[SOLVED] Mininal installation CD and LiveGUI fail to boot up

[DenyAllow]

I installed Linux Gentoo several times, but all of these attempts were on other live CDs (Linux Mint, Arch Linux) because I can't boot from the official CDs. Whenever I download, for example, minimal installation CD (the one I want to use the most), verify its integrity, burn to my USB stick (that has been booting various ISOs for a long time), and boot up from it, all I see is a printed text in the left upper corner "GRUB loading. Welcome to GRUB!". Then everything is just stuck, no GRUB menu, nothing. I tried to wait for 10 minutes - it stays still. Other ISOs, like Linux Mint, Arch Linux, Debian, EndeavorOS succeed to boot up. I really want to use the official Gentoo ISOs to install and rescue Gentoo specifically.

My hardware:
Laptop - HP Pavilion dv6 (2011-2012);
CPU - Intel Core i7-2670QM (8 threads);
RAM - 6GB.

I've used Gentoo on this laptop for a while, and it worked pretty well, the ISOs not booting up is pretty much the only problem I encountered on Gentoo.

[catuser]

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB

Try boot your USB stick on another laptop.
Try boot another USB stick.
Try boot using Ventoy.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Ventoy

Ventoy works great for me, booting the Gentoo LiveGUI USB image, Minimal Installation CD, Arch Linux, and many other images.
https://www.ventoy.net/en/isolist.html

Install Ventoy on a USB stick, but keep ISO files on hard drive (it makes booting faster).
https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

Keep in mind this:
https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_linux_remount.html

[DenyAllow]

I have two USB sticks, and both of them work the same way, neither of them boot Gentoo ISOs. I don't have any other PC or laptop to test my USBs. Ventoy works awful for me – it doesn't work at all, either. It gets stuck at "VT is loading......", just like Gentoo ISO. Ventoy uses GRUB too, coincidence?

[rndusr]

@DenyAllow: As the installed system will be the same regardless of which ISO you use, I'm curious: why do you specifically want to use a Gentoo ISO?

[DenyAllow]

I'm curious: why do you specifically want to use a Gentoo ISO?

I feel the most comfortable when installing Gentoo specifically using the official ISO, the official way and the way it was intended to be installed. I tried the ISOs on virtual machine, and I loved it. Installation alternatives wiki page says that this is the only fully supported method. Also, if there is a problem, why not try my best to fix it?

[rndusr]

I feel the most comfortable when installing Gentoo specifically using the official ISO, the official way and the way it was intended to be installed. I tried the ISOs on virtual machine, and I loved it.

As long as the ISO boots and has the necessary drivers and tools for setting up the partitions/filesystems and connecting to the internet, you will be fine. The final installed system will not be "tainted" in any way for being installed using e.g. a Ubuntu ISO.

Installation alternatives wiki page says that this is the only fully supported method.

The support is based on volunteers, such as us here on the forums, and you will probably get help regardless of which ISO you use. In general, people like to help.

Also, if there is a problem, why not try my best to fix it?

Sure, that could be worth it for the educational journey. But there will probably be more interesting and meaningful things to look into with your installed system.

[catuser]

Is your laptop running the latest-and-greatest BIOS?
Check on HP support site.

Does your laptop support UEFI boot?
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/what-is-uefi

For your information
https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1374

[DenyAllow]

Is your laptop running the latest-and-greatest BIOS?
Check on HP support site.

Does your laptop support UEFI boot?
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/what-is-uefi

Yes, I'm running the latest BIOS. I don't have any EFI support.

For your information
https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1374

I checked this thread a long time ago, I even left a comment no one noticed.

[catuser]

Have you read this (ventoy on Jan 13, 2022)

Some old legacy bios machine boot the USB device fine only if the 1st partition of the USB device start from sector 63.
Ventoy's 1st partition is start from sector 2048. So if your machine has such requirement then it can not use Ventoy.

My Sony laptop was made in 2008, it doesn't have UEFI and there are no problems with Ventoy.

[DenyAllow]

Have you read this (ventoy on Jan 13, 2022)

Some old legacy bios machine boot the USB device fine only if the 1st partition of the USB device start from sector 63.
Ventoy's 1st partition is start from sector 2048. So if your machine has such requirement then it can not use Ventoy.

Oh! So if this requirement is a thing, and it applies to my machine, there is no solution to this and I should just give up?

[Hu]

If it applies, you should prepare the boot media to satisfy whatever quirks your firmware requires. I interpret catuser's comment to be that Ventoy will, by default, lay out the media in a way that affected firmware rejects. The comment leaves unspecified whether Ventoy can, with the right options, lay out the media differently. Additionally, tools other than Ventoy may be able to lay out the media in a way that satisfies the quirks of your firmware. So, I would not consider this a lost cause yet, but you may need to rule out the specific path of "Ventoy with default options." Research whether Ventoy can be made to behave differently, or find some other tool to prepare the media.

[DenyAllow]

catuser's right, Ventoy indeed starts at sector 2048 while some older BIOSes may need sector 63. https://forums.ventoy.net/showthread.php?tid=437

Tools like dd don't allow to specify the first sector. But what if I try to create a bootable USB manually? For example, partition a USB with fdisk (that lets me set the first sector), copy ISO files and install a bootloader with MBR?

[catuser]

Try it and don't forget to report your results.

Explore how are structured internally the ISO files that your laptop can boot successfully.

Additional info
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html
https://opensource.com/article/17/2/lin ... nd-startup
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_hex_editors

[DenyAllow]

Try it and don't forget to report your results.

My first attempt failed miserably: I created a partition on my USB with the first sector of 63, set the bootable flag, copied Gentoo ISO contents to the partition, and installed GRUB to it. It behaves the same, as if I just burnt ISO to USB as usual.

[NeddySeagoon]

DenyAllow,

Some hardware will not boot when it sees a GPT partition table. That's what the ISO has to use to be EFI bootable.
The 'protective' BIOS partition table indicates that GPT is in use.

However, grub loads, so the stage1 and stage1.5 files are being found.
As you don't get a grub menu, I suspect that the stage2 file is not being read.

Both stage1 and stage1.5 are outside of any filesystem. The BIOS and Grub make their own arrangements to read them.

I don't have a current install ISO, so I can't poke about inside it right now.

[DenyAllow]

NeddySeagoon,

When I was creating a bootable USB manually, I was sure I set the partition table to MBR. I am aware that my old BIOS doesn't know anything about GPT. Anyway, I'm out of ideas again.

[catuser]

DenyAllow,

In the first post you wrote

I installed Linux Gentoo several times, but all of these attempts were on other live CDs (Linux Mint, Arch Linux)

in other words, some ISO files are bootable on your laptop, right?
Explore how these ISO files look inside.
Compare with ISO files that do not boot.
I would use some hex editor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_editor

An alternative way is to buy a new laptop.

[DenyAllow]

Some ISO files are bootable on your laptop, right?

Of course! I noticed that all bootable ISOs use Isolinux, and ISOs that can't boot properly (also applies to Fedora, Manjaro) use GRUB. Coincidence?

An alternative way is to buy a new laptop.

If I had money to purchase one, I would do that instantly and don't bother anyone with these kinds of problems.

[catuser]

DenyAllow,

Have you tried UNetbootin?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNetbootin
https://github.com/unetbootin/unetbooti ... howitworks

For the Live USB creation mode, UNetbootin generates an appropriate syslinux config file in /syslinux.cfg, and makes your USB drive bootable using syslinux

For your info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... otable_USB
https://wiki.syslinux.org
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/ISOLINUX

[DenyAllow]

DenyAllow,

Have you tried UNetbootin?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNetbootin
https://github.com/unetbootin/unetbooti ... howitworks

I remember this utility! I tried it once around a year ago, I used Arch Linux ISO. I'm not sure about Gentoo, I certainly should try this! I'll leave another message to inform about the results.

[DenyAllow]

Bingo! Unetbootin could boot up the minimal Gentoo ISO! I saw Syslinux menu, and there were options "Default", "Untitled Entry Grub 0", "Untitled Entry Grub 1"... Default one led to /ubninit file on USB, which failed to boot for some reason. Untitled GRUB entries were the ones you can see if you were to boot the ISO using GRUB. I chose "Untitled Entry Grub 0", and it did boot! I could not believe it until I saw the terminal. Everything works properly now.

Many-many thanks to you, catuser! It means everything to me!