Legacy BIOS install

Support
1

Trying to install Manjaro on my old 2011 HP Pavilion dv6 laptop.

Downloaded the XFCE version (also tried it with the GNOME and Budgie versions), created a bootable USB using Balena Etcher.

USB works perfectly in other devices, boots into the LiveUSB ready for installation.

However on this particular laptop, it gets to the ‘GRUB Welcome to GRUB!’ screen and then just stops.

I left it on that screen for 24hrs with no movement at all.

Some distros install fine, such as Pop_OS, Debian, Solus, ElementaryOS. Other distros have this exact same issue, such as Ubuntu, Manjaro, Arch, Slackware.

Would prefer to use Manjaro, since I find it a much nicer distro to work with, but not sure what is going on.

There is no secure boot capability in the BIOS, it’s a pretty limited BIOS for the most part, just having the very basic of features.

I have screenshots of every screen from the BIOS, but apparently I can’t upload or link to them.

2

Probably, Manjaro’s Grub Theme does not play well here, or it cannot detect the correct resolution and hang here.

Boot a Live Sessions, chroot into the local installation and check this file: /etc/default/grub and comment the variable GRUB_THEME and recreate the grub config: update-grub.

3

I can’t even get that far.

All I have done is plugged the USB into the laptop, powered it on, and that’s the very first screen I get.

The SSD in the laptop is currently a 100% blank slate, no OS installed on it.

4

Oh, sorry, I must misread that then. Sadly, there is not much you can do. You would need to recreate the ISO with some customization, as explained above. If you want to go down the rabbit hole then have look here:

That can be also done in a virtual machine :wink:

5

It was worth a try.

There are as said, some distro’s that work 100% on it, may just have to go back to one of those.

The problem with a custom build is I need a working system first, and this laptop would have been the only device I have which would be running Linux instead of Windows.

Edit: Haha, didn’t notice you said it could also be done in a VM, that 100% be an option in this case.

Might do that, not really a fan of the Ubuntu derivs, I mean, Pop_OS! Is nice and all, but not really my thing, much prefer Arch.