Stuck at grub prompt when booting !

[vincen]

Hi

I'm already using Debian 11 since a while on my desktop computer and it works great I wanted then to reinstall my Clevo laptop (NH55) that was running Pop OS up to now ! Unhappy I encounter a problem I didn't expect: Live CD and install CD are unable to boot on that machine I get straight the grub prompt in text mode ! If I try normal at grub prompt it just loops back at grub prompt
The laptop itself is very standard (UEFI only). Processor is AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and graphic card is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile.
I had no problem till now to boot that laptop in either Ubuntu or Pop OS (based on Ubuntu) so not sure why it's unable to boot with Debian
What can I check or try ?

Thanks

Vincèn

[p.H]

There is no standard UEFI computer. All UEFI implementations are flawed in various ways.
How did you prepare and boot the installation medium ?

[vincen]

There is no standard UEFI computer. All UEFI implementations are flawed in various ways.
How did you prepare and boot the installation medium ?

thanks for the info was not aware UEFI was such variable... as I had no problem previously with my desktop that is in UEFI too ! USB key has been done with Balena Etcher and standard Debian ISO from official repository

[p.H]

Which ISO image(s) ?
How does Balena Etcher work ? Does it write the ISO file as a disk image directly to the raw USB stick like dd does ?

[vincen]

Which ISO image(s) ?

debian-live-11.4.0-amd64-kde.iso

How does Balena Etcher work ? Does it write the ISO file as a disk image directly to the raw USB stick like dd does ?

No idea how it works but so far has always worked to do bootable drives or USB stick ! Description on balena website:
Etcher copies images to drives byte by byte, without doing any transformation to the final device, which means images that require special treatment to be made bootable, like Windows images, will not work out of the box. In these cases, the general advice is to use software specific to those kind of images, usually available from the image publishers themselves. You can find more information here.
So it looks to be dd but not sure absolutely !

[p.H]

Yes it looks like dd. If unsure you can compare the contents of the ISO file and the USB stick with

Code: Select all

cmp {path}/debian-live-11.4.0-amd64-kde.iso /dev/sdX

as root. It should reach the end of the ISO file without finding any difference.

[vincen]

Yes it looks like dd. If unsure you can compare the contents of the ISO file and the USB stick with

Code: Select all

cmp {path}/debian-live-11.4.0-amd64-kde.iso /dev/sdX

as root. It should reach the end of the ISO file without finding any difference.

well the same usb key works perfect in an other computer so it has been properly burnt

[pwzhangzz]

We haven't used Nvidia cards for at least four years now, and won''t touch them with a 10-ft pole. But I remember oftentimes we had to use the "nomodeset" kernel parameter in order to boot from a usb. See:

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-u ... ux-booting

Just my $0.02

[NorthEast]

vincen wrote:

I wanted then to reinstall my Clevo laptop (NH55)

Since you are confident of the usb, perhaps check the BIOS/UEFI of the machine for a relevant option. I can't say which variables are available in that BIOS/UEFI, not being familiar with it, but in the past I've been able to make a machine boot linux by choosing a variable, usually to do with "legacy" boot, or "other" compared to MS. Having the latest BIOS/UEFI upgrade installed may help, if there is such an upgrade.

[p.H]

the same usb key works perfect in an other computer

Then can you compare the two environments in the GRUB shell similarly with the following post ?
viewtopic.php?p=762775#p762775

[vincen]

Sorry for very late answer as I was quite busy Problem was due at previous Ubuntu installation present on one of computer drives ! I booted with a live CD, wiped the Ubuntu drive and then no problem to install Debian 11 :)

[p.H]

Thanks for the feedback. I should have guessed, as I have already met this issue. GRUB is not selective enough when looking for the installation media and may pick the wrong device. This bug has been fixed in the lastest bookworm (testing) installer, GRUB now looks for a unique file name.

[vincen]

Thanks for the feedback. I should have guessed, as I have already met this issue. GRUB is not selective enough when looking for the installation media and may pick the wrong device. This bug has been fixed in the lastest bookworm (testing) installer, GRUB now looks for a unique file name.

Excellent so should not happen again, thanks for the info and update