Debian 12 Install Hangs at Installation Menu without messages Alienware M18 r1

[kmleon]

Greetings,
I am trying to get Debian 12 to install on an Alienware M18 r1.
It is hanging with a hard freeze during first steps of install menu.
Completely unresponsive, have to hold down the power button for 5 seconds to kick it in the teeth to power off.

I created the full installation .iso to bootable usb with Rufus, tried both the iso mode and the dd mode, neither made a difference.
I hit F12 at boot, and select the usb.
It loads the menu with the different installation options.
No matter which option I select, with 2-5 sections after selecting the system hard locks, caps lock doesn't respond, nothing.
It is still showing the initial menu selection, I never see any console text.
System specs:
Killer Wi-Fi 1675i
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12GB G DDR6
1TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
Added additional 2TB NVMe
18" QHD+ (2560 x 1600) 165Hz, 3ms, ComfortView Plus, NVIDIA G-SYNC + DDS, 100% DCI-P3
FHD IR Camera
32GB, 2x16GB, DDR5, 4800MHz
13th Gen Intel Core i9 13900HX (24-Core, 36MB L3 Cache, up t o 5.4GHz Max Turbo)

I was able to easily install and use Ubuntu 22.04 to test, but I really, really, really do not want to have to use Ubuntu.
There is a currently working Q4OS Debian 11 install on this system, and I want to replace with Debian 12 (and then I'll upgrade to Q4OS 5.2 once I get the upstream working, I get the same boot problem with Q4OS install usb as well).

I expected this new a machine was going to be challenging, and I appreciate any suggestions to try getting at least far enough to get some error messages or progress message to track down the hang.

I have tried changing the default UEFI boot device from RAID to regular ACHI (even though it is working with RAID mode for both Ubuntu and Windows 11), but that made no difference.
I have tried adding nomodeset via editing of the bootup, but no difference in result
I have tried adding nouveu,nomodese=0, with not difference in results

What are some other things I could try to get this further along?
Thanks kindly!



Photos of the two menu screens. Also of existing grub for currently working Q4OS Debian 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 installs on the same system.

[livix07]

A few thoughts:
- try to use another USB (I think USB2.0 would be better) or , if possible, use a CD/DVD
- have you tried to use the text mode for installation (not one of the Graphical...)?

[Aki]

I created the full installation .iso to bootable usb with Rufus, tried both the iso mode and the dd mode, neither made a difference.
I hit F12 at boot, and select the usb.
It loads the menu with the different installation options.
No matter which option I select, with 2-5 sections after selecting the system hard locks, caps lock doesn't respond, nothing.
[..]
I have tried adding nomodeset via editing of the bootup, but no difference in result
I have tried adding nouveu,nomodese=0, with not difference in results

What are some other things I could try to get this further along?
Thanks kindly!

Have you verified that the Debian ISO has been created correctly ? According to Creating a Bootable Debian USB Flashdrive:

Warning: Rufus has 2 writing modes "ISO" and "DD" mode, which you can select just before writing begins. For Debian installer images or Debian live images, you MUST select the "DD" writing mode -- ISO mode will alter the copy of the image on the target media (confirmed August 27, 2021, using rufus version 3.15).

You can use Balena Etcher instead of Rufus.

You can check the integrity of the ISO according to instruction here:

• Verifying the integrity of installation files

You can also try a Debian Live ISO to test the system.

[kmleon]

I verified written correctly. I also tried on three different USB sticks.
I stuck on a much older computer and started the process just fine with the same USB sticks. This appears specific to the hardware of this Alienware.
I haven't tried Balena Etcher yet.

[Magigamix]

Found a solution !

I know there should be a cleaner or easier way to do this, please don't criticize my solution too much



I recently got this Alienware M16 R1 (i7-13700HX, Nvidia RTX 4070), bought it at sale, to replace my old MSI Apache Pro, i7, Nvidia GTX 960M.

As I already had Debian 12 installed in the old laptop (WD_BLACK SN850X 1000GB), I thought it was just a matter of switching the SSD to the new laptop, after doing it (and modifying the proper BIOS settings), the booting process hanged at "Loading initial ramdisk", I tried every possible solution: BIOS parameters, kernel loading parameters, updating grub (update-grub), initramfs, etc.

After hard failing, I decided to do a clean installation, that is how I ended finding your post, as the install hangs after selecting any of the available options.

I found in your publication at techtalkhawke "Debian 12 Q4OS on Alienware M18 r1", that Ubuntu 22.04 works, so I decided to try Debian 12 trixie (testing), which also works without problems.

After using my new laptop with Debian trixie for some days, I found that there are some packages missing (that exist in bookworm), I needed those packages for one application, so I installed them from bookworm, but I wasn't happy with that solution.

Meanwhile, as I had a working laptop with "trixie", I thought about installing Ubuntu 22.04, or keep investigating to try to solve the problem with the installation of bookworm, went for the second option.

So, I did a clean Debian installation in the old laptop, using the SSD that came with the new laptop, after switching the SSD to the Alienware, the boot process hanged exactly at "Loading initial ramdisk".

Switched back the SSD to the old laptop, long history short, after a lot of tests, thinking in why "trixie" works but "bookworm" doesn't, I added the backports repo and installed a newer kernel from bookworm-backports, ending with exactly the same issue

In my frustration and thinking, decided to try something else: installed a newer grub version from bookworm-backports (and related packages),



switched back the SSD to the Alienware, and voila !, problem solved ! booted just fine !

So, solution 1:

Install Debian 12 bookworm in another PC, add the bookworm-backports and update grub from backports, and switch the SSD to the Alienware.





Now that I had Debian 12 bookworm installed in my new laptop, I decided to keep experimenting, now with the installation media, as I knew it had to do with grub.

I tried a lot of things, modifying and mixing the contents of the installation disks from "trixie" and "bookworm", tried to learn how to create a live cd, a new installation disk, etc.

Modified a bookworm live cd with "Cubic", added the "bookworm-backports" repo, installed grub from the backports.

Used isomaster to remove and add files between ISO files (netinst testing and netinst stable) and the other way around (funny thing, found that the resulting ISO was not "burneable" but it worked if I added to a Ventoy USB.

Every try ended in a hard fail.

Found solution 2 !

To not make this post longer...

Download the installation ISOs (I used netinst ISOs, but this procedure should work with the Stable live cd ISO and the testing netinst ISO).

- In another laptop -

Create a new GPT table in a USB stick and a fat32 file system and mount it.



Mount the Debian 12 bookworm ISO and copy all the content to the USB stick:



Mount the testing ISO.

In the USB stick, rename (or delete) the file EFI/boot/grubx64.efi (4.2 MB) and copy the file from the testing ISO (2.7 MB)



Plug the USB stick in the Alienware M16, and while booting press F12 to enter the boot menu, select the USB stick to boot.

The installation should work as expected (no hanging as before).

Note: I didn't test if after a clean install by using the modded USB, the "Loading initial ramdisk" issue occurs, as I didn't finish the installation, just checked it didn't hang after selecting "graphical install', if that's the case, it should be fixable by booting with live cd (Ubuntu 22.04, for example), chrooting to the SSD, add backports repo and install grub from backports.


Another option could be to install the alternative Opinionated Debian Installer.

Greetings !

[Magigamix]

Just as a reference, it could help to others.

Two options:

- Install in another machine, add the bookworm backports repository and upgrade grub and its dependencies, then move the nvme to the Alienware.

- Modify the USB with the netinstall, you have to replace the file

Code: Select all

/EFI/boot/grubx64.efi

with the

Code: Select all

/EFI/boot/grubx64.efi

from the testing netinstall ISO.

The second will allow you to install Debian 12 bookworm directly in your Alienware M16/M18 Intel (it will not hang after selecting any of the options, as "Graphical Install", but after the installation is complete, it will hang at boot with the message "Loading initial ramdisk", so, after the installation is complete, shutdown the laptop, boot from an USB with Ubuntu 22.04 live disk, while in the live session you will have to chroot to the Debian 12 installed in the nvme to add the bookworm backports repository and upgrade grub (grub-common, grub-efi-amd64, grub-efi-amd64-bin, grub-efi-amd64-signed, grub2-common):

Code: Select all

/etc/apt/sources.list

Code: Select all

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 12.5.0 _Bookworm_ - Official amd64 NETINST with firmware 20240210-11:27]/ bookworm contrib main non-free-firmware

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

# bookworm-updates, to get updates before a point release is made;
# see https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_updates_and_backports
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

#bookworm backports
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

# This system was installed using small removable media
# (e.g. netinst, live or single CD). The matching "deb cdrom"
# entries were disabled at the end of the installation process.
# For information about how to configure apt package sources,
# see the sources.list(5) manual.

Code: Select all

sudo apt update
apt install -t bookworm-backports grub-common grub-efi-amd64 grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-efi-amd64-signed grub2-common

Code: Select all

apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64

Last line (apt-get install --reinstall grub-efi-amd64) just in case.

To chroot from the Ubuntu 22.04 Live session, I followed this guide:
https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall

-----------

So far it is working great, I reinstalled this weekend as I wanted to have an encrypted root and swap (with LVM).

I installed the nvidia-driver from the Debian 12 repository, suspend works, but this computer has disabled S3 Deep suspend, it implements "modern" suspend.

Before installing the nvidia-driver, I enabled i386 architecture, so the i386 nvidia libs get installed (necessary for Lutris / Wine games):

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt update
sudo apt install nvidia-driver

Created the file:

Code: Select all

/etc/default/grub.d/nvidia-modeset.cfg

Which contains:

Code: Select all

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX nvidia-drm.modeset=1"

It is necessary to update grub:

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub

Uncommented this two lines in the file:

Code: Select all

/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-options.conf

Code: Select all

options nvidia-current NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1
options nvidia-current NVreg_EnableS0ixPowerManagement=1

Enabled the services: nvidia-suspend.service and nvidia-resume.service:

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl enable nvidia-suspend.service
sudo systemctl status nvidia-resume.service

I'm running gnome with gdm3, after restarting and login, it will fallback to x11 session:

Code: Select all

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE 
x11

It is necessary to comment some lines at the end in the file:

Code: Select all

/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/61-gdm.rules

#RUN+="/usr/libexec/gdm-runtime-config set daemon PreferredDisplayServer xorg"
#RUN+="/usr/libexec/gdm-runtime-config set daemon WaylandEnable false"

Or create the symlink:

Code: Select all

ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/61-gdm.rules

After restart you will be able to initiate a Wayland session (or x11, selecting that option in the login screen).

Code: Select all

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE 
wayland

Currently I prefer x11 as in Wayland Lutris / Wine games with v-sync enabled get limited to 60 FPS with a 75 hz external monitor, while in x11 I get 75 FPS with v-sync, I think it is due a limitation in xwayland.

Wayland works fine, I really wanted to use Wayland with fractional scaling, it works, but some applications do not work fine when displayed in the external monitor.

I also wanted to use S3 deep sleep, there is a way to enable it and disable the "modern sleep" using the "Smokeless UMAF":

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comm ... bios_menu/
https://github.com/DavidS95/Smokeless_UMAF

But I haven't experimented with it.

I wish there was a way to change the color of the keyboard, I don't like that default cyan color.