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USB bootloader boots to black screen

  • I made the bootloader with the following command:
    sudo dd if=artix-cinnamon-runit-20220713-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status='progress'
  • I've made sure to turn off secure boot in the BIOS setup
  • I'm on a UEFI bios
The result is a black screen when I select the USB drive in the Boot menu.




Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #1
The best way to dd is usually to use the native sector size as shown by fdisk -l which almost always seems to be 512 bytes, which happens to be the default for dd so you are typically better off not using your own bs= option at all. Probably this is totally irrelevant to your problem but you never know, I think I ran into problems once setting large block sizes. You could also check the checksum of your image to make sure it's OK, and even try another iso variant?

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #2
I believe this an issue with Grub, the same happens with me on latest Artix ISO's, the fix is to find an older ISO, one from before grub was updated and try to run the install from there.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #3
Another possibility might be that the USB stick itself is faulty? If you have another one, that would be easy to rule out.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #4
@ttot: I got a similar problem, randomly, and I solved it using imagewriter to create booting USB Key.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #5
Another possibility might be that the USB stick itself is faulty? If you have another one, that would be easy to rule out.

That's one possibility, but this is a current now, it happened with me on my 3 USB Devices, all of them working fine, when I changed the ISO everything worked fine

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #6
That's one possibility, but this is a current now, it happened with me on my 3 USB Devices, all of them working fine, when I changed the ISO everything worked fine

I know it is different hardware, but I have just downloaded and written to a USB with dd and it has booted up on a one year old laptop (UEFI) just fine. That was using this iso: artix-xfce-dinit-20221017-x86_64.iso

Just posting my experience, I am not disagreeing with you  :)

EDIT: typo

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #7
I know it is different hardware, but I have just downloaded and written to a USB with dd and it has booted up on a one year old laptop (UEFI) just fine. That was using this iso: artix-xfce-dinit-20221017-x86_64.iso

Just posting my experience, I am not disagreeing with you  :)

EDIT: typo

LOL, I know, you're not, I was just pointing that out, I have a laptop from 2013, so that may be the case? I seriously don't know but as of now, I have ditched grub.

This issue will just make it a lot more difficult to install Linux.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #8
  • I made the bootloader with the following command:
    sudo dd if=artix-cinnamon-runit-20220713-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status='progress'
  • I've made sure to turn off secure boot in the BIOS setup
  • I'm on a UEFI bios
The result is a black screen when I select the USB drive in the Boot menu.


>>bs=4M

first mistake, always use the natural sector size of the disk ( in most cases 512 bytes, meaning the option would have to be "bs=512" ) for writing important data like ISOs.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #9
>>bs=4M

first mistake, always use the natural sector size of the disk ( in most cases 512 bytes, meaning the option would have to be "bs=512" ) for writing important data like ISOs.

Interesting that you should say that as I always use 'bs=4M' when using dd to write an ISO, and it is something I do on a regular basis as I can't resist trying out a new version/distro when I see something I would be interested in!

I do take your point though, and will bear it in mind in the future.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #10
I believe this an issue with Grub, the same happens with me on latest Artix ISO's, the fix is to find an older ISO, one from before grub was updated and try to run the install from there.
THIS WORKED FOR ME, and this time I made the bootloader with balenaEtcher. Thank you for your help.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #11
The best way to dd is usually to use the native sector size as shown by fdisk -l which almost always seems to be 512 bytes, which happens to be the default for dd so you are typically better off not using your own bs= option at all. Probably this is totally irrelevant to your problem but you never know, I think I ran into problems once setting large block sizes. You could also check the checksum of your image to make sure it's OK, and even try another iso variant?
This is exactly the right thing and absolutely correct because the 512 bytes and the 512e (extended 512) are neither 4KiB (also called 4k) nor correspond to 4M.

Fact is that each "sector" have ["input-bits"+"data-bits"+"output-bits"] , so the 512 & 512e have 8-time input- & output-bits as 4KiB sectors size. If we make the relation to 4M, no matter if 4M or 4 MiB, have `dd` much more to calculate by each writing as to not use this option at all.

Even to test the speed with `dd` of a data-carrier before and after the conversion from 512 or 512e to 4KiB  I newer use `bs=4096` because this "influence" the results.

Thumb-up 

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #12
  • I made the bootloader with the following command:
    sudo dd if=artix-cinnamon-runit-20220713-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status='progress'
  • I've made sure to turn off secure boot in the BIOS setup
  • I'm on a UEFI bios
The result is a black screen when I select the USB drive in the Boot menu.

You should take/select "CD/DVD" and not "HDD/USB" by booting.

Ones you choose the language and the keyboard you should take the first option for boot ("CD/DVD") as already mentioned.

My machine have a Threadripper Gen 1. CPU, a Vega 64 GPU + 64 GB RAM and if i choose the second boot-option ("HDD/USB") get I also a black screen.

Try simply to make a new Stick (maybe without 'bs'-option) and boot the first option as said. If still not boot btw you get again a black screen... take a Sandisk USB-Stick.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #13
April 2023, I have exactly the same problem.

I've tried two images:

artix-base-runit-20230401-x86_64.iso
artix-cinnamon-runit-20230401-x86_64.iso

Tried loading off a Ventoy USB stick and flashing directly with Belena Etcher and Multi-writer.

Interestingly, the same images work for ThinkCentre m700 mini PC with a 6 gen. Intel Core CPU. But they don't work for ThinkPad T440s with a 4 gen. CPU.

Many other images (I've tried several) do work for my ThinkPad.

Re: USB bootloader boots to black screen

Reply #14
What made it work for me was booting off Ventoy, choosing Artix (a screen appears next) and then choosing the Grub 2 procedure instead of a "standard" one.