Won't Install - what is wrong here?

[grasshopper]

Downloaded the latest ISO. Ran Live USB in mx to create the live usb key. seems okay. I reboot on my new computer, startup screen looks normal but it won't go anywhere, you click any selection other than check the memory and it does nothing. You hit alt-f1 to see and it's just hung at a root prompt.

I've installed MX many times, this is the very first time I've ever seen this. It says MX but looks antix to the max, there is no install menu it won't runt he desktop at all.

What happened here?

[CharlesV]

Has this new computer ever run Linux before ? ( Or ever had Windows startup on it ? )

What is the make / model?

If you have another usb drive, maybe download a couple of earlier versions and see if one of those works better

[j2mcgreg]

If you used Balena Etcher to create the USB install drive, try again with our own Live USB Maker, Ventoy, or Rufus on Windows.

[siamhie]

Make sure to verify the ISO you downloaded.

Checksums and signatures of Final ISOs
https://mxlinux.org/wiki/system/iso-dow ... signatures

[dolphin_oracle]

if the new PC is very new, its possible the standard MX isos may lack the drivers for it. particularly for nvidia and amd graphics hardware, but also possible for intel parts.

[grasshopper]

Update: I finally got it to work, I just downloaded the ISO again and used liveusb in an older mx version to put it on the usb key.

The computer is new, working fully and runs windows 11. I disabled secure boot, I shrunk the windows partition down for MX and now I'm just waiting till I get home from work to watch some how-to videos for installing this latest version with 11. It's not the same as I have had to do before, similar but not exactly.

I appreciate you guys, thanks for being here.

[FullScale4Me]

There are few excellent videos on MX and W11 Dual Booting. Here's one: Install MX 23 (on custom partitions, dual boot) FYI the runwiththedolphin YouTube channel is MX Linux's Dev dolphin_oracle.

I suggest: Dual Boot: MX Linux & Windows-Installation Guide PDF 1.2 MB illustrated 26 pages, updated July 10, 2025. I am the author, with a large amount of input from support forum successes (here & elsewhere).

Section 2 is designed to be printed as an installation checklist. There is a single disk (2.1 All on a single hard disk outline) and a dual disk version (2.2 TWO hard disk drives outline).

Most times a video will suffice as long as there are not too many fine issues along the way. All PC makers have them. Part of the length (+ 50% over other How-to's) of my guide is to provide a detailed means of sidestepping those issues.

[atomick]

hope you downloaded the MX- ahs iso For Advanced hardware support (new computers of last 8 yrs to cover it as a wild guess).

that has all support for newer computers. 23.6 it might be possible not to worry about secure boot - but that in bios should be disabled.
from there boot install should work as your normal. just to toss in a few point.

[j2mcgreg]

@atomick wrote:

hope you downloaded the MX- ahs iso For Advanced hardware support (new computers of last 8 yrs to cover it as a wild guess).

It's two years at most and not eight years.

[grasshopper]

I was not sure if i should start another thread for this or not. That being said, I got it installed but it was weird. The USB key that worked originally stopped working and would not show me the desktop. Reinstalled, no joy. I had the AHS version laying around, but it had failed on me the same way initially but I thought what the heck. I did get the AHS version Live to load the desktop and then I was able to install MX.

NOTE: I only now noticed the system has no sound, will not play music, movies, etc. The monitors show that it's playing, but speakers not so much. Speakers work fine in windows 11. Any clue?

After getting the AHS version up and working and seemingly happy, about the 3rd time I booted into it, it locked up, black screen, right before displaying the desktop. It works right now, I'm using it as I type, but that was weird.

Also the LAN does not automatically connect, I have to un-select it and re-select it to get it to connect. Again, weird.

Posting the system info if anyone can take a look and potentially see why this has been so unstable.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.14.2-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.14-3~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 parameters: audit=0
    intel_pstate=disable amd_pstate=disable BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.14.2-1-liquorix-amd64
    root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_ahs_x64 Libretto April 13  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 14 9440 v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0W4KD5 v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: 1.15.1
    date: 06/20/2025
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 69.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 69.0/69.0 Wh (100.0%) volts: 12.7 min: 11.7
    model: BYD DELL 7T7DY4BG type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: not charging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H bits: 64 type: MST AMCP arch: Meteor Lake level: v3
    note: check built: 2023+ process: Intel 4 (7nm) family: 6 model-id: 0xAA (170) stepping: 4
    microcode: 0x20
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 16 mt: 6 tpc: 2 st: 10 threads: 22 smt: enabled cache: L1: 1.6 MiB
    desc: d-10x32 KiB, 6x48 KiB; i-16x64 KiB L2: 18 MiB desc: 9x2 MiB L3: 24 MiB desc: 1x24 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1737 high: 4166 min/max: 400/3001 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1994 2: 1964 3: 2000 4: 1804 5: 1678 6: 4166
    7: 1968 8: 1970 9: 2000 10: 1957 11: 2000 12: 2000 13: 3431 14: 1593 15: 3001 16: 400 17: 1000
    18: 1002 19: 999 20: 400 21: 500 22: 400 bogomips: 131788
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: ghostwrite status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB: conditional; RSB filling;
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: BHI_DIS_S
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Meteor Lake-P [Intel Arc Graphics] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
    alternate: xe ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:7d55 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA AD107M [GeForce RTX 4050 Max-Q / Mobile] vendor: Dell GN21-X2 driver: N/A
    alternate: nouveau non-free: 530.xx+ status: current (as of 2023-03) arch: Lovelace code: AD1xx
    process: TSMC n4 (5nm) built: 2022-23+ bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:28a1 class-ID: 0302
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1200 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x318mm (20.04x12.52") s-diag: 600mm (23.63")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: LG Display 0x0777 built: 2023 res: 1920x1200 hz: 120 dpi: 156
    gamma: 1.2 size: 312x195mm (12.28x7.68") diag: 368mm (14.5") ratio: 16:10 modes: 1920x1200
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 24.2.8-1mx23ahs renderer: Mesa Intel Arc Graphics (MTL)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Meteor Lake IPU vendor: Dell driver: intel-ipu6 alternate: intel_ipu6
    bus-ID: 0000:00:05.0 chip-ID: 8086:7d19 class-ID: 0480
  Device-2: Intel Meteor Lake-P HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl
    alternate: snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_pci_intel_mtl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7e28
    class-ID: 0401
  API: ALSA v: k6.14.2-1-liquorix-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Meteor Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl
    bus-ID: 0000:00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:7e40 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: ASIX AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet type: USB driver: cdc_ncm bus-ID: 2-2.1:3
    chip-ID: 0b95:1790 class-ID: 0a00 serial: <filter>
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: half mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-10:7 chip-ID: 8087:0033 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller Intel driver: vmd v: 0.6
    port: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:7d0b rev: class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 596.45 GiB used: 10.89 GiB (1.8%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: KIOXIA model: BG6 512GB size: 476.94 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 12000104
    temp: 49.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: Samsung model: Flash Drive FIT size: 119.51 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: GPT
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 195.31 GiB size: 191.19 GiB (97.89%) used: 10.79 GiB (5.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 424 MiB size: 420 MiB (99.06%) used: 104.9 MiB (25.0%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 71.0 C mobo: 57.0 C sodimm: SODIMM C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3813 fan-2: 3542
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2131 libs: 1061 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://la.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
    2: deb http://la.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Info:
  Processes: 515 Uptime: 1m wakeups: 10 Memory: 15.08 GiB used: 3.3 GiB (21.9%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI