Cannot Boot from Solus USB

greatlane

Trying to install Solus on a new pc, with no other OS installed yet. Followed the instructions in the Installation guide, but I can only get as far as the Solus Desktop, before the PC crashes and monitor signal is no longer detected.
Once the desktop appears, the second I move the mouse it shuts down and the GPU seems to ramp the fans up, and then stop over and over. Either this or it never makes it to the desktop at all, and the pc shuts down.
I have tried installing Windows first, (which installed just fine) and then Solus, and this gave the same response.

I have tried several different installations on fresh USB sticks, using Rufus on a windows machine, and dd on my linux box.
I also tried using the "nomodeset" option when I see the Solus bootloader, as well as the "amdgpu.dc=0" option. When using the "nomodeset" i receive two errors: "VGACON disables amdgpu kernel modesetting" & "No UMS support in radeon module" and then a flashing underscore in the top left of the screen. If i press "alt+F3" here I can login with root/root, but not sure what I can accomplish with this.
I Swapped out the GPU for an rx 580, and tried each option that gave me the same errors/issue.
The light at the end of the tunnel, is that I can get the Unbuntu USB to run just fine, as long as I select the "safe graphics" mode during boot options.
Pretty beginner with CLI and Linux in general but I have done a lot of googling, with no avail.

PC:
AMD 1800x
NVME 1tb drive
Corsair 3200 16g
Radeon R9 390 8gb
Tried Linux mint, Unbuntu, Debian, and Solus- out of these only Unbuntu in safe mode will work.
This is all with UEFI enabled, secure boot off, fTPM disabled, and having the USB first in boot order...
Thanks in advance, its driving me nuts

[deleted]

this Issue is mostly seen with nvidia gpu's, but i cannot confirm because i use intel graphics and have 0 experience with dedicated cards on Linux. since you are using a radeon card, can you say whether you are using mesa or amd's propreitary drivers? maybe you could wait for some more time until someone responds.

greatlane

[deleted]
Thank you for your response!
I guess that I am not completely sure which drivers I am using. This card used to be in a Windows 10 system, and the build im trying to put Solus on is fresh with no OS. Is there a way to check what drivers the card is using, as i boot from the USB? I can get to the CLI interface if i boot with the "nomodeset" flag

WetGeek

Try running the command:
sudo inxi -Fxxxza --no-host
in the terminal. It will display an entire list of your system, including the video parameters, which will tell you what driver is being used. It's a lot of information, but it includes everything you need to know.

greatlane

WetGeek
Thank you for your reply!
I am having trouble uploading an image here of the output- but here is the Graphics info:

Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Hawaii PRO [Radeon R9 290/390] "vendor:" Gigabyte "driver:" N/A
Display: _ "server:" X.org 1.20.12 "driver:" _ "loaded:" ati,vesa "unloaded:" fbdev,modsetting,radeon "tty:" 320x90
Message: Advanced Graphics data unavailable in console for root.

I noticed there were two entries for "Device-1:" - The first is what i posted above and the second seems to be HDMI audio.... Gonna try with Displayport now

WetGeek

greatlane

There are people here who know far more than I do about graphics and drivers, but this information should help get you more help from them. Hang in there ... not everyone is on the same schedule of work vs. free time, but I'm hopeful that you'll get this worked out soon.

greatlane

WetGeek
This is another avenue of research for me, so I thank you for that! Really want to try out this OS.

WetGeek

greatlane Really want to try out this OS.

Solis is worth whatever it takes to get it working with your equipment. I tried out 30+ other distros and DEs before I found out about Solus, and I haven't looked at another one since. Good luck with getting things to work for you!

Renard

🤔 Try creating a new bootable flash drive with Solus with the help of Etcher (I hope that this method works for you).

greatlane

Renard

zmaint
I will 100% give Etcher a try. I did happen to try this on 2 different Windows PCs earlier, which booted the USB normally. I will also try other USB ports and report back! Thank you thank you

zmaint

As Renard stated above, burn using Etcher. Etcher will validate if the USB burn matches the ISO. Also re-download the ISO and verify checksum. Kinda sounds like a bad burn, and this is the place I would start with troubleshooting any new install. Sounds like you have UEFI and secureboot off. Also might want to check what USB port you are using, sometimes there will be one that is for UEFI only, usually it will be a different color.

AMD drivers should be baked in the kernel, so I'm not thinking that's the issue. Even with Nvidia, Solus is the most friendly distro for it that I've found. I run Nvidia cards on all my PC's and have never had an issue with getting it going. The Nouveau drivers work fine on the live USB and on first boot, then after doing updates, DoFlicky (the driver manager) will handle the Nvidia install (including the 32bit libraries needed for Steam). Very easy to do without having to cut and paste anything in the terminal. Unsure why no other distro does this...

WetGeek

zmaint Also might want to check what USB port you are using, sometimes there will be one that is for UEFI only, usually it will be a different color

Do you know where I can find out more like this? The only color difference I know of for USB ports is whether they're USB2 or USB3.

zmaint

WetGeek I've not found any official documentation.. but I've ran into several instances over the years (PC repair biz, mostly laptops) where a bootable USB simply would not boot unless I moved USB ports. I did note that whenever it happens, the USB port that works is a different color. I don't know if it's specifically related to booting, or one is 3.0 and the others are 2.0 or what.. just know it boots there but not the others. I also admittedly may be completely wrong as that has indeed happened before (my wife has a calendar she can show you 😄 )

Edit: found this: https://tech-fairy.com/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-different-usb-port-colors-blue-teal-blue-yellow-red-black/
Maybe what I've run into is a port that is "off" and not powering on fast enough to see the USB and load it for booting, and by moving to an "always on" USB it makes it work.. Or again maybe completely unrelated and I'm wrong lol.

WetGeek

zmaint

Very interesting article! I was aware that USB2 ports are black, and USB3 ports are blue, because I've built about a dozen workstations starting with the motherboard. I should have expected that there would be more colors for faster and faster USB speeds, but I've never had (or built) a computer that supported any beyond USB3.

zmaint

WetGeek Out of all the PC's I've built and worked on I've honestly never even paid any attention to USB port color lol. The only time I even mess with USB is when something's not working. PC repair was more of a side gig even though I had quite a few business customers.. Never really bothered to look into it until today.

Had a guy one time that somehow managed to jam a USB key in the wrong way. Ended up costing him a MOBO... I'm pretty sure it was less the USB backwards that caused the damage and more his gratuitous usage of needle nose pliers to fish out the pieces.. all while it was plugged in and on of course.

greatlane

Alright I used etcher and tried several USB ports and I get the same blinking cursor (using “nomodeset” & when booting normally it crashes.
Im almost wondering if it could be a CPU related issue, I did notice some errors as the terminal with CPU in the description, but only when I tried the “nomodeset” & “Radeon.modeset=0” options but it moves so fast I couldn’t quite make it out.

how do I test for the segfault bug??

zmaint

greatlane Is the bios up to date?

greatlane

zmaint it is not, I read that can cause issues if you don’t need to update. I could try it I suppose. Am I able to reflash older bios versions or roll back?

zmaint

greatlane rolling back would be mobo dependent as far as I am aware. I could be wrong but generally I believe it is best practice (for linux) to have the most current bios version installed.

greatlane

Upgraded the CPU and it just werked. shrugs

zmaint

greatlane Glad it's working!