Hi all!
I’m trying to wipe Windows and install Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS as the sole OS on a Samsung laptop.
Ubuntu boots just fine from USB with ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso.
However, the installer fails during partitioning with the error:
sfdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Input/output error
Hardware:
Laptop: Samsung Galaxy Book S
Internal storage: SAMSUNG KLUEG8UHDB-C2D1 (UFS module, 256 GB)
Symptoms:
- sfdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Input/output error
- ls /dev/sd* shows /dev/sda but no partitions
- smartctl fails early on. With -T permissive it doesn’t technically fail but still returns no info (no temperature, no SMART logs, etc.)
- I tried Lubuntu 22.04 instead, to the exact same effect
- Doing a partial installation alongside windows runs into the same issue
From Windows:
- The drive shows up fine under “Disk Drives” in Device Manager
- No errors or issues reported
- wmic diskdrive get status returns “OK”
- CrystalDiskInfo fails to find the drive though
BIOS Info:
- Drive is listed in BIOS correctly with model number
- Secure Boot is off
Trying a diagnosis with ChatGPT (Just so you know: If any of this sounds super-odd it’s on them 
) it may be a UFS driver issue?
Has anyone installed Ubuntu on a UFS-based system before?
Any way to include the relevant driver in the installation process?
Also: I’m neither fixed on the version nor flavour of Ubuntu. Any hint to a flavour/version combo that may install on this machine would be much appreciated!
Thank you!
.