KDE iso live usb boots into GNOME

hux · 4 September 2023 09:07

Feels like I’m tripping over here, please let me explain.

At the time of burning USB using Pop!_OS.
I’ve downloaded the “manjaro-kde-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso” and dd it to a USB stick.
I also setup a VM with Virtualbox.
When i tried the .iso in the VM i booted into Manjaro KDE but when i boot my computer with the USB stick I’ve created form same .iso Manjaro GNOME is loaded.
WTH am i tripping?

So i started up my laptop to test it.
Using the same USB stick boots in to KDE!

$ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP gives 2 different results depending on computer with same .iso!!!

What the hell is going on here and can someone help me?

More testing:
Tried a different USB stick and tried both torrent and image of the same KDE .iso, verified the hash. Same exact weirdness on the different computers.
Also i formatted my main drive so that GNOME from Pop!_OS wouldn’t somehow stick around just to be absolutely sure.

I’m thankful for any answers

linux-aarhus · 4 September 2023 09:10

you should hold back on the

a couple of years back a project called ventoy emerged - it is insanely good work … highly recommended.

Impossible … what ever you are experiencing - it is local to your system(s).

If you accidently - during download - selected an existing filename on your system - then the filename would not match the content - I have done that once - by accident.

Aragorn · 4 September 2023 09:20

Obviously, your computer is booting from the installed system with GNOME and not from the USB with Plasma.

hux · 4 September 2023 09:45

Well ok i kind of knew you guys wouldn’t believe me
As i said weirdness.

I want to add this .iso is freshly downloaded with the magnet link on the official download to another computer (the laptop in the vid) and created there. Separate systems and USB stick.

Here’s some actual proof. (sorry for the noise)

linux-aarhus · 4 September 2023 09:50

You should definately verify the ISO before attempting any usage.

There is a python script here [root tip] [Utility Script] Using python to download and verify a Manjaro ISO which takes care of download and signature check

get-iso plasma
get-iso gnome

Or you could use manjaro-iso-downloader package

Aragorn · 4 September 2023 10:14

The only possible explanations I can think of are that it’s either this …

… or a faulty Ventoy installation. Ventoy (the installer) does get updated on a regular basis, and so it’s important that you always update the Ventoy (the boot loader) on your USB sticks as well.

It’s just a thought, but for a moment there, you moved the selection bar in the Ventoy boot screen on the desktop computer to the second item in the menu, and it is possible that this somehow triggered the second entry — I couldn’t see what it was — to get booted instead of the first.

There is also always a possibility that the flash memory on the stick itself has become corrupted in some way, and maybe the second computer responds to that differently to the first computer.

Another possibility would be a combination of having overwritten the Plasma ISO with a GNOME ISO, but in combination with there being a second Ventoy installation, on the desktop computer itself, and that the machine boots from that instead of booting off the USB stick.

I’m only guessing here. It sure is a freaky phenomenon. But I doubt whether the ISO itself would be corrupt, because in that case, it probably wouldn’t even boot.

hux · 4 September 2023 10:20

I ran your script and i got this:

$ get-iso plasma
Downloading: manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso
Downloading: manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso.sig
Wait for verification ...
gpg: assuming signed data in 'manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso'
gpg: Signature made Mon 29 May 2023 11:46:55 AM CEST
gpg:                using RSA key 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key

This is not my area but something is of.
Btw. doing this in Ubuntu 23.04.

linux-aarhus · 4 September 2023 10:20

@hux - you did pull those images using bittorrent - yes?

I am asking because I am going to pull the gnome and plasma iso using bittorrent to see if I can replicate - though it is far fetched - knowing how the developer tools work - a human error is always possible.

If you don’t have public the key you will need import it

gpg --recv-keys 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8

hux · 4 September 2023 10:21

Yes. I could try the image instead. On it now…
Actually. I’m going to try you script download first.

hux · 4 September 2023 10:26

I just did the Ventroy usb when i got aarhus suggestion of it. Before that i used normal dd burn.

Its pop!_os and it is manjaro that got loaded.

linux-aarhus · 4 September 2023 10:33

First round - success

 $ gpg --verify manjaro-gnome-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso.sig
gpg: assuming signed data in 'manjaro-gnome-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso'
gpg: Signature made man 29 maj 2023 10:43:35 CEST
gpg:                using RSA key 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8
gpg: Good signature from "Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 3B79 4DE6 D432 0FCE 594F  4171 279E 7CF5 D8D5 6EC8

12:29:50 ○ [fh@tiger] ~/Downloads
 $ gpg --verify manjaro-gnome-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso.sig
gpg: assuming signed data in 'manjaro-gnome-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso'
gpg: Signature made man 29 maj 2023 11:38:26 CEST
gpg:                using RSA key 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8
gpg: Good signature from "Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 3B79 4DE6 D432 0FCE 594F  4171 279E 7CF5 D8D5 6EC8

12:30:00 ○ [fh@tiger] ~/Downloads
 $ gpg --verify manjaro-kde-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso.sig
gpg: assuming signed data in 'manjaro-kde-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso'
gpg: Signature made man 29 maj 2023 10:49:20 CEST
gpg:                using RSA key 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8
gpg: Good signature from "Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 3B79 4DE6 D432 0FCE 594F  4171 279E 7CF5 D8D5 6EC8

12:32:14 ○ [fh@tiger] ~/Downloads
 $ gpg --verify manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso.sig
gpg: assuming signed data in 'manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso'
gpg: Signature made man 29 maj 2023 11:46:55 CEST
gpg:                using RSA key 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8
gpg: Good signature from "Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 3B79 4DE6 D432 0FCE 594F  4171 279E 7CF5 D8D5 6EC8

hux · 4 September 2023 10:38

I guess i succeed as well?

$ get-iso plasma && get-iso plasma -f
Downloading: manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso
Downloading: manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso.sig
Wait for verification ...
gpg: assuming signed data in 'manjaro-kde-22.1.3-minimal-230529-linux61.iso'
gpg: Signature made Mon 29 May 2023 11:46:55 AM CEST
gpg:                using RSA key 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8
gpg: Good signature from "Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 3B79 4DE6 D432 0FCE 594F  4171 279E 7CF5 D8D5 6EC8
Downloading: manjaro-kde-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso
Downloading: manjaro-kde-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso.sig
Wait for verification ...
gpg: assuming signed data in 'manjaro-kde-22.1.3-230529-linux61.iso'
gpg: Signature made Mon 29 May 2023 10:49:20 AM CEST
gpg:                using RSA key 3B794DE6D4320FCE594F4171279E7CF5D8D56EC8
gpg: Good signature from "Manjaro Build Server <build@manjaro.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 3B79 4DE6 D432 0FCE 594F  4171 279E 7CF5 D8D5 6EC8

Minimal iso… GNOME…
Full iso… GNOME!!!

What the actual ***********
This is beyond strange!

Aragorn · 4 September 2023 10:47

On both computers?

linux-aarhus · 4 September 2023 10:50

When you get such message the ISO verifies.

I just booted my ventoy disk and loaded the four ISO verifed above - they load excatly what the filename advertize. Gnome ISO contains Gnome and KDE iso contains KDE Plasma.

I have no idea what is going on with your system - suffice to say that I cannot replicate what you are doing.

What if you are not actually booting the stick but you have by accident written the Gnome ISO to the system harddrive? Thus not booting the flash but your system harddrive - with a Gnome ISO written using dd?

Aragorn · 4 September 2023 10:52

That is what I was trying to say in post #6. And in that case, it wouldn’t just be the ISO, but Ventoy as well.

linux-aarhus · 4 September 2023 10:53

Oh - I missed that - good catch by the way

Aragorn · 4 September 2023 10:54

I suppose the quickest way to find out is to boot the desktop computer without the USB stick.

Addendum

It has now been 25 minutes since I wrote the line here-above, and OP has gone eerily quiet, which leads me to suspect that our assumption could be correct.

So, to summarize the hypothesis…:

OP downloaded the GNOME ISO but accidentally saved it with the name of the Plasma ISO, overwriting the latter.
OP then proceeded to install Ventoy on the desktop computer, by accidentally mistaking the desktop computer’s internal drive for the USB stick, with as a result that the whole drive got repartitioned and reformatted by Ventoy.

Am I right or am I right?

linux-aarhus · 4 September 2023 11:32

give it time …

hux · 4 September 2023 11:34

Alright! your assumption was correct!
I believe that what happened here was as typo when doing the initial dd from terminal. The usb was /sdg and i must have by mistake pressed the neighbour “b” - /sdb. Well I did check what you suggested and boom i found this:

Also when i tried to format the drive i got an error. So that even further indicated that i was running from my internal SSD instead of the iso file on my usb. Actually had to hop over to another distro to be able to format the drive, witch worked!

So now that i’ve formatted my sdb with the manjaro GNOME i can finally boot into KDE

Thank you guys so much! @Aragorn & @linux-aarhus you guys are the best helping me out. I’ve actually learned a thing or to from this encounter

system · 7 September 2023 01:34

This topic was automatically closed 2 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.