Dell Latitude E7440 Failed Manjaro Install (Kind of)

I’ve been running Mint on my Latitude E7440 and Manjaro KDE on 2 other laptops and 1 desktop (all different hardware).

Got tired of having 1 different system running Mint so decided to install Manjaro on the Dell E7440. Initial install was flawless (Zetar) and booted perfectly, but after updating system at terminal (sudo pacman -Syu) and rebooting, the screen would flash black and then to the Dell/Manjaro logo, and then black and then logos and just keep flashing between the 2.

I tried reinstalling again with the exact same result. Something in the pacman -Syu must be installing something the laptop does not like.

The Dell E7440 has Intel Integrated graphics (Haswell).

I did not have a ton of time to go thru forums as I have family obligations today, but wanted to get something out there in case anyone was familiar with this issue.

Thank you.

Did you use the latest iso, ‘Zetar’ has been out a while? If it’s an older version it might fail due to Plymouth still being installed, see: How to remove plymouth?

I downloaded a fresh ISO just prior to installing. When I did pacman updates there were only like 210 updates.

I should also add just for giggles, I tried a quick install of Endeavour and had the exact same issue (even prior to any updates). Not sure if it is a latest kernel thing or something like that, but I can’t even get into a terminal to try and revert to an older kernel.

This seems like the issue @philm describes in the [Stable Update] 2025-09-26 thread:

Also relevant:

If this scenario matches your issue then a workaround exists, as mentioned in these links.

Regards.

Abandoned topic (60+ days)