Impossible installation on HP 455 G7, AMD Renoir 4500u

I have been using Linux espacially Manjaro as daily driver since years now. Now I got a new machine (HP 455 Probook G7, AMD Renoir 4500u).

Now I am trying since days to install from a Manjaro USB 20.1 and finally via Manjaro Architekt and I keep getting Black screen. I did use several Grub options (including nomodeset, which is the most promising). Target is a dual boot Win10/Manjaro on UEFI. Windows is OK. Grub installs the multiboot screen correctly…

However regardless which flavor the installation is(GNOME, XFCE, LXDE), the finished installation always starts once(!!!). On the second boot it always stucks with black screen (just after showing disk parameter), cooling starts humming and no further interaction (second TTY etc.) is possible. It never starts again and stucks always at the same point. I suppose some bad things with the onboard graphics, but free / non-free makes no difference.

Regarding Hardware it should be technically OK, acc to the site linux-hardware. Even with older Kernel (5.4 ) Ubuntu and its flavors seemingly are OK

Just with Manjaro no success and frankly, I’m lost after all…and would appreciate any help! THKS!

Hi @citaron,

since Ubuntu works, i guess Ubuntu have set some workarounds for this laptop and Manjaro ships the Kernel with almost no workarounds, just pure from source code with little patches. To investigate the problem, we would need information.

If you installed it with architect, then boot it with that and chroot there into the local disk (there is a menu for that). Then type:

journalctl -b -0 |  curl --upload-file - https://aptget.xyz/boot.0.log
inxi -Fazy |  curl --upload-file - https://aptget.xyz/inxi.log

It will create a link. Type in the link here.

With a Desktop Version please paste the code here instead of a link. (use manjaro-chroot -a before and type 1)

Also removing quiet from the grub boot parameter could show a hint.
:wink:

Also try if possible another UEFI profile for legacy support for other OS’s.

@megavolt thanks for fast response!
In the meantime I tested Xubuntu (Kernel 5.4) on the partition in question to validate the issue. Xubuntu just runs but doesn’t identify the screen resolution and other components correctly. However on that really low level it runs somehow XFCE and reboots as well. I’ll reinstall manjaro and post the requested infos.

1 Like

@megavolt I’m sorry, but the default download mirror is far too slow to get any achievemnt today. I will try to paste in the outcome of your commands in here as soon I’ll get there.

@megavolt Unfortunately the boot.log is too long to be pasted here.
Forum Limit is 150000 instead of 649653 letters. While I believe that ist the interesting one.
Any idea? Shall I cut some portion out?

I realized that this reinstalled Manjaro didnt start at all, chroot anyway is fine. And inxi shows up Kernel 5.6 while I’m confident I selected 5.8…hmmm

Did you type the whole line?

This output is from the live session, so not from a local install.

Here is where the boot stops…


Sometimes it stops at “RF Kill switch” So I dont believe that is the root cause, but as mentioned above, I’m lost


This shoud be it: yAwej and 5fGEt
Hope everything is in there. Thanks for patience!

I am sorry, but that is actually useless now. Please read carefully what i have written first.

I was thinking that you have installed it and now after installation it hangs. If so, you need to chroot into the local disk from a live session and get a journal log (this one you send is empty).

So you can boot a Desktop CD? Then boot it, open a terminal, type manjaro-chroot -a, type 1, and now you have full access to your local installation. Then type type the commands i mentioned:

Because it is very long, please as link:

This please as code:

like that:

```
output of inxi
```

Thanks

Its true, I’m sorry for the garbage logs. :pensive:

Yes, correct, this is the situation.
However after the recent new installation it now hangs already on the first start, black screen.

No, I cannot start neither the manjaro graphic installer (thats one reason I tried with Architect.) nor any desktop. (Only Xubuntu via USB´stick shows a desktop, but crashes sometimes, which I believe is the old Kernel)
Unfortunately I have no much experiance with chroot’ing and manjaro-chroot is not available on the Architect.

Can’t I use “classic” chroot (thats available on Architect). What needs to be mounted min. to get the logs out? (Years ago, I used to recover Grub, it were several directories) I hope its less…

ok understood now.

  1. You can’t boot a Desktop Session.
  2. Architect Session works.
  3. You never installed Manjaro locally.

The issue comes from the ISO. I would suggest to use the architect version, which will retrieve everything you need.

About the crashes… a thought comes to my mind. There was a similar problem. When i look at your CPU:

CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 4500U with Radeon Graphics socket: FP6 
  bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Zen family: 17 (23) model-id: 60 (96) stepping: 1 
  microcode: 8600106 L1 cache: 384 KiB L2 cache: 3072 KiB L3 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 28463 
  Speed: 1397 MHz min/max: 1400/2375 MHz base/boost: 2375/4000 boost: enabled 
  volts: 1.2 V ext-clock: 100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1398 2: 1397 3: 1397 
  4: 1397 5: 1397 6: 1400 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
  Type: mds status: Not affected 
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
  STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 

there is “family: 17 (23)” written. This family has a hardware bug, which needs to be addressed.

You could try to add processor.max_cstate=5 to kernel parameter in grub before booting by editing the the boot command in the live session.

Have you read this tutorial?

Hi again!

  1. You can boot a Desktop Session. → No, I cant get any Desktop working.
  2. Architect Session works. → Yes
  3. You never installed Manjaro locally. → No, Manjaro is installed on a 80 GB partition. However thats not booting.

l will reinstall Manjaro with Architect and Kernel 5.6 and add processor.max_cstate=5 . Maybe that’ll help.

THKS for the Dual boot manual. My UEFI is proper and not mixed wth MBR as well as all the other items are no isse here.

Hi @megavolt I would like to thank you for trying helping me, but I’m close to give-up.
It seems to be too early for this notebook. On the other side I’m lacking to get the right logs, while manjaro-chroot is not available to be used via Architekt installer. Manjaro is repeatedly not starting (neither graphic installaller USB nor installed Manjaro on notebook) whatever GRUB settings and parameters have been set. I gave a try to endeavorOS (Arch based) with same result. The only Linux so far with limited success ist Xubuntu, which at least is presenting a desktop beside many many error messages due to old kernel and whats most important: its not rolling. Maybe I should wait for 12 month or so, or at least until linux-hardware indicates some level of maturity.

My experience with installing Manjaro (KDE) on this hardware on a friends new laptop was quite different from yours. Manjaro was among the few distributions* that worked flawless.
If I remember correctly I did an architect-installation and definitely chose kernel 5.8.
You want the newest available stable kernel and firmware for this new hardware.

Installing alongside Windows 10, I had to hack the windows bootmanager as described in the dual-boot-tutorial (mentioned above):
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\manjaro\grubx64.efi
Otherwise Win10 messed up the boot-configuration regularly.

*I tried several, before settling down with Manjaro and MX-KDE-AHS as a second choice.

Hi @Friedrich1,
this is good news, means there should be a way …

The Dual-boot setup works fine, no errors during installation wth Architect (which performs basically fine). GRUB is working fine as well, just out of the box wth no malnual adjustments required: Windows starts no problem and performs like a charm, Manjaro shows the usual “drive/partition data” in the first line and then goes black. I assume just after graphic is initialized. It’s not possible to interact anymore (no other TTY etc.). The Architect is as well only starting through with GRUB parameter “nomodeset”, w/o that it hangs already when starting Architect in my case.

If you could get some information about the friends machine, I would love to verify some details:

  • Which model precisely?
  • Intel or AMD?
  • BIOS Version?
  • any specific BIOS settings (beside secure-boot off)
  • Any boot parameter nessecary?
  • what GPU?
  • dual boot setup wth windows?

I started to setup as a Manjaro only system. Above mentioned problems appeared an I just wanted to confirm what the problem is. So I installed Win10Pro with really no issues at all.

Still I’m lost and about givin up… loosing my daiy driver because Win is only for few games and programs which require Windows only.

  • Which model precisely?

Same as yours, I think:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-probook-455-g7-notebook-pc/32780046/document/c06616996#AbT1

  • Intel or AMD?

AMD 4500U

  • BIOS Version?

The latest (the previous (first one) worked as well)

  • any specific BIOS settings (beside secure-boot off)

Nothing that I remember. Apart from disabling wake up by LAN, USB,
which probably does not matter.

  • Any boot parameter nessecary?

This parameter is in the /boot/grub.cfg:
linux […] quiet udev.log_priority=3
But I am pretty sure not having added that myself.

  • what GPU?

Same as yours

  • dual boot setup wth windows?

Yes

I started to setup as a Manjaro only system.

I started with the win10 installation and let win10 do its default partitioning (3 partitions)

*(checked directly on my friends laptop via an anydesk connection)

Thats really weired. You are right, thats identically beside the BIOS update which was performed as one initial idea to fix the problems… After havin no success installing Manjaro as first step, I build the system then first with Win10 and Manjaro as the second, similar to your setup. The Grub parameter are the default ones. If Windows wouldnt run so smoothly, I would expect a hardware error on my machine as everything seems really same, beside the difference that my machine is rejecting any kind of linux beside poor running xubuntu.
Thank you for checking and confirming! Any idea or recommendation?

The nessecity of “nomodeset” indicates to me that here are issues with the graphics. But what?

Probably right.
I checked again on the friends laptop and you might want to check if these packages are installed:
mhwd-amdgpu
xf86-video-amdgpu
linux-firmware (at the moment: 20200901)
linux-latest (kernel; at the moment: 5.8.1)

Good luck!
Bedtime for now…