Consistent, yet seemingly random boot problems

[Saito]

Hello all.

I am trying to try out debian and having one hell of a time.

The problem:
Despite doing a fresh install, on a freshly formatted drive, I have yet to be able to boot into debian a single time

The errors:
I'm new to linux in it's entirety so I fully expect to make mistakes and miss obvious things, but here there appears to be no rhyme or reason. 99% of the times it sticks at a seemingly random point and just never progresses. The 1% was a time where I did get to the user log in screen, but when I entered my password the screen flickered back to the wall of loading text in the screenshots and when it returned to the user log in screen it was again an empty password box.
These are 2 examples, but pick any random line in those screenshots and they will have been the stage where one of my attempts became unresponsive



My specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600x
GPU Radeon RX7800 XT
Main drive: kingston KC3000 2tb m.2
RAM: kingtron fury DDR5 6000MT/s 32gb

My attempts:
Have done fresh installs using:
small, net installation ISO
"complete installation image"
live gnome ISO
live KDE ISO
live cinnamon ISO
Each of those attempts I chose the most basic, guided options, didn't do anything advanced at all, my only interaction throughout the install process was selecting to use ethernet over wifi, creating username and password, the only one where I did anything more than that was the net instal ISO where I ticked to also include KDE in the install

My first 2-3 attempts were done with a ventoy usb as i'm currently tring out linux variants to see which I like, to try and rule out install media/device as the root problem I repeated the above installs using rufus and balenaetcher created drives.


If anyone has any thoughts at all, or can say if there's a way I can try and generate a log more helpful than sparse screenshots of frozen boot screens, I am all ears. Thank you

[sunrat]

If you got to a login screen you're most of the way there and it could be a graphics issue. Search the forum for topics about RX7800XT, it may require newer kernel and graphics driver and mesa stack than is default in Debian Bookworm.
As you are new to Linux, I suggest you try something which has newer hardware support, MX Linux AHS version which is based on Bookworm would be ideal and may just work out of the box. Download link - https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-lin ... o/download
And I've had issues myself with installs from Ventoy, Rufus is probably the best option if you're creating the installer on Windows..

[Saito]

i appreciate the fast reply, unfortunately though it's not going well. I tried mx linux with that download link you provided and the Xfce version from their site. Each attempt was done with a wiped then rufus created USB (I have used multiple USB sticks and used all the USB ports on my pc, again, just trying to cover the bases I can), booted to a wiped drive, which I verified in the live boot that there were no lingering efi, boot, swap partitions etc,let the installer run it's installation media verificaiton before doing anything, then choosing the most basic options, using the "entire disc" option and using the slider bar to set sizes for root and home and somehow i'm further away from a bootable debian than I was before. No matter what version ISO, no matter what USB, no matter what port, no matter how I configure the partitions, with mx linux I have got this exact error every single time

[bw123]

If the latest live boot will get you to a desktop, use that until you get up to speed on how to fix stable.

https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/week ... so-hybrid/

It looks like everything works until X craps out. If you can get to a console login, you can gather some more info, and if you can manage to get the network up in console, you can use backports to get the newer kernel/firmware/mesa stack.

...I'm new to linux in it's entirety...

This feeling doesn't really go away, it's an ever-changing world.

good luck,
bw

p.s. Topic on first post would be better if it mentioned the unsupported AMDGPU and "bookworm" gotta keep Aki happy

[sunrat]

No matter what version ISO, no matter what USB, no matter what port, no matter how I configure the partitions, with mx linux I have got this exact error every single time

If you got that far you're doing ok. Probably it's a problem with your boot mode. Computers can have the old BIOS mode boot, or the more recent and more flexible UEFI mode boot which requires an ESP (UEFI system partition). Did you create an ESP? You would get that message if you didn't. Maybe also Secure Boot is stalling it, go into UEFI setup and disable it. Check if boot mood is "UEFI", not "CSM" or "Legacy". While you're in there, make sure storage mode is AHCI, not RAID.
Another thing in there, my system has "OS Type" setting which needs to be "Other OS" not "Windows", yours may or not.
Lots of rabbitholes to navigate but you'll get there!

bw123 suggestion to try the weekly live builds to see if they boot is not a bad idea to see if you get to the desktop, but as they are based on Testing Debian version it's another minefield. You don't want Testing as a new Linux user as it takes a lot of managing and breaks occasionally.
MX AHS version contains much of the hardware support from Testing and also boots live to see if the desktop boots correctly in a live boot, after which you can install. If MX AHS works and you still want pure Debian, you can work out what hardware support it has and how to modify Debian. It would consist of a new kernel, graphics drivers, and Mesa stack, most of which is doable in Debian but is a bit of work.

[friendlysalmon88]

No matter what version ISO, no matter what USB, no matter what port, no matter how I configure the partitions, with mx linux I have got this exact error every single time

If you got that far you're doing ok. Probably it's a problem with your boot mode. Computers can have the old BIOS mode boot, or the more recent and more flexible UEFI mode boot which requires an ESP (UEFI system partition). Did you create an ESP? You would get that message if you didn't. Maybe also Secure Boot is stalling it, go into UEFI setup and disable it. Check if boot mood is "UEFI", not "CSM" or "Legacy". While you're in there, make sure storage mode is AHCI, not RAID.
Another thing in there, my system has "OS Type" setting which needs to be "Other OS" not "Windows", yours may or not.
Lots of rabbitholes to navigate but you'll get there!

@sunrat Makes an excellent point.

Just for the sake of giving it the old college try you could also try disabling UEFI(secure boot) and configureing your system to use BIOS(laegacy) boot mode.