Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

uncertain · 2025-03-04 22:23:27

1. I plug the flash drive into the system.
2. I chose my flash drive using the boot menu.
3. I select the first option in systemd-boot
3. The screen goes black, stays that way forever. Caps Lock does work. The device does not try to communicate over the network. The display output also does not show anyting.

Device: ASUS N552VW (6.gen intel cpu)
Secure boot is disabled.

I was able to successfully install arch onto this system 3 years ago. Back then everything just worked. (I am unable to find the old live image that i used)
Debian 12, OpenSUSE LEAP does work. But unfortunately "newer" distros such as arch does not boot.
Fedora41 boots but the installed OS does not boot. Gets stuck on loading the kernel (just like arch)

The live usb does work on other systems.

So i am guessing this is related to the linux kernel directly. But since i am unable to collect many information about the issue.
I am unsure as for how to report the issue.

Thank you for your time.

Last edited by uncertain (2025-03-04 22:27:01)

gromit · 2025-03-04 22:27:28

Did you verify that the downloaded image is correct (with the signature or shasum check)?
Did you already try another usb or reflash the same one?

Which version of the iso are you using?

uncertain · 2025-03-04 22:31:52

I was able to validate the image using sha256. I also did verify the PGP signature of the file.
Currently I have version 2025.03.01 of the live iso. But I have experienced the same problem with the January 2024 iso.

I did try another USB drive (I also tried different usb ports on the computer)

gromit · 2025-03-04 23:22:26

Could you find out which is the first image that does not work for you?
You can find a collection of images on our archive: https://archive.archlinux.org/iso/

uncertain · 2025-03-05 13:29:26

Thank you so much for the archive link.

I tested starting from 2021.01.01 and The versions up to and including 2023-09-01 does work without a problem.

But unfortunately the manually installed system (installed using 2023-09-01) does not go farther than the boot loader (i tried both grub and systemd boot).
Systemdboot:
Black screen after presing enter on the bootloader options

Grub:
Loading Linux linux...
Loading Inıtial ramdisk...
stuck on this screen for hours.

I also tried archinstall but got the same result.

Logs:
archinstall/install.log https://0x0.st/8MDP.txt

archinstall/cmd_history.txt https://0x0.st/8MDZ.txt

Note: Because the live image is a bit old, I had to run pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring on the live system in order to update the public keys of the contributors.

Aditional info:
for writing the image to the usb flash drive, i have used
* dd
* fedora image writer
* ventoy (i believe this is not recommended very much, but wanted to try anyway)

gromit · 2025-03-05 13:42:32

What is the kernel version on the last image that you were able to boot? You can check that with "uname -r" from the booted system

uncertain · 2025-03-05 15:02:48

The kernel version of the live image that I am able to boot without a problem is: 6.4.12-arch1-1

Thanks again

cryptearth · 2025-03-05 16:04:20

I know Seth will and does disagree with me on this, but:
your device has a quite old cpu i7-6700HQ
according to several topics over the past year several users reported boot issues with newer versions on older hardware either failing entirely or require several tweaks to get them running
I'm no master of this black magic and can only infer from previous posts - but the gist could be your hardware is just too old for the most recent 6.x line of linux (opensuse 15.6 is still on 5.14 and hence still works - debian should be on a similar old version)
at some point even linux gets too new for old hardware and you end up stuck on old versions
yes, that's unfortunate as many old hardware still works but with 10+ years just becomes obsolete

gromit · 2025-03-05 18:34:14

cryptearth wrote:

at some point even linux gets too new for old hardware and you end up stuck on old versions

This is considered a bug in the linux kernel then

It’s a regression if some application or practical use case running fine with one Linux kernel works worse or not at all with a newer version compiled using a similar configuration. The “no regressions” rule forbids this to take place; if it happens by accident, developers that caused it are expected to quickly fix the issue.

https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/rep … sions.html

uncertain · 2025-03-06 11:38:37

The main reason I wanted to install Arch was to try a DIY linux distro. (been using ubuntu for years )
And manually installing the system few times, getting used to pacman (wow... such a wondefull pakage manager) did help me learn quite a lot.

I agree with cryptearth on the point that that latest versions of the linux kernel *can* become too new. But I do think that this is not the case on a 6.th gen cpu. And we as the community can step up and make sure that the bugs affecting older hardware gets fixed/required tweaks for the hardware is found and published.

This is not my main computer, but I have systems that are on 7. and 8.gen CPU's and i do love those systems. I want to make sure that my favorite distributions run on them for a long time.
I had the chance to try Gentoo, It runs the 6.12.16 kernel perfectly. So I will will probably try the LTS kernel on arch or a few kernel flags. Hopefully report back to this thread if I find a solution. (Might be better to open/contribute wiki page on the hardware)

I would like to thank all for your time and contributions and wish you all to have a great day.
(EN is not my native language so excuse my if I made some grammatical errors)

Last edited by uncertain (2025-03-06 11:55:32)

kermit63 · 2025-03-06 12:01:18

I'm booting the Jan-2025 iso on even older hardware, a 4th gen i3, quite successfully.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-03-04 22:23:27

Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#2 2025-03-04 22:27:28

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#3 2025-03-04 22:31:52

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#4 2025-03-04 23:22:26

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#5 2025-03-05 13:29:26

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#6 2025-03-05 13:42:32

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#7 2025-03-05 15:02:48

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#8 2025-03-05 16:04:20

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#9 2025-03-05 18:34:14

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#10 2025-03-06 11:38:37

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

#11 2025-03-06 12:01:18

Re: Arch Linux live does not get past systemd-boot screen.

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