabled [ 15.170837] ima: Allocated hash algorithm: sha1 [ 15.194782] usb 1-1.3: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci [ 15.278844] evm: HMAC attrs: 0x1 [ 15.280446] Magic number: 4:678:984 [ 15.281202] rtc_cmos 00:00: setting system clock to 2020-09-14 12:00:11 UTC (1600084811) [ 15.281732] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found [ 15.281751] EDD information not available. [ 15.282140] PM: Hibernation image not present or could not be loaded. [ 15.285682] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1492K [ 15.294445] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 14336k [ 15.296192] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0610 [ 15.296203] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0 [ 15.296210] usb 1-1.3: Product: USB2.0 Hub [ 15.297411] hub 1-1.3:1.0: USB hub found [ 15.297796] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1840K [ 15.298462] hub 1-1.3:1.0: 4 ports detected [ 15.299323] Freeing unused kernel memory: 72K <30>[ 15.355774] systemd-udevd[122]: starting version 204 [ 15.389479] FUJITSU Extended Socket Network Device Driver - version 1.0 - Copyright (c) 2015 FUJITSU LIMITED [ 15.390926] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver [ 15.390932] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman [ 15.395716] sdhci-acpi 80860F14:00: No vmmc regulator found [ 15.395724] sdhci-acpi 80860F14:00: No vqmmc regulator found [ 15.401046] mmc0: SDHCI controller on ACPI [80860F14:00] using ADMA [ 15.402285] sdhci-acpi INT33BB:00: No vmmc regulator found [ 15.402291] sdhci-acpi INT33BB:00: No vqmmc regulator found [ 15.405654] mmc1: SDHCI controller on ACPI [INT33BB:00] using ADMA [ 15.406984] sdhci-acpi 80860F14:01: No vmmc regulator found [ 15.406991] sdhci-acpi 80860F14:01: No vqmmc regulator found [ 15.410681] mmc2: SDHCI controller on ACPI [80860F14:01] using ADMA [ 15.425307] wmi: Mapper loaded [ 15.441138] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810 [ 15.536101] [drm] Memory usable by graphics device = 2048M [ 15.536110] checking generic (80000000 410000) vs hw (80000000 10000000) [ 15.536113] fb: switching to inteldrmfb from EFI VGA [ 15.536162] Console: switching to colour dummy device 80x25 [ 15.536543] [drm] Replacing VGA console driver [ 15.536763] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013). [ 15.536767] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query. [ 15.569803] mmc0: MAN_BKOPS_EN bit is not set [ 15.582562] vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:00:02.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=io+mem:owns=io+mem [ 15.584292] [drm:intel_dsi_init [i915]] *ERROR* Failed to own gpio for panel control [ 15.584496] [drm:pwm_setup_backlight [i915]] *ERROR* Failed to own the pwm chip [ 15.586676] usb 1-1.3.1: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci [ 15.614622] mmc0: new HS200 MMC card at address 0001 [ 15.621114] mmcblk0: mmc0:0001 HCG8e 58.3 GiB [ 15.621600] mmcblk0boot0: mmc0:0001 HCG8e partition 1 4.00 MiB [ 15.622163] mmcblk0boot1: mmc0:0001 HCG8e partition 2 4.00 MiB [ 15.622487] mmcblk0rpmb: mmc0:0001 HCG8e partition 3 4.00 MiB [ 15.625454] mmcblk0: p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 [ 15.703261] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device found, idVendor=13fe, idProduct=5200 [ 15.703270] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [ 15.703276] usb 1-1.3.1: Product: Patriot Memory [ 15.703280] usb 1-1.3.1: Manufacturer: [ 15.703285] usb 1-1.3.1: SerialNumber: 0701348A28C22083 [ 15.712567] usb-storage 1-1.3.1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected [ 15.716134] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.3.1:1.0 [ 15.716667] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage [ 15.720517] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas [ 15.726315] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (2 bytes) [ 15.727835] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (3 bytes) [ 15.729362] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (3 bytes) [ 15.732091] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (7 bytes) [ 15.774410] usb 1-1.3.3: new full-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci [ 15.783362] fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device [ 15.786154] ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no) [ 15.806980] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x91 (3 bytes) [ 15.807018] mmc1: new ultra high speed DDR50 SDIO card at address 0001 [ 15.901389] usb 1-1.3.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0b05, idProduct=1807 [ 15.901401] usb 1-1.3.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [ 15.901410] usb 1-1.3.3: Product: ASUS HID Device [ 15.901418] usb 1-1.3.3: Manufacturer: ASUS Tech Inc. [ 15.911664] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (2 bytes) [ 15.915377] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (3 bytes) [ 15.917219] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (3 bytes) [ 15.919932] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina [ 15.922270] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (7 bytes) [ 15.946636] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid [ 15.946637] usbhid: USB HID core driver [ 15.950704] input: ASUS Tech Inc. ASUS HID Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.3/1-1.3.3:1.0/0003:0B05:1807.0001/input/input2 [ 16.007602] hid-generic 0003:0B05:1807.0001: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [ASUS Tech Inc. ASUS HID Device ] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.3.3/input0 [ 16.007810] hid-generic 0003:0B05:1807.0002: ignoring exceeding usage max [ 16.009520] input: ASUS Tech Inc. ASUS HID Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.3/1-1.3.3:1.1/0003:0B05:1807.0002/input/input3 [ 16.063663] hid-generic 0003:0B05:1807.0002: input,hiddev0,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Device [ASUS Tech Inc. ASUS HID Device ] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.3.3/input1 [ 16.064031] input: ASUS Tech Inc. ASUS HID Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.3/1-1.3.3:1.2/0003:0B05:1807.0003/input/input4 [ 16.064479] hid-generic 0003:0B05:1807.0003: input,hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [ASUS Tech Inc. ASUS HID Device ] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.3.3/input2 [ 16.109607] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (2 bytes) [ 16.716693] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access Patriot Memory PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 [ 16.719448] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0 [ 16.722177] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 123535360 512-byte logical blocks: (63.3 GB/58.9 GiB) [ 16.723883] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [ 16.723889] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 00 [ 16.725380] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA [ 16.874671] sda: sda1 [ 16.880786] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk [ 16.958027] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 170x48 [ 17.086437] i915 0000:00:02.0: fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device [ 17.086705] acpi device:02: registered as cooling_device4 [ 17.087450] acpi device:09: registered as cooling_device5 [ 17.087612] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input5 [ 17.088546] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20151010 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0 [ 18.485756] random: nonblocking pool is initialized [ 629.416494] usb 1-1.3.1: USB disconnect, device number 5 [12046.794286] usb 1-1.3.1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci [12046.918925] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device found, idVendor=13fe, idProduct=5200 [12046.918935] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [12046.918941] usb 1-1.3.1: Product: Patriot Memory [12046.918947] usb 1-1.3.1: Manufacturer: [12046.918952] usb 1-1.3.1: SerialNumber: 0701348A28C22083 [12046.920547] usb-storage 1-1.3.1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected [12046.922144] scsi host1: usb-storage 1-1.3.1:1.0 [12047.924353] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access Patriot Memory PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 [12047.926346] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0 [12047.927916] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 123535360 512-byte logical blocks: (63.3 GB/58.9 GiB) [12047.929610] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [12047.929622] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 00 [12047.931137] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA [12048.081993] sda: sda1 [12048.087817] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk [12052.040817] FAT-fs (sda1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck. 

Thank you in advance for any useful advice! Or non-useful, for that matter, at least it gives hope. :-)

1 Answer

This is what I ended up doing, although I do not understand why it works.

1. I tried creating a bootable image on a microSD that the computer had seen before the Windows crash, but BIOS refused to boot from it.
2. I put the microSD into a USB 2.0 adapter, but BIOS refused to recognize it.
3. Booted from my Patriot USB key that the BIOS recognizes.
4. When the I/O errors started, I pulled out the Patriot and put in the adapter. The I/O errors did not stop. However, on reboot again, the BIOS allowed this device.
5. Installed 18.04.

This seems like a total hack to fool BIOS. I will still be interested in any information that someone could provide to inform why it is like this - I do not like inexplicable solutions.