Strange Boot-Problem

TrofiSol

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and I'm posting here with a question that has probably already been asked and answered several times, but I either can't find the right solution or the problems already discussed here are not the same as mine. Also, my English is not very good, I hope I can get the right information from the answers.
Here is my problem:
I have a notebook (ASUS Travelmate) with a 1TB SSD disc running SOLUS. If I remove this hard drive and replace it with the one in my tower PC (older model, but on which Ubuntu-Budgi does its job properly), then SOLUS also starts on the large computer without any problems.
A SOLUS installation stick also starts on the tower PC and I can use it to install SOLUS 8 (latest version) on an empty SSD disc. After completing the installation, however, the PC does not start from the SSD, apparently it cannot find Grub.
If I then remove this SSD and insert it into my notebook, the newly installed system works without any problems. There I perform a system update, restart the notebook and SOLUS is running. I remove the SSD again, put it in the tower and again get the sobering result: No booting possible. I have already changed various settings in the BIOS (SecureBoot on or off, boot sequence, ... ), but nothing leads to this SSD booting. What is strange (as already described) is that the SSD boots on other computers - not only on the ASUS notebook) without any problems.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Thanks for your help.

Staudey

TrofiSol A SOLUS installation stick also starts on the tower PC and I can use it to install SOLUS 8 (latest version)

Are you sure you have to correct Solus? There is no version 8 of this distro. Where did you download it?

alfisya

Some old PCs only support MBR partition table. It is possible, when you install Solus on your laptop, the installer automatically create GPT partition table (which is recommended and more modern). So your old PC won't boot the SSD from your laptop because incompatible partition table.

Edit: Wait, did I misunderstand your problem?

Axios

I think If understood right he installs on tower but it wont boot on tower but works everywhere else
If he has a solus disk and ubuntu disk in tower both work fine.
Its just if he has only the solus disk in tower that it wont boot.

(Correct me if wrong)

BuzzPCSOS

Not all versions of Linux deal with Legacy boot (needs grub) in the same way so you can easily get different levels of success when distro hopping.
While tweaking in your tower PC BIOS make sure the SATA SSD disk is set as AHCI.
I don't think you mentioned the make of the tower, it's not a Toshiba by any chance?
Edit: I am a little confused here as Secure boot makes me think your tower is UEFI boot. I don't see why grub is getting involved at all.

brent

BuzzPCSOS hile tweaking in your tower PC BIOS make sure the SATA SSD disk is set as AHCI.
I don't think you mentioned the make of the tower, it's not a Toshiba by any chance?
Edit: I am a little confused here as Secure boot makes me think your tower is UEFI boot. I don't see why grub is getting involved at all.

It all starts here. most of these posts including mine in the past are mismatched bios + bootloader. if it is a toshiba then bios has extra settings dependent on master password as another wrinkle..

BuzzPCSOS

brent Funnily enough you came very close to being mentioned 😆
EDIT: Toshiba BIOS is weird.

TrofiSol

Thank you very much for all the answers.

For clarification:
A SOLUS USB stick provides the following information about the tower PC:
Hardware model - ASUS All Series
Memory - 16 GB
Processor - Intel Core IS 4440 x 4
Graphics - Intel HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2)

The BIOS settings are:
ASUS UEFI BIOS Utility - EZ mode
Q87M-E BIOS version 1103
CPU type: Intel Core i5-4440 CPU @ 3.10GHz
Memory 16384MB (DDR3 1600MHz)

BOOT
SecureBoot status - activated
Platform-Key (PK) Status - not loaded
Type of operating system - Other (Not Windows)
CMS (Compatibility Support Module) - enabled
-> Boot Device Control UEFI and Legacy OPROM
Boot Option Priority - UEFI OS

I am basically surprised by the following, I will name the 3 SSDs used 1 to 3 and describe what I have done with them:

SSD 1
This has Ubuntu Budgi - I can't remember which PC the version was installed on. In any case, it runs under the settings described above on the TowerPC.
The two SOLUS SSD discs are interesting:

+++

SSD 2
This was fitted with SOLUS on the ASUS notebook (about six months ago), updated and runs on both the notebook and the tower PC. I don't have to change anything in the BIOS (settings above).

+++

SSD 3
This was initially fitted with SOLUS on the tower PC, the installation stick was removed and the system did not run. At first I thought the disc was defective. So I repeated the installation on the notebook under the same conditions (same stick, same SSD). The version runs on the notebook without any problems. Conclusion: Installation medium OK, disc OK, system installation OK. Changing the SSD to the tower PC again leads to the sobering result that it does not boot. I've already ‘turned all sorts of screws’ in the BIOS (SecureBoot on and off, boot sequence of the disc shifted back and forth, UEFI AND Legacy - ONLY UEFI - ONLY Legacy mode set, ...). nothing helped).

+++

I am at my wit's end. I would be very interested to know what the problem is, an alternative is to install SOLUS on a stick and boot it, this works without any problems on the tower PC.

Maybe he just doesn't like SOLUS ... unlike me ;-)

Axios

TrofiSol From what I can tell you are 12 bios versions behind might be worth while updating.
And see if that helps out
But thats up to you.

BuzzPCSOS

I don't have a solution (I will leave that to the clever people here) but I may have a workaround.
Use SSD3 and install Solus onto it using your ASUS notebook, then transfer the disk to your tower. From what you have said, everything should work from that point on.
I think the issue is that the Solus installer is not correctly interpreting what is required for that particular UEFI/Legacy combination on the tower.
If your USB is larger than your SSD it could be that the grub data is being written to the USB instead of the SSD. There are manual settings to control where GRUB gets written but they are easily missed in all the excitement of installing Solus.
I hope you get things working smoothly soon.

TrofiSol

Thank you for the further information.
The BIOS has now been updated, I've sweated a lot - I'm a bit of a hot mess, I've completely destroyed and disabled a PC with it before. This time it worked and I'm now up to date. I'll test again later today to see if the disc is now running. I'll report back.

TrofiSol

IT'S RUNNING !!!

After updating the BIOS, the speed of the computer has changed positively and noticeably, there was no breakthrough in terms of the Solus SSD.

Then I installed the system again on the tower PC and ... I don't ask WHY ... it runs !

I suspect it actually has to do with the boot sector, which I have now had written to the system disc. I didn't pay attention to it during the original installation, shame on me !

Learned a lot and learned to appreciate the forum here. Thank you !!!
Then I'll post the next problem right away: The login mask on the start screen is always faulty, because the input field for the password is not visible ... but I'll start a new thread for that.

Best regards,
TrofiSol

Axios

TrofiSol Ya some pc makers dont make bios updates exactly easy sometimes.
Glad it all worked out.
I am not much on password thingy but I have seen people post about password issues so maybe
someone will chime in.