Arch Linux

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

Hi, after years I bought new pc, ryzen 7 9800x3d, x670 aorus elite ax mainboard, rx 7900xtx, there is just one small problem... Installation flashdrive does not boot on this pc. I boot, I see arch menu, I select top one, black screen, forever.

What I tried:
- flash drive does boot on my laptop == flash drive is probably OK. I can continue with installation
- I tried several other distros, everytime halted after selection in grub, while it works on laptop.
- secure boot turned off
- I tried different connectors: hdmi, dp, integrated gpu
- I tried to boot the laptop via usb-c->hdmi to verify that my bigger monitor can show the text output (it can), but arch beeps in that menu, and no beeping can be heard.
- I tried several usb connectors, but since I saw grub menu / arch menu, I guess the usb is fine. Or not?
- installation of usb media I tried to use fedoras media writer, ubuntu disc creator, and simply unzipping iso onto flashdrive to enforce uefi mode.
- system seems to work; after first boot I was forced to complete windows install, I played along and windows works; that's swell, but won't work with windows. But probably it means there isn't any major problem with hw?

What I didn't try
- I saw some comments to have different partition tables types, fat/gpt, less than 4GB partition etc.; I didn't try this yet, but I'd guess these are remnants of past, current motherboards must handle these cases, no?
- somehow disabling main gpu / integrated gpu, enforcing integrated gpu if it makes difference.

---
does anyone has any idea WHAT can be contributing to this? Is there anything more I can try to enable / disable in bios?
Did anyone has any issue like this? What was the resolution in your case?

thanks,
sorry for newbie questions.
M.

MNS1968

Member

Registered: 2023-12-28

Posts: 15

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I once had this problem with a brand new SSD. Have you formatted the hard drive through BIOS it before trying to installing the new OS?

Are you able to boot into a live USB installation media on the PC?

I always format the USB flash drive in FAT32 before mounting the image and suggest you use balena Etcher.

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I tried several distros, flash drives, ports. Always fat32. The boot process halts immediately after selecting item in grub menu, or in that menu what arch uses (is it grub also?). I tried secureboot on/off, and csm compatibility mode on (while always uefi only), MBR/GPT, different methods creating live usb. It never boots, while it every time works on other device.

No I did not format ssh drive of new pc; I have no idea how to do that from bios. But windows instaled fine (I didn't want that, I just didn't interrupt it), and I never managed to boot any linux distro.

Surprising thing happened though in my last testing. As my laptop has secureboot enabled and uefi only AS WELL, I kept csm compatibility on, uefi only and secureboot also on on new pc. And it start complaining, that usb is violating secureboot rules... Which is weird since, usb was created on pc1, tested on pc2, and does not work on pc3, and I'm pretty sure pc1 and pc2 never shared data, both are relatively fresh and should be safe.... Something is wrong with this new pc.

Last edited by alfonz19 (2024-12-02 10:17:43)

MNS1968

Member

Registered: 2023-12-28

Posts: 15

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I tried several distros, flash drives, ports. Always fat32. The boot process halts immediately after selecting item in grub menu, or in that menu what arch uses (is it grub also?). I tried secureboot on/off, and csm compatibility mode on (while always uefi only), MBR/GPT, different methods creating live USB. It never boots, while it every time works on other device.

No I did not format ssh drive of new pc; I have no idea how to do that from bios. But windows installed fine (I didn't want that, I just didn't interrupt it), and I never managed to boot any Linux distro.

Surprising thing happened though in my last testing. As my laptop has secureboot enabled and UEFI only AS WELL, I kept CSM compatibility on, UEFI only and secureboot also on on new pc. And it start complaining, that USB is violating secureboot rules... Which is weird since, USB was created on pc1, tested on pc2, and does not work on pc3, and I'm pretty sure pc1 and pc2 never shared data, both are relatively fresh and should be safe.... Something is wrong with this new pc.

I believe I'm correct in saying most modern Linux distributions don't need secureboot disabled anymore. CSM shouldn't make any difference to a Linux install other than it can cause longer boot times.

This new PC, has it got any OS running on it?

Have you got another drive you can try or try a different SATA socket?

My ASRock motherboard BIOS has Secure Erase for hard drives in BIOS Utilities. Most new boards have this feature these days.

Last edited by MNS1968 (2024-12-02 12:05:35)

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

yes, windows 11 was successfully installed on it. Just linux installer does not seem to boot.

I don't have spare ssh/hdd to boot from, but grub kicks in, so it started booting(only to get immediately stuck), and flashdrive works in another pc.

I would like to avoid testing connecting stuff it it. It is new, so it should work 100%, if it does not, it is going back. Well it is going back, actually, I hate charcoal north case which loudly resonates, and any tinkering might give me troubles doing so. But I wanted to test all components before returning and it seems I won't be able to do so, so next time no 'x670 aorus elite ax' mainboard.

MNS1968

Member

Registered: 2023-12-28

Posts: 15

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

Think I found the answer ...Windoz 11!

I remember seeing some people complaining they'd issues dual booting Linux with Windows version 24H2.

I've always found it's best to dual boot using two drives. That way, Windows cannot interfere with the Linux bootloader.

Frankly, SSD's are so cheap now, I'd buy a SATA 120GB drive and use that for Linux. I just press F11 on the keyboard for the boot menu when starting the PC.

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I share you hatred towards that system, and don't refuse this explanation — but HOW can preexisting windows installation halt live linux distribution to boot?
On older pc I have it like you have, because I don't trust windows not to blow things up during their install/fix, so I typically unplugged other drives (not paranoid, there was one situation like that and one nasty fixing). But this is fresh install, I don't even know how would I eradicate windows from SSH without booting live distro and without usage of another pc.

MNS1968

Member

Registered: 2023-12-28

Posts: 15

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I share you hatred towards that system, and don't refuse this explanation — but HOW can preexisting windows installation halt live linux distribution to boot?

If your live Linux OS is not booting, then the image cannot be installed correctly or is corrupted before it was used to install on the USB. Did you check the checksum for the distribution download?

Try using balena Etcher.

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

it *is* booting. Just not on that one pc. Say latest kubuntu live installer will boot on laptop, then won't boot on new pc, and then will boot again on my laptop again. Really, the flashdrive is fine. Same with arch installer.
Same with different flash drive, same with different method of creating the flashdrive content — I tried 3 already. I don't expect fourth to yield different results.

MNS1968

Member

Registered: 2023-12-28

Posts: 15

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

Have you updated the BIOS on this new PC before you installed Windoz?

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

no. But bios has latest version available. So I assume it was flashed to latest version.
I didn't build the pc myself, but some stuff was already set there, as I assume memory expo isn't set from factory. So I later load optimized defaults in bios. Didn't help the slighest.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,489

Website

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I believe I'm correct in saying most modern Linux distributions don't need secureboot disabled anymore

Arch does not support SecureBoot. Some machines will boot the ISO image though, even with SecureBoot enabled, but most will not.

HOW can preexisting windows installation halt live linux distribution to boot?

If Windows' "fast start" is enabled then the machine doesn't shut down properly, which stops live USB sticks from booting.

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Para todos todo, para nosotros nada

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I believe I'm correct in saying most modern Linux distributions don't need secureboot disabled anymore

Arch does not support SecureBoot. Some machines will boot the ISO image though, even with SecureBoot enabled, but most will not.

not that familiar with arch, but OK. Thanks for info. Ok, but I still try to boot it with secure boot disabled and the behavior was the same...

HOW can preexisting windows installation halt live linux distribution to boot?

If Windows' "fast start" is enabled then the machine doesn't shut down properly, which stops live USB sticks from booting.

fast start is disabled in bios, but I think you are talking about windows start speed up. This is probably on. But I'm certain, that always turn windows cleanly even though I don't count on them in future. So this alone cannot be the issue. Maybe windows 11 has more poison? Anyways — I'm curious to learn something new: if I'm booting live system, how will ssd content block that one from booting?

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,489

Website

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I am referring to Windows' own hybrid shutdown system, which has nothing to do with the "BIOS".

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2024-12-02 14:24:17)

---

Para todos todo, para nosotros nada

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

So I guessed it right. But really I have no idea how that could interfere with live usb booting process

MNS1968

Member

Registered: 2023-12-28

Posts: 15

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I believe I'm correct in saying most modern Linux distributions don't need secureboot disabled anymore

Arch does not support SecureBoot. Some machines will boot the ISO image though, even with SecureBoot enabled, but most will not.

I stand corrected.

HOW can preexisting windows installation halt live linux distribution to boot?

If Windows' "fast start" is enabled then the machine doesn't shut down properly, which stops live USB sticks from booting.

That I didn't know about but then I've not used Windows for a very long time.

alfonz19, have you tried a non live version of a Linux installation on this Windows drive?

Last edited by MNS1968 (2024-12-02 14:47:13)

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

well this is very new to me as well, never see this in last 15+ years with linux. I apologize for not following suggestion here, but this PC wasn't cheap and if there is something fishy with motherboard, I don't want to flash it and eventually give anyone leverage to refuse return. It has latest version, I was just trying to make sure if I'm not overlooking some trivial switch, as I work with laptops mostly and older desktop. I thought I'm overlooking some "please work 2000 XP" switch in bios.

I tried 2 versions of graphical live kubuntu installers, safe graphics and normal graphics AND THEN text-based arch installer assuming arch would be most bleeding edge and I assumed I could avoid some CPU/GPU issues that way. I've read that given CPU and GPU should be not a problem even if they are both relatively new, but even then, I should not be an issue in text mode.

It seems it's gigabyte mystery, and I need to pick different brand for motherboard. I have some monitors from this company (KVM + just a little shitty repro + 144hz IPS + PBP/PIP combo isn't that common), and their sw so shitty, it works like in 5% of cases and their how to is always like unplug everything, scented candles, reboot, run with windows 98 compatibility — I shit you not, all true except for the candles.

MNS1968

Member

Registered: 2023-12-28

Posts: 15

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

Googling your motherboard model doesn't show any issues with any Linux installations.

There's quite a few posts listing your board and people using it with Manjaro, Pop and Ubuntu.

I think that what Head_on_a_Stick has suggested is the issue for your installation problems.

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I tried it, I disabled the fast boot issue in windows, and the flash drive still does not boot.
with or without secureboot, with or without csm, uefi or not. Nothing. Grub, selected, halted.
I found a way how to force integrated gpu into action, but no nothing.

After all attemps I plug out flash drive out of that pc, and sure enough, it worked immediately without a hiccup.

Tomorrow I will call the company which put it up together for me for advice, but I don't expect much. I will be surely ridiculed for not being good guy who uses windows 11. I will update you, but most probably we will close the thread as unsolvable in few days, once I return the pc.

alfonz19

Member

Registered: 2019-02-24

Posts: 12

Re: installation halts after selecting entry in menu after booting.

I might have valid answer (I need to wait until I can retest it myself) — company which supplied me the PC managed to install linux on that machine.
It might have been caused by gigabyte motherboard, which has some 'x3d turbo' feature, which should emulate behavior of …x3d amd processors for non-x3d versions and further improve performance of …x3d ones; that's what I've been able to google-out about it. Allegedly having it disabled (default value) makes 9800x3d cpu to not boot linux.