Dear Maintainer,

I'm attempting to setup Debian on a Dell Inspiron All-in-One system, either as dual boot or replacing the existing windows 10 OS.

The installer hangs after entering either the "graphical install", "install" or "live" options from the initial menu. I used the latest 64-bit installer: debian-11.7.0-amd64-netinst.iso, burned onto a USB drive using the dd command:

sudo dd if=/debian-11.7.0-amd64-netinst.iso of=/dev/sda
Here's a picture of the initial menu, and the hang:

Initial menu:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/2IVCf.jpg

Hang:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/z0iTB.jpg

I've tried to disable most or all of the UEFI secure boot options on the BIOS and also the RAID/storage related settings:

Boot Configuration (1/3). Legacy Mode not supported??
https://i.stack.imgur.com/coiev.jpg

Boot Configuration (2/3)
https://i.stack.imgur.com/BAGWU.jpg

Boot Configuration (3/3)
https://i.stack.imgur.com/Pjbpz.jpg

Storage/RAID Configuration Storage/RAID Configuration
https://i.stack.imgur.com/63Deb.jpg

I just noticed the "Legacy Mode not supported" note in the BIOS,
which I suspect may be to blame.

Is it possible to install Debian on this type of system?

Hi Ernesto,

Ernesto Alfonso <erjoalgo@gmail.com> (2023-05-13):

OK, all of that looks good to me. You could try and replace “quiet” with
“debug” on any entry to see if you're getting some error messages.

That really shouldn't be needed, we've been supporting Secure Boot for a
while. And yes, it's starting to be rather common for systems to come
without any support for BIOS/Legacy booting (and I kind of like the way
some hardware manufacturers are up-front about it, with a clear message
in their UEFI firmware interface).

At this stage, I'd suggest giving Bookworm a shot, e.g. using the D-I
Bookworm RC 2 installer. Or wait a few hours (maybe days), at which
point an RC 3 should become available.

https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/


Cheers,

Thanks for following up. I tried the bookworm netinstall and the PXE boot,
but the install failed in the same way:

https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-amd64/current/images/SHA256SUMS

I used the netbot.tar.gz as well as the USB

b41d766e5389b4e35bac3a664da84822e0990439c9c4df933ddbaff6847a0009
./netboot/netboot.tar.gz


I managed to get the PXE netboot to work using DHCPD and AFTPD. I modified
the splash.png to be a black 640x480 PNG file and also updated grub.cfg to
replace --- quiet with --debug.

I was able to boot into grub and then I issued the commands based on the
"Expert install" menu entry:

    linux /debian-installer/amd64/linux --- debug
    initrd /debian-installer/amd64/initrd.gz
    boot

After issuing boot, the installer hanged indefinitely with no output.
Here's a 1m video of this after pressing Enter on boot:

https://downloads.erjoalgo.com/WhatsApp%20Video%202023-06-14%20at%208.42.41%20PM.mp4

Is there a way to get more verbose output to figure out what is hanging
boot?

I also want to add that I tried an Ubuntu image and this booted properly:
https://pasteboard.co/9Awz7Io3kEVG.jpg

Thanks again,

Ernesto

Thanks for following up. I tried the bookworm netinstall and the PXE boot,
but the install failed in the same way:

https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-amd64/current/images/SHA256SUMS

I used the netbot.tar.gz as well as the USB

b41d766e5389b4e35bac3a664da84822e0990439c9c4df933ddbaff6847a0009
./netboot/netboot.tar.gz


I managed to get the PXE netboot to work using DHCPD and AFTPD. I modified
the splash.png to be a black 640x480 PNG file and also updated grub.cfg to
replace --- quiet with --debug.

I was able to boot into grub and then I issued the commands based on the
"Expert install" menu entry:

    linux /debian-installer/amd64/linux --- debug
    initrd /debian-installer/amd64/initrd.gz
    boot

After issuing boot, the installer hanged indefinitely with no output.
Here's a 1m video of this after pressing Enter on boot:

https://downloads.erjoalgo.com/WhatsApp%20Video%202023-06-14%20at%208.42.41%20PM.mp4

Is there a way to get more verbose output to figure out what is hanging
boot?

I also want to add that I tried an Ubuntu image and this booted properly:
https://pasteboard.co/9Awz7Io3kEVG.jpg

Thanks again,

Ernesto