Parted Magic question

darael · 12 Aug 2018 at 10:49

I think this is the right forum to be asking. Forgive me if I am wrong.

I have Parted Magic 2013_08_01 on UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) and I want to use it to secure erase my SSD.

My problem is that when I load Parted Magic from UBCD, my PC will enter into sleep (I can see my power light flashing steady) and after a few seconds it will wake up with only a black screen.

My Asus H270F motherboard is on the latest (1205) BIOS and I have even gone as far as completely resetting the BIOS to defaults, changing no settings and Parted Magic still does this.

I have tried Parted Magic on other computers and don't get the black screen "error". So I can only imagine that it doesn't like my motherboard or GTX 1050.

I can't ask directly on Parted Magic's forums as you need to have bought the product. The 2013_08_01 version is the last free version and why it is no longer updated on UBCD.

Being a complete Linux novice, I am completely out of my element here. I know Windows can go to sleep and wake up just fine. I just seem to have this issue with Parted Magic.

Any advice will be gratefully received!

jsmoke · 12 Aug 2018 at 11:06

Are you loading it via usb or dvd?

So you load ubcd say from a cd and reach a menu, or what exactly happens, step by step.

darael · 12 Aug 2018 at 11:11

jsmoke said:
Are you loading it via usb or dvd?

So you load ubcd say from a cd and reach a menu, or what exactly happens, step by step.

I am using USB.

Since my previous post, I have downloaded the 2013_08_01 ISO image and directly installed it onto a USB drive, as instructed here.

I then tried a standard (non-UEFI) boot when choosing from the boot selection menu and booting with UEFI. Each time I get exactly the same result.

I just remembered I have some blank CDs somewhere. I shall burning the ISO to one and report back.

darael · 12 Aug 2018 at 11:45

Still getting the same thing when booting from CD.

Hades · 13 Aug 2018 at 00:49

You could try something like Ubuntu or Linux Mint on a USB stick. Then use GParted to wipe the partition instead.

jsmoke · 13 Aug 2018 at 00:59

Could be some bios setting is the only thing I can think.

AmateurExpert · 13 Aug 2018 at 15:12

I suspect Parted Magic is relying on the open source Nvidia "nouveau" drivers, and googling around shows many others having problems with resuming from sleep using these. I don't know if you can make your UBCD use the proprietary Nvidia drivers, but if you can it would be worth a go.

You could try and see if there are BIOS settings to disable the deeper sleep states.

If you are using DisplayPort, try connecting your monitor via HDMI and see if that works around the bug.

Hades said:
You could try something like Ubuntu or Linux Mint on a USB stick. Then use GParted to wipe the partition instead.

OP is trying to use the "ATA secure erase" function; with GParted you can repartition and then reformat, but that's less optimal for SSDs than triggering the secure erase function.

darael · 13 Aug 2018 at 16:38

AmateurExpert said:
I suspect Parted Magic is relying on the open source Nvidia "nouveau" drivers, and googling around shows many others having problems with resuming from sleep using these. I don't know if you can make your UBCD use the proprietary Nvidia drivers, but if you can it would be worth a go.

You could try and see if there are BIOS settings to disable the deeper sleep states.

If you are using DisplayPort, try connecting your monitor via HDMI and see if that works around the bug.

OP is trying to use the "ATA secure erase" function; with GParted you can repartition and then reformat, but that's less optimal for SSDs than triggering the secure erase function.

I use DVI for my monitor's output, which is all that it supports. I had tried messing about with sleep settings, but nothing seemed to do anything - which was when I resorted to restoring the BIOS to defaults to be double sure.

Is there any way I can mount the Parted Magic image and remove/disable this nouveau driver?