Difficulties installing manjaro on a raspberry pi 5

[Spinal86]

After seeing a post on raspberry pi forum:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=367491

I wanted to install manjaro with kde on my pi 5
hoping this distro will finally help me solve the problem of not need 2 keyboard and mouse for my main pc and my pi using deskflow

so I search on google went to manjaro arm website,

https://manjaro.org/products/download/arm

downloaded the image and tried to install on my ssd using pi imager custom .img then I learned that config.txt must have a line that disable the check if the distro is compatible with pi, weird, but ok, easy enough…black screen
then I discovered that the image on the site was no good and I should use this script:

https://gitlab.manjaro.org/manjaro-arm/applications/manjaro-arm-installer

but I think this only works for SD cards, and I have an ssd on my pi, when I booted i got something like couldn’t find FAT partition or something like that, unfortunately I don’t have capture card to print this error
then I don’t even remember where I got another image: Manjaro-ARM-kde-plasma-rpi4-20240513.img.xz installed via pi imager, and apparent success, I could boot, BUT anytime the mouse stooped it disappeared and had a lot of issues with it, moving when I tried to click something, showing weird black squares around it…and I saw this is a common issue, I should just update manjaro, but I couldn’t, I had a lot of dependency issues, I am suspicious that the version I downloaded was experimental one, found this site:

https://github.com/manjaro-arm/rpi4-images/releases/tag/20250929

with a gazilion versions, all of them with “pre-release” so it didn’t inspired me much confidence that they were stable, and they don’t match the numeration scheme on the pi forum post of a successful manjaro install previously linked
Sorry for the long post, but I don’t know what to do anymore, so I ask of you kind stranger: what is the best way to install manjaro on the pi 5 with ssd? is it the script? what should I change on it to create the correct partitions on my ssd? or I just shouldn’t have chosen file system ext4, I should have chosen btrfs or f2fs? is there a better way to install? which image should I download so I can use on the pi imager?

[rootgordon]

The fate of Manjaro ARM Unstable

So i open this thread to get more information about the plans for the future of Manjaro ARM Unstable. To be more specific, i remember reading in some previous correspondence that the “unstable” version of Manjaro ARM was the only one that is actively being maintained. So i guess this involves all Manjaro ARM releases out there. I might not be very much informed about the whole thing other than being a user of this as my main OS for the last year or so. So bear with me here. The thing is, we hav…

right now noone is recommending to go for manjaro arm. if you need an arch-based distro on rpi5 you might want to give endeavourOS a shot

[dmt]

@Spinal86

I’m sorry, I had to remove all links from this post, I couldn’t post with any link, if someone can help me on why I couldn’t I’ll edit this post with the links)

New users can’t post links directly but you can obfuscate them using a block quote (‘’ or pre-formatted text (</>).

@Spinal86

hoping this distro will finally help me solve the problem of not need 2 keyboard and mouse for my main pc and my pi using deskflow

You can get switches for that, there are KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switches, but if you have separate monitors and USB mouse/keyboard then you can use a USB switch. Of course they do need to be near each other.

@Spinal86

what is the best way to install manjaro on the pi 5 with ssd?

I think I got it from the Manjaro download page (make sure you select the correct image). I do have a vague memory of another page used to host builds, but I can’t remember anything of use.

Anyway @Darksky would probably be the best person to advise.

Make sure you only use images from trusted sources. Don’t get them from random sites.

[Nachlese]

@dmt

New users can’t post links directly but you can obfuscate them using a block quote (‘’ or pre-formatted text (</>).

Some update of the forum software has changed that - at least for me.

Now I can’t just insert the URL and format it to “preformatted text” by putting three backticks before and after or using the </> button in the editor window.

I tried to suggest this as well, but when I tried I noticed the change in behavior.

I also do not see the second window on the right anymore, where the result would appear.

It’s just one window now.

Formatting a link as a quote still seems to work

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/

but I don’t know whether this would “go through” for a new user.

That link, formatted like that, is still “clickable” now.

[dmt]

Yeah the new update may take some time to get used to.

@Nachlese

Now I can’t just insert the URL and format it to “preformatted text” by putting three backticks before and after or using the </> button in the editor window.

I still can.

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/difficulties-installing-manjaro-on-a-raspberry-pi-5/182013/4 - single backtick

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/difficulties-installing-manjaro-on-a-raspberry-pi-5/182013/4

@Nachlese

I also do not see the second window on the right anymore, where the result would appear.

The new button on the left (with an A) toggles it.

I can’t stand the new version.

@Nachlese

but I don’t know whether this would “go through” for a new user.

I think I’ve seen newer users do it - but I can’t be certain atm. However as you say it may have changed with the update.

@Nachlese

That link, formatted like that, is still “clickable” now.

Which is why I prefer that method.

[tartanpion]

You will find all the methods for installing Manjaro in this post. Manjaro was the best distribution I knew of for the Raspberry Pi, but it is no longer maintained. Some people are waiting, while others have switched to EndeavourOS. ARch is also an option if you feel capable of compiling a few packages to get the equivalent of what is available on Manjaro.

[Nachlese]

@dmt

The new button on the left (with an A) toggles it.

Thank you!

… if everyone would just simply hover the pointer over each of the symbols to get a description of what they will effect/do …

I would likely have found out eventually … after some time.

What does “switch to standard Markdown editor” even mean to a casual new user …

But things changed … without “warning”.

@dmt

I can’t stand the new version.

Me neither.

It may be more flexible, but got more unintuitive as well.

The instant feedback (through the second window on the right) is gone by default.
It is restored by clicking the “A” - but someone has to be aware of it to make use of it.
I now am aware … thanks to your explanation.

[Spinal86]

Thank for you help, I was able to insert the links covertly

yeah, I have a kvm switch, but due to my setup I think a software setup would be a best option

And I saw this post got moved to arm subforum, when I tried I couldn’t open it there

How do I get in touch with this @Darksky ? I’d love some help

[Spinal86]

@tartanpion

ro was the best distribution I knew of for the Raspberry Pi, but it is no longer maintained. Some people are waiting, while others have switched to EndeavourOS. AR

yeah, i didnt want to say anything about other distros, but I have tried kali linux, but I was having issues using it because beeing a security driven distro I couldn’t save any password, and that annoyed the hell out of me puting the same password over and over again, and when I google some solution I saw something on the line of " this shouldn’t be your daily drive, it was striped down of some stuff so people wouldn’t do it" then I said ok, back to manjaro…but afterwords I saw that this is some kind of meme…so does anyone have any thoughts on that? should I continue with kali and disregard the meme and have some configuration that I missed? or should I press on with manjaro, a more noob distro?

I tried pure arch linux too, but I think this is a way more advance distro, I wasnt even able to log in, tried alarm alarm and root root, also with the help of grok created a new user, but was unsuccessful in all 3, the weird thing was that I only got one shot, after that after I type the first letter of the user it went to the password, very weird, if you guys know any noob guide for arch I’d love to try again, I think this would be a very good opportunity to learn.

I’ll research endevorOS, but its not on supported distros for deskflow

[dmt]

@Spinal86

How do I get in touch with this @Darksky ? I’d love some help

We’ve both mentioned him already, he’ll have a notification for each.

I’ve been looking into things, and I think you’re probably best trying EndeavourOS as @tartanpion said (he also posted a link to a thread which details how to get images, scroll to the top).

@philm linked to this article - so it does seem Manjaro ARM is unmaintained, at least for the time being.

The fate of Manjaro ARM Unstable

There is not much had happened after March 2023 …

@Spinal86

I have tried kali linux

That’s for penetration testing/hacking, if you need something like that you probably wouldn’t be thinking about Manjaro.

@Spinal86

I’ll research endevorOS, but its not on supported distros for deskflow

It’s based on Arch and they say that they want to stay as close to Arch as possible, so it should work. They also say they use Arch’s repos so deskflow should be in them.

[tartanpion]

If you want to try Arch, try this post. That’s the basics. I’m currently compiling a 6.17 kernel with support for ntsync, scheduler for scx, and hugepage. I’ll test it on a small memory card, and if it’s successful, all that’s left to do is adapt ffmpeg to video acceleration, and it’ll be livable.