[Installation] New install, no gui

[kgw]

Hi,

I am in the process of installing debian to dual boot alongside windows on a lenovo laptop with a 500g drive.

I did the install last night expecting a gui interface but when I boot into the new debian install I get a command line prompt. No gui as far as I can see. It does boot up smartly in either OS.

I thought I had asked it to install a gui in the process. The command systemctl get-default responds with "graphical.target".

Browsing this forum and otherwise searching, I didn't come across answers.

Maybe there are additional steps I need to take to fire up the gui from the debian command line?

I thought I must have missed something on the install and that doing it again might be the way to go. Since I would be installing it over an existing debian partition, I wondered if that might complicate the process. When I go to recovery mode in windows and ask it to reboot from the usb flash drive, it reboots into debian as a cli not from the usb flash drive.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,
Ken

[kc1di]

Which usb version are you using to install? If it's the live usb I would download and burn the net version and try the install using that. During install you should see an option for which desktop you want to install. Default is gnome. I use KDE (but that's another story.) the other problem you may be having is that If you graphics card is nvidia you may have to do some special work to get it working. https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers or
https://fostips.com/install-nvidia-driver-debian-12/ good luck.

[kgw]

Thanks.

The install iso that I have is on a usb flash drive. It is not the live version or net install version as far as I know. Windows tells me that the disk is labeled Debian GNU/Linux 12.5.0 "Bookworm" - Official amd64 DVD Binary-1 with firmware 20240210-11:28. The iso file on the flash drive is 4.02 G.

My laptop is an Idea Pad Flex 5 14ALC05. Windows tells me the graphics are AMD Ryzen 5700U with Radeon Graphics. I think this review ( https://www.ultrabookreview.com/46536-l ... 14-review/ ) is for my laptop. It says this: AMD Radeon Vega 8, 8 CUs, 1.9 GHz.

Am I right that means it is not Nvidia?

Not sure where to go next?

Ken

[kc1di]

Yes it's not Nvidia It's AMD you may still need drivers for that GPU though It should have install amdgpu driver for your card.

Try reinstalling debian and make sure you select the Desktop you want , Gnome, KDE, XFCE etc.

[kgw]

I used windows settings the same way as last time to get it to boot from USB. Now all I get is a black screen. Hmm.

The lenovo instructions say F2 or Fn F2 at start will go to bios, but I don't get that far. Nothing comes up on the screen at all although indicator says power is on and there is some fan noise so something is running . . . .

[kc1di]

Make sure in bios fast or quick boot and secure boot are turned off.

[kgw]

I think I had them shut off for my first attempt. I assume since it let me do the install, I must have had them shut off when I installed debian. I partitioned the hd and had windows running if I chose it in the grub menu. If I chose debian, it booted but only to the command line. I had logged in several times to each os so something may have changed secure boot/fastboot.

To do the suggested reinstall, I went into windows settings/recovery/advanced I asked it to boot from USB. Now I can't get anything to come up on the screen at all. I have no way of changing those settings as things are at the moment. I am stuck, which is not unusual for me in these things!

Any ideas?

Ken

[kc1di]

Found this tutorial which may be of help with your Machine. Also if you burned that ISO with Rufus you may want to reburn it using Etcher found Here.
Etcher

Solution
The main problem was enabling AHCI mode after Windows 10 installation. Solution found here (https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardw ... ation.html):

Run Command Prompt as Admin
Invoke a Safe Mode boot with the command: bcdedit /set{current} minimal
Restart the PC and enter your BIOS during bootup using F2 while booting (I didn’t have to use the function key together with F2).
Change from Intel RST to AHCI mode then Save & Exit.
Windows 10 will launch in Safe Mode.
Right click the Window icon and select to run the Command Prompt in Admin mode from among the various options.
Cancel Safe Mode booting with the command: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
Restart your PC once more and this time it will boot up normally but with AHCI mode activated.
Bask in the reflected glory of being a total Windows 10 God — love this sentence
After you have followed Toobad’s great advice, go to BIOS again, while having the live USB plugged in:

Change Boot Type to Legacy Boot.
Options to do anything with safe boot or fast startup were no longer available so I didn’t need that.
Move USB drive as a primary boot device
Save and exit BIOS
Install Ubuntu using any of the tutorials.
After the successful installation, my computer was automatically booting Windows, ignoring Linux. If that happens to you too — go to BIOS and make Linux primary boot device. It knows where Windows boot manager is and will automatically show GRUB screen on boot, where you can select which OS you want to run.

VOILA! I hope this will people avoid the desperate situation I got myself in

If there is a way to get this set up without having to switch from to AHCI, I would love to know about it!

Windows 10
Ubuntu
Linux
Dual Boot

[kgw]

I have used Etcher in the past but did use Rufus this time. I will redo the flash drive using Etcher.

However, the rest of these solutions don't work in my situation. I can't get the laptop to boot at all. If the laptop is powered off, it makes the keys light up when powered back on as if it is going to boot but they go out and that's it. Nothing comes up on the screen at all so I can't even get as far as the bios settings. The only sign of it being powered up is the lcd on the power button and a running cooling fan. It responds to on and off with the power button and if it is opened from closed with power off, it powers up, some lights, then nothing.

Gladly there is nothing on this laptop that I do not have a copy of so if it gets wiped in the process, nothing lost. However as it is, I am beginning to wonder if I have made a brick.

Ken

[FreewheelinFrank]

Does this laptop have the Novo button? Does it get you into the BIOS?

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/prod ... os-ideapad

If you can't get the BIOS screen, it suggests hardware failure.

[kgw]

It does have a Novo button which I had not known but it does the same as the power button. Some initial lights, power light stays on, fan runs, nothing displays at all on the screen. I will hand it over to a service provider and see if they can identify the problem.

Thanks to everyone here for your help.

Ken

[kc1di]

Sorry Ken But as @FreewheelinFrank said it sounds like a hardware problem. Hope you can get it sorted out.

[kgw]

Just to finish off this thread, two different techs have told me that either the bios is hooped or some other motherboard defect is the problem. In either case it has to go back to Lenovo I guess since it isn't yet two years old. I am told that it is unlikely the debian install I was doing was the cause. Thanks for the help.
73 de exVE7KGW

[DeBonzo]

I did a dual boot install recently and was faced with the same scenario, just a text prompt. Calling "ps aux" I could see that lightdm tried to start but nothing showed up. Turns out that the video driver was crashing. In this case the nouveau driver for an Nvidia card. If you call "journalctl --system" the error would probably be logged. In your case you just got unlucky and another more serious problem occurred just at the wrong time.