Although I can’t prove it, as I lack the technical knowledge behind it, I don’t believe you.
I read something about the system managing the buffer and block size instead of you having to tell the dd command what to use.
Even the Arch wiki lists cat as the first and cp as the second variant, before dd. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_flash_installation_medium#In_GNU/Linux
(My) experience doesn’t agree with cat or cp being slower either.
You are right, that is the way it used to be. UNIX in general has smartened up that way. But with shell redirecting, and using cat/tee/etc, are much slower when dealing with larger amounts of data. If I was at my PC, I could easily prove it.
cp would be closer to on par for performance, but it has a completely different purpose.
My “knowledge” came from here, pretty much.
I later found other sources, just now I saw that even the Arch wiki said the same, and this, for instance.
All these tools read from one file and write to another (which can be the disk just as well). dd can do more specialized things beyond just copy.
Perhaps dd with the optimal block size can be faster - but I usually don’t know that.
… anyway:
for writing ISO’s to a stick, I’ll use Ventoy nowadays - or default to cat or cp rather than dd
Before I forget. Just trying to think of other issues it could be for this topic. I know my oldest laptop struggles with it. And I know you can disable Plymouth via kernel parameters: plymouth.enable=0 disablehooks=plymouth
And we can all edit kernel parameters on the live image, but not until Plymouth loads. It is even possible to disable on the image?
Sorry for this tangent. (I can’t help myself!)
My knowledge came from years on waiting on files to transfer (a vast understatement). This is also useful for a slow network, when you need efficient as possible.
Looking at those links, it really does seem like they just don’t like the syntax. It is pretty different than anything else out now, and hell, even then. When another command that does the equivalent shows up, I’ll be happy to use that one.
But I can’t argue with one point, and I have never tried to. It is dangerous. One mistype, and there goes everything.
If you use Ventoy, you can also use 2 .ISO files at the same time.
Just copy the newest Mint ISO and the newest Manjaro ISO on this Ventoy created USB stick.
And tell us if Mint boots and/or Manjaro… when only Mint is booting but Manjaro not. Then i would try the newest ISO from EndeavourOS (for test only, because its also a Arch distro) and repeat back.
If the machine is in fact from circa 2011 it may only be USB2 capable, at best. This too might be a limiting factor in whether booting from USB is successful.
USB devices are not always as backward compatible as marketing materials might claim.
This here seems to be a case of:
every ISO works, just Manjaro ISO don’t.
But I don’t believe that - much rather it may be a matter of size.
The size of the ISO.
All my ISO’s are between 1.7 GB and 2.7 GB in size.
I always choose the minimal editions.
The “full” editions are between 3.5 GB an 3.9 GB in size - and the machine might have some problem with that.
But I already said that, it is speculation anyway.
Me in his place: I’d try a minimal edition - it’s not as spartan as the name implies …
I once had a Gigabye board of the same vintage; originally released as BIOS/MBR but later transmogrified to UEFI via an (experimental) BIOS upgrade. The implementation was always flaky.
I can only assume the OP’s board is in reasonable condition, and the problem is related to whatever procedure is being used to create the Installer.
That said, I seem to recall having difficulty myself booting from USB on machines of that vintage; particularly laptops.
My opinion is to try again, and expect to wait even longer than 10 minutes. If there is no error, then it’s possible the process is still happening – albeit extremely slowly – this is not particularly uncommon, given the combination of an older slower laptop, and a USB possibly limited to USB2 (or even USB1.1).
I think there is some miscommunication here.
The OP used a Mint USB Writer once to create the Manjaro Installer. There is no mention of having booted Linux Mint successfully or otherwise.
Unfortunately the OP seems not to have an optical drive.
And the same might be true booting from USB.
I think I’ll just wait and see what news the OP brings next time they contribute to the thread.
Obviously I missed that part; with the assumption it was their requested system information. I only saw that they had tried creating a USB with the USB creator app.
And also mentioned in post 22
Message: No optical or floppy data found.
I think it must be the ISO, or the preparation.
(he shrugs again for effect).
He mentioned that he also try to created a Ventoy USB Stick, he had Mint installed… but he doesn’t told us if the newest Mint ISO is working actually or not… i guess he also had in the past Manjaro already installed?
But his informations are not really precise, since his english is a little bid weak (no intention to blame here), so its a little bid problematic to understand his path and where he is coming from.
His last response was 16hours ago, lets wait and see till he can give feedback… i think we flood him with informations already
I usually edit kernel parameters in GRUB to disable Plymouth, but OP cannot boot to GRUB
I once had a Gigabye board of the same vintage. originally released as BIOS/MBR but later transmogrified to UEFI via an (experimental) BIOS upgrade. The implementation was always flaky.
I am still using an Asus motherboard of similar age. AFAIK only Gigabyte motherboards had a hybrid UEFI that needed to be turned off in BIOS to work with a Linux
(they also needed r8168 NIC driver instead of r8169)
If you created the Ventoy USB in UEFI mode, it won’t boot on an BIOS/MBR system
inxi data shows all drives using MBR scheme, including /dev/sdc SanDisk Cruzer Blade 14.32 GiBUSB rev: 2.0 spd: 480 Mb/sscheme: MBR
If you do have (or can find, I’m looking) an .ISO with linux66 try that, or failing that, linux61.
Release announcements section has minimal ISOs with LTS kernels
he doesn’t told us if the newest Mint ISO is working actually or not
inxi data shows Mint is installed
I think there is some miscommunication here.
his informations are not really precise
Comments from other users could be smarter and relevant to OP system
Is the Ventoy boot menu failing to load or the subsequent Manjaro GRUB menu failing?
If the Ventoy menu is working it has a number of tools to check images in /ISO folder and USB drive
Manjaro repositories has mintstick from Linux Mint that should work for creating Live ISO
Opensuse imagewriter should also work to create a bootable ISO-9660 virtual disk image
But Ventoy and dd should also work so probably not due to USB creation software
I suggest download Manjaro Xfce ISOs with LTS kernels and post data to show results of sha256 and sha1 checks
When I start the Bootable USB, Manjaro does not start, it leaves a completely black screen with the word GRUB written in the upper left corner and it does not progress from there. I have made the USB with Balena Etcher and I don’t know how to solve the problem