I apologize, as I likely will say a bunch of stuff you already know.
Please be precise with what your hardware is that you are trying to install to, is. Processor - Video. Number of drives in computer.
More than once, My BIOS/EFI did not actually follow through with what I -make it so- the settings in it to do.
You might compare the hardware you have with HCL.
“Hardware Compatibility List”
MellowPoison seems more familiar than myself with the symptoms you are seeing.
Personally, I have made about every mistake possible while installing Qubes, and have really felt that at that stage of starting Qubes, the install is not far enough along to tell me where, why it hurts. Will not follow through with creating a usable Qubes.
Are you attempting a dual boot? Or anything else that is unusual?
There used to be a point in the install, where it seemed to hang. Although it would eventually get going again. I went to sleep one time, got up in the middle of the night and it had proceeded. I think the Developers got rid of that one though.
My “Recipe”, which makes no sense, but just to be thorough. And sometimes clears issues with install or first start. Do a complete overwrite of the drive in the computer. and the USB stick you are installing from. Which might include not just a a fast format. But a long, several hour complete clearing of drive. I agree, likely just a waste of time.
In addition. I have one computer which will not install if I try to put a version of Linux on both of the drives in the computer. Likely that is solvable, but, in my case, not worth fighting on a first pass of testing Qubes. I left one drive blank.
Try to use a faster USB. I have this long story about attempting with a USB that was -several years old, and slower. Arthritis in a drive?
My experience, and it was years ago, a USB install stick created from Windows never worked. Might work now?? I suspect this has to do with file structure and the very large size of the Qubes ISO. Smaller live ISO’s of Linux do seem to work if installed from Windows. To me, trying to decipher all the options of trying to install from Windows was not worth my time.
When there are such more direct things to spend my time on. One could consider - Also Ubuntu is very agreeable to be installed alongside an existing Windows Installation. and both continuing to work. Back up Windows thoroughly first tho. and again on a second and then a , third drive with reliable back up software.
If one had a computer with enough RAM. One can clear a USB, install something, such as a Live version of Mint Linux. Use gparted to clear off the drive of the target computer (supposing you are not attempting a dual boot.) and the USB stick which you are about to use to install - the Qubes ISO -from. I usually stick with a faster format from Mint Linux internal programs – USB format and USB Image Writer. But I am not attempting to install with the most secure method possible if I do that. My actual experience says that when creating an USB install stick and installing to target computer. If one deviates much from the guide, for some reason it will not work.
In using gparted on my target computer SSD, as I am devoting the computer to using Qubes only. I clobber every thing on the SSD, including the boot sectors.
Create new partition. gpt, with ext4, and then again, format to ext4. Set boot flag to on. I used to format the SSD to FAT32, thinking Qubes installer would just see it as an oddity and fix the target drive as it wanted. Some Linux distros have gotten so polite to not disturb an existing install.
