Important to note - it works when I don’t use UEFI, so that’s definitely the problem.
On the 5. step of creating a VM I check the “Customise Installation before install”.
Then in the “Overview” tab, under the Hypervisor details I change the firmware to UEFI.
I start the VM, I see the GRUB menu, press enter and - black screen, nothing happens. I waited a couple of minutes to see if it’s maybe loading or something - but nope, nothing happens.
I saw in an forum somewhere that you need to make sure that the chipset is Q35, and it is, so that’s not the cause either.
I’m a newbie, but I like exploring different things that Linux can do. I saw that you can install a linux on a USB from within a Virtual Machine running a live ISO.
So I’d like to learn that.
( I’ve tried Virtual Box, but it freezes the whole host OS when I turn on USB support. I’ve tried
the USB 1.1 fix, still halts the system, tried downgrading as well but that gave rise to other
problems so I gave up. Also I don’t recall seeing an UEFI option there anyway.
Gnome Boxes doesn’t have EFI option. VMware doesn’t either if I recall correctly, though I’ve
been trudging through forums and different VM software for a while, so maybe I’ve missed
something because of jumbles of information I’ve read and tried. )
Why do I need it?
Because the Linux I chose to install on the USB doesn’t display an option to create an EFI partition if it’s not booted through EFI or whatever the correct phrasing is.
I apologise if it’s something obvious, but there’s no “Newbie Corner” category so I have no choice but to post it here. And I’m posting cause googling didn’t yield results, or I haven’t been able to find it.
I’ve searched the Arch forum as well.
How do you know this?
Have you tried to write an USB and boot up your physical machine in UEFI mode,
just to verify that it actually works on physical hardware?
… maybe someone has used this distro and knows - but as of now, no one knows what that distro is …
and, this should be first:
verify that you can create a working VM in UEFI mode
using another iso, for instance, the Manjaro ISO, to boot it from
The distro is Linux Lite, it’s based on Ubuntu 20.04.
Yeah, I did test it the classical way, booted from the USB and when I got to the partitioning part of the installation I had the option of creating an EFI partition.
As for trying to boot another ISO/Linux, sound like a good idea, I’ll try that.
In a day or 2 though, I’m short on time atm.
Hahahah good old Debian. Distros based on it never worked on either of my laptops, even though they’re different brands. Not even in VMs apparently.
Just tried Endeavour OS since it’s based on Arch. Worked immediately without a hitch, UEFI and all.
I’ll just install Manjaro Minimal on the USB.
PS This reminded me how I tried Linux several times over the years only to get frustrated again and again, w/ Debian distros the laptops would shutdown with a loud clang from the hard drive and after I got that to work I remember having to go to forums time and time again to get other things working and starting to sweat from the strain of reading and trying this and reading and trying that over several hours and days. Over the years, I believe I tried 16.04, 18.04 and 20.04 Ubuntu. After each of them I went back to Windows.
I think I even developed a little visceral reaction to the Ubuntu logo because of the…ordeals O.O
Fedora worked but AUR was just way too good.
After I installed Manjaro, like a year ago, I was amazed.
I literally googled because of something that was wrong twice and that was it. Everything worked. I was overjoyed.
(I tried Manjaro 'cause Anthony from Linus Tech Tips recommended it btw.)
Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I’ll stay away from anything Debian for a while.
Until I feel like that’s the next thing I want to tinker with
