When I try to boot up my laptop I have to try booting many times before it finally boots

[stuche]

Hello. I am not a developer nor very much code savvy, but i do like to probe into new things and such. I have been with Mint, Manjaro, and now trying out Xfce. I purchased the DVD on eBay from someone. It looked like it was loading up properly, but I have to turn on my laptop a couple of times before it finally catches the root and boots. I ma using the Dell Lattitude E5550 with 16gbof ram. It appeared as if everything was going as it should when loading the DVD in the external DVD player. I’ve been this way for awhile now and over time it starts to wear you down. Was I supposed to do something in bios? Thanks

[andreas85]

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[Teo]

On the first glance i would say dying hard drive or corrupted bootloader, but it would be really helpful to provide the logs from the failed boots.
And it will be nice to describe exactly what you do. Are you selecting the option to boot from hdd in the dvd menu or what?

[Mirdarthos]

Hi @stuche, and welcome!

In addition to the info requested by @andreas85, logs would go a long way to diagnosing the problem. So, please provide the output of:

journalctl --priority=warning..crit --no-pager --boot=-1

Where:

• The --priority=warning..err argument limits the output to warnings and errors only;
• and the --no-pager formats the output nicely for use here, on the forum;
• the --boot=-1 argument limits the output to log messages from the previous boot. This can be adjusted to -2 for the boot before that, -3 to the boot before that, and so on and so forth. Please adjust this to reflect a failed boot attempt.

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@Fabby

On this forum here you need to have Trust Level 1 (=TL1) to be able to post screenshots and links in-line.

That’s dumb! Why is that?

Well, that’s because on our old forum we got tons of screenshots of text, links to SPAM, PR0N and other things you don’t want on a forum, so all the new users are prohibited from posting links and pics because of a few bad actors.

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LC_ALL=C bluetoothctl

This will just cause the terminal output to be in English, making it easier to understand and debug.

[Nachlese]

@stuche

I purchased the DVD on eBay from someone.

In that case I think it is reasonable to assume that the OS on that DVD is not very recent -
which will almost certainly create problems immediately after you managed to install from it.

If you have some USB thumb drive I’d suggest to boot either this DVD - or one of the other Linux install media you may have - or perhaps you even have a working Linux installation that you can boot into?

Then download the newest Manjaro Xfce iso and use the thumb drive to create a bootable medium.
Then boot from this.
It would also be faster to boot and install from than using a DVD.

@stuche

I’ve been this way for awhile now and over time it starts to wear you down.

The medium is supposed to be booted up and then used to install the OS to a hard drive.
… booting it once should be enough - after that it is not needed anymore

[soundofthunder]

@stuche

Hello. I am not a developer nor very much code savvy, but i do like to probe into new things and such. I have been with Mint, Manjaro, and now trying out Xfce. I purchased the DVD on eBay from someone. It looked like it was loading up properly, but I have to turn on my laptop a couple of times before it finally catches the root and boots. I ma using the Dell Lattitude E5550 with 16gbof ram. It appeared as if everything was going as it should when loading the DVD in the external DVD player. I’ve been this way for awhile now and over time it starts to wear you down. Was I supposed to do something in bios? Thanks

Hi @stuche and welcome to the Manjaro community.

If I am understanding your blob of text correctly, you bought a copy of Manjaro XFCE from some random eBay user, and it’s not booting as you expected…

If that’s correct, I’m afraid that’s a whole box of wrong!

Manjaro is a free OS - you should never have paid for it. Instead, you simply needed to download the ISO file directly from the Manjaro site (did I mention it’s free?). The link to the Downloads is on the sidebar (to the left), but here it is again:

• Manjaro Downloads

If the DVD you bought really is a legitimate copy of a Manjaro distribution, there’s no telling when the DVD was actually created, or by who. My suggestion would be to add that DVD to your drink coaster collection, and download the latest ISO from the above link. Burn it to a blank DVD; or use Rufus to write it to a USB.

You could also use a Ventoy USB; simply copy/drag the ISO to that instead, and boot with a Ventoy USB. This is my preferred method.

One thing to keep in mind when installing Manjaro is that it works best if the HDD/SDD has been properly erased first, no that no other partitions remain.

@stuche

Was I supposed to do something in bios?

• The BIOS must be set to boot only in UEFI mode – Not CRM or Legacy mode.
• The Installer DVD/USB must also boot in UEFI mode.

Those are the main points, regarding your BIOS; apart from making sure you have the latest BIOS/firmware updates for it.

I hope this helps. Cheers.

[fbt89]

I’ve started to have this problem on my HP laptop. It is infrequent but what is happening is that it doesn’t shut down. I then get confused when I turn it on but it doesn’t come on. I just figured this out this morning, where previously the battery would de-charge because it was on and I didn’t know it. I’m thinking it’s hardware.

[Nachlese]

@fbt89

I’ve started to have this problem on my HP laptop

You did?
You tried to boot from a DVD?

no?

If you need help:
create your own thread, please.

[Yochanan]

Please do not hijack someone else’s thread. Since we have not yet heard back from the person who created the thread, we still have no details about the actual problem. It’s highly doubtful you are both experiencing the same issue.

@Nachlese

create your own thread, please.

[fbt89]

I was trying to help, not very well it turns out. I’m sorry it caused you all any concern.