Can't boot Manjaro KDE USB on LG Gram 17 (2022)

[toxpal]

Before starting: I installed Manjaro KDE on 10+ and other Linux distros on 20+ computers (both desktops and laptops), so I know pretty well how it works. But…

Got LG Gram 17 (2022 model) today and can’t get it to boot from USB with Manjaro KDE (latest version). Once I select USB stick in boot menu, the same menu re-appears indefinitely because laptop refuses to boot from USB (boots fine from internal SSD with Windows).

Tried enabling/disabling UEFI boot in BIOS, no luck. USB itself works fine (tested on another computer), but I re-downloaded and re-created ISO image using another tool just to be sure; no luck on this particular computer. If I insert bootable USB with Hiren’s BootCD PE (portable Windows), it works perfectly.

Found some posts on Reddit mentioning the same issue, some people were able to solve it by disabling secure boot, which is not even enabled on my computer. Any ideas?

[Mirdarthos]

Hi @toxpal,

An idea: check and double-check in the UEFI/BIOS that secure and fast boot is disabled. Also check and endure it’s not set to use RAID.

Hope this helps!

_{Although, it wouldn’t surprise me if it doesn’t.}

[toxpal]

Alright, so I’m an idiot. I knew secure boot needs to be disabled, but I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I thought it’s disabled by default. Turns out the BIOS is so crappy on this computer that you can only access advanced features (such as secure boot) via hidden shortcut. No option to enter Advanced mode directly from BIOS itself.

In case someone needs it in the future: once in the BIOS, click CTRL+ALT+F7, and hidden settings will appear (works until reboot). Installing Manjaro right now!