Q4OS Forum

borph

Member

Registered: 2025-07-26

Posts: 4

Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

Running Windows 7 Home SP1 64-bit fully updated

Winsetup downloads the loop image, seems to install properly, but after restarting I receive the error message:
Loading Q4OS Aquarius operating system ...
error: file '/vmlinuz' not found.
Loading initial ramdisk...
error: you need to load the kernel first.
Initializing system ...

Press any key to continue...

  Failed to boot both default and fallback entries.

Press any key to continue...

LOG FILE:
drive.google.com/file/d/1b_J5zlmieuUKCCK_sbWxterZYMGIIfcd/view

I searched the forum for Windows install problems, and found a thread from last August titled "Windows boot fail" with instructions how to install the older version.  So I did, and it worked.  Then I tried again after manually downloading the current loop image, and that worked too!

Command:
q4os-winsetup.exe --dimagepath=c:\full_path_to_the_image\q4os5c-x64-loop.img.xz

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,958

Website

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

Welcome to the forum Thanks for the report, we will take a look at the issue reported. Your account has been promoted, so you can now post links and attachments up to 300kB.

Please attach the logfile once again, the link you posted doesn't work.

borph

Member

Registered: 2025-07-26

Posts: 4

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

Welcome to the forum Thanks for the report, we will take a look at the issue reported. Your account has been promoted, so you can now post links and attachments up to 300kB.

Please attach the logfile once again, the link you posted doesn't work.

You're welcome!  I had Q4OS-Winsetup-5.5-r1.1 installed on this machine since last September, until a recent upgrade borked it.  Here's the requested log for the failed install, I can also provide the one that worked if it would be helpful.

Many thanks!

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Attachments:
wubi-5.x-rev346_FAILED.log, Size: 13.69 KiB, Downloads: 208

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,958

Website

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

The logfile shows that extraction of downloaded file failed. It could be indication of NTFS data consistency or disk failure, so we would recommend you to check data integrity of your C:\ drive first.

borph

Member

Registered: 2025-07-26

Posts: 4

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

The logfile shows that extraction of downloaded file failed. It could be indication of NTFS data consistency or disk failure, so we would recommend you to check data integrity of your C:\ drive first.

I tried again on a much newer machine, this one runs Windows 11, and got a similar screen after reboot:
Failed to open \EFI\DebianBoot\▒▒▒▒▒▒S▒ - Invalid Parameter
Failed to load image ▒▒▒: Invalid Parameter
Start_image() returned Invalid Parameter, falling back to default loader
Loading Q4OS Aquarius operating system ...
Loading initial ramdisk...
Initializing system ...

Then the screen blanks and more errors appear:
boot chainload, phase 1 ...
/dev/sda3: clean, ntfs ok
/dev/loop0: clean, 113119/393216 files, 96467/1572864 blocks
ls: /root1/boot/: No such file or directory
[DBG] kernel: (root1/boot/vmlinuz-) ; initrd: (/root1/boot/initrd.img-)
Cannot find kernel to boot.

Then a wall of text (screen shot attached)

---

Attachments:
Q4OSfailed.jpg, Size: 285.74 KiB, Downloads: 229

borph

Member

Registered: 2025-07-26

Posts: 4

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

Interestingly, if I employ the workaround of downloading the loop file manually and specifying the --dimagepath as I did in the OP, it works!

Log attached

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Attachments:
wubi-5.x-rev346_FAILED.log, Size: 14.13 KiB, Downloads: 222

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,958

Website

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

Now we see the problem in the logfiles provided. The loop file is downloaded partially only, so the extract process reports errors.Maybe you have unreliable internet connection.

LittleFox

Member

Registered: 2025-07-30

Posts: 1

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

Now we see the problem in the logfiles provided. The loop file is downloaded partially only, so the extract process reports errors.Maybe you have unreliable internet connection.

I’ve had a similar issue. However, I tried it on three separate networks and they all fail, despite working fine for everything else. But I was able to download the loop file separately just fine and it works correctly.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,958

Website

Re: Q4OS for Windows 5.8-r1 installs, but doesn't boot

@LittleFox, @borph
Thanks for reporting, we will try to focus on this issue, however we are not able to reproduce it at the moment. The winsetup.exe application downloads and installs the loopfile fine here.

@LittleFox
What Windows version are you using ?
Would you provide "c:\users\<username>\appdata\local\temp\wubi-5.x-rev346.log" please ? You can add it as attachment to your post.