Sometimes cannot boot properly after Cinnamon's installation

I bought an old laptop to start my adventure with Manjaro at first I was using xfce but after a few days I installed Cinnamon just like here: htt ps://linuxhint. com/install-cinnamon-manjaro-linux/
After installation sometimes Manjaro cannot boot properly for most of the time. It just stops at an infinite loading screen. If I use ctrl+alt+F2 it freezes, when ctrl+alt+delete it restarts other buttons combinations do not work.
inxi -zav7

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.9-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    clocksource: tsc available: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.5-x86_64
    root=UUID=a3368eb3-b172-4b26-bb85-4c1a5e41bd75 rw quiet splash apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 5.8.4 tk: GTK v: 3.24.38 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 2349SRE v: ThinkPad T430
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 2349SRE serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI-[Legacy]: LENOVO v: G1ETA1WW (2.61 ) date: 12/03/2013
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 31.8 Wh (69.6%) condition: 45.7/47.5 Wh (96.1%)
    power: 15.5 W volts: 11.2 min: 10.8 model: LGC 45N1005 type: Li-ion
    serial: <filter> status: discharging
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 15.31 GiB
    used: 2.14 GiB (13.9%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges
    required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5-3320M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge
    gen: core 3 level: v2 built: 2012-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6
    model-id: 0x3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 0x21
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 128 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB
    L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1775 high: 3300 min/max: 1200/3300 scaling:
    driver: intel_cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1400 2: 3300 3: 1200
    4: 1200 bogomips: 20759
  Flags: acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx bts clflush cmov
    constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb
    erms est f16c flush_l1d fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht ibpb ibrs ida lahf_lm lm mca
    mce md_clear mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid
    pclmulqdq pdcm pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdtscp
    rep_good sep smep smx ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall
    tm tm2 tsc tsc_deadline_timer vme x2apic xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
    STIBP: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Lenovo driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-7 process: Intel 22nm built: 2012-13 ports:
    active: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3,
    VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0166 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Bison Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 2-1.6:3 chip-ID: 5986:02d5
    class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.9 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-size: <missing: xdpyinfo>
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: AU Optronics 0x213e built: 2010 res: 1600x900
    hz: 60 dpi: 132 gamma: 1.2 size: 309x174mm (12.17x6.85") diag: 355mm (14")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: 1600x900
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel crocus platforms: device: 0 drv: crocus
    device: 1 drv: swrast surfaceless: drv: swrast x11: drv: swrast
    inactive: gbm,wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.2 vendor: mesa v: 23.1.9-manjaro1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 16.0.6 256 bits)
    device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff memory: 14.95 GiB unified: yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo 7
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1e20
    class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.9-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.83 status: off tools: pw-cli
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e
    v: kernel port: 4080 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:4238
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found.
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 447.13 GiB used: 12.93 GiB (2.9%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: KIOXIA model: EXCERIA SATA SSD
    size: 447.13 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 18.3 scheme: GPT
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: HL-DT-ST model: DVDRAM GT80N rev: LT21
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 367.91 GiB size: 361.07 GiB (98.14%)
    used: 12.93 GiB (3.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 label: N/A
    uuid: a3368eb3-b172-4b26-bb85-4c1a5e41bd75
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 size: 100 MiB fs: vfat label: N/A
    uuid: 72F2-EAED
  ID-2: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 size: 16 MiB fs: <superuser required>
    label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-3: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 size: 79.1 GiB fs: ntfs label: N/A
    uuid: F48CF4328CF3ECCC
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 8087:0024
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 8087:0024
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-1.6:3 info: Bison Integrated Camera type: video
    driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 200mA chip-ID: 5986:02d5 class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 3792
Info:
  Processes: 198 Uptime: 32m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 254
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 clang: 16.0.6
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1134 libs: 348 tools: pamac pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  Shell: Bash v: 5.2.15 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.31

Great hardware - should run just great with any Linux…

Please do update the firmware - the latest firmware is v2.82 - your system is v2.61.

The firmware update either requires a bootable CD or Windows.

In case you do not have Windows - use Hirens Boot CD written to an USB device.

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

It seems you have an ESP (partition /dev/sda1) but it’s not mounted. Your disk is parted in gpt, nevertheless, did you install/boot in BIOS mode possibly? What is on /dev/sda2? Is this a BIOS_grub partion containing grub’s core.img, eventually?

did you install/boot in BIOS mode possibly?

I installed in UEFI mode

What is on /dev/sda2? Is this a BIOS_grub partion containing grub’s core.img, eventually?

When I used fdisk -l it says it’s Windows reserved

type or paste codeDisk /dev/sda: 447,13 GiB, 480103981056 bytes, 937703088 sectors
Disk model: KIOXIA-EXCERIA S
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 99C77706-8D66-4664-BE33-BDB1084FF587

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048    206847    204800   100M EFI System
/dev/sda2     206848    239615     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3     239616 166130179 165890564  79,1G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  166130181 937700271 771570091 367,9G EFI System
 here

What is the output of

test -d /sys/firmware/efi && echo efi || echo bios
2 Likes

Output is bios

Then you have your answer, you didn’t install in UEFI mode.

2 Likes

Ok, I try to switch from BIOS to UEFI with this guide UEFI - Install Guide - Manjaro
but I get something like this

sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=manjaro --recheck
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
EFI variables are not supported on this system.
grub-install: error: efibootmgr failed to register the boot entry: No such file or directory.
ode here

And sudo modprobe efivarfs doesn’t help. I’m not sure what to do now.

What was the OUTPUT of sudo modprobe efivars? It doesn’t help to just say it doesn’t help.

Try the command;

sudo modprobe efivars

… and then repeat the procedure outlined in the UEFI Install Guide.