Unable to boot into fresh installation

[Storm_AT]

Hi all,

I have previously used Garuda on my desktop PC and recently bought myself a laptop, which has successfully booted into the live environment, installed the OS and prompted me to restart. Upon restarting, I now get stuck at "Loading initial ramdisk"...
(USB contained an ISO of KDE Dr460nized Gaming Edition downloaded today)

I am able to see the garuda-inxi output if I boot into rescue, but I am not sure how to get that output into a forum post without the desktop environment. (I tried termbin but it seems there is no internet connection as it cannot resolve the host)

In the absence of the output, here are the basic specs for now:

Intel Core i7-11800H (16) @ 4.6GHz
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile
Intel TigerLake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics]

Please let me know if any past issues immediately come to mind for those specs, or how I can go forward with grabbing some more useful diagnostic info.

Thank you
-Storm_AT

[Storm_AT]

Not sure if this helps as it isn't within the install itself, but here is a garuda-inxi output from booting back into the live USB environment:

System:
  Kernel: 6.0.2-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-x86_64 lang=en_US keytable=us tz=UTC
    misobasedir=garuda misolabel=GARUDA_DR460NIZEDGAMING_TALON quiet
    systemd.show_status=1 ibt=off driver=nonfree nouveau.modeset=0
    i915.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.26.1 tk: Qt v: 5.15.6 info: latte-dock
    wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: ASUS TUF Gaming F15 FX506HM_FX506HM
    v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: FX506HM v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: FX506HM.309 date: 10/05/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 87.7 Wh (98.1%) condition: 89.4/90.2 Wh (99.1%)
    volts: 17.6 min: 15.9 model: ASUS A32-K55 type: Li-ion serial: N/A
    status: charging
  Device-1: sony_controller_battery_00:01:6c:bc:e9:bc model: N/A
    serial: N/A charge: N/A status: full
CPU:
  Info: model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Tiger Lake gen: core 11 level: v4 note: check built: 2020
    process: Intel 10nm family: 6 model-id: 0x8D (141) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x40
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 8 tpc: 2 threads: 16 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 640 KiB desc: d-8x48 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 10 MiB desc: 8x1.2 MiB
    L3: 24 MiB desc: 1x24 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2284 high: 3399 min/max: 800/4600 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: performance cores: 1: 2300 2: 2300 3: 3399
    4: 2300 5: 2452 6: 2300 7: 2300 8: 2300 9: 2300 10: 2300 11: 2300
    12: 2300 13: 2300 14: 2300 15: 801 16: 2300 bogomips: 73728
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed 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: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB
    filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-12.1 process: Intel 10nm built: 2020-21 ports:
    active: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:9a60 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: nvidia v: 520.56.06 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 515.xx+
    status: current (as of 2022-10) arch: Ampere code: GAxxx process: TSMC n7
    (7nm) built: 2020-22 bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2520
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Sonix USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 3-7:4 chip-ID: 322e:202c class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
    unloaded: nouveau alternate: fbdev,intel,nv,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x285mm (40.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 1055mm (41.54")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 pos: right model: AOC 24G2W1G4
    serial: <filter> built: 2021 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 93 gamma: 1.2
    size: 527x296mm (20.75x11.65") diag: 604mm (23.8") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: primary,left model: Najing CEC Panda 0x004d
    built: 2019 res: 1920x1080 hz: 144 dpi: 142 gamma: 1.2
    size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1920x1080
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (TGL GT1) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.1
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-H HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:43c8 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228e
    class-ID: 0403
  Sound API: ALSA v: k6.0.2-zen1-1-zen running: yes
  Sound Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: no
  Sound Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.59 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: AzureWave driver: mt7921e v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:2d:00.0
    chip-ID: 14c3:7961 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp45s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 0000:2e:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp46s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: IMC Networks Wireless_Device type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 3-14:6 chip-ID: 13d3:3563 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter>
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
    v: 0.6 port: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a0b rev:
    class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 484.26 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Intel model: SSDPEKNU512GZ
    size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 002C
    temp: 33.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: Kingston
    model: DataTraveler 3.0 size: 7.32 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: PMAP scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 15.37 GiB used: 1.77 GiB (11.5%)
    priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2400
Info:
  Processes: 312 Uptime: 6m wakeups: 2 Memory: 15.37 GiB used: 4.57 GiB
  (29.7%) Init: systemd v: 251 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1866 libs: 515
  tools: octopi,paru Shell: fish v: 3.5.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.16
  running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.22
e[1;34mGaruda (2.6.8-1):e[0m
e[1;34m  System install date:e[0m     2022-11-14
e[1;34m  Last full system update:e[0m 2022-11-14 e[1;31m↻
e[1;34m  Is partially upgraded:  e[0m No
e[1;34m  Relevant software:      e[0m NetworkManager
e[1;34m  Windows dual boot:      e[0m <superuser required>
e[1;34m  Snapshots:              e[0m Snapper
e[1;34m  Failed units:           e[0m 

[SGS]

Did you use non-free drivers?
Dual GPU needs some special drivers, like prime, IDK ?.

[Storm_AT]

Hi SGS,

I selected the option to allow proprietary drivers in the live USB's boot menu before installing, but other than that, I haven't touched anything driver-related yet. Just clicked "Install Garuda Linux" and followed the installer.

Thank you,
-Storm_AT

[SGS]

Then try the free driver, install needed ones later.

[Storm_AT]

Just reinstalled with open source and was able to successfully boot into the newly installed system. However, after being prompted to install the additional non-free drivers, and doing so, I'm unable to boot again.

Instead of getting stuck at "Loading initial ramdisk...", I have a grey screen full of more text that I'm not entirely sure how to show to you without a picture. After a minute or so, this goes away and just leaves a black screen with a frozen "_". (other tty not accessible, complete lockup unfortunately)

[BluishHumility]

Maybe you´ll have better luck with a different kernel; try installing some other kernels along with the proprietary drivers.

LTS and mainline are good to test.

sudo pacman -Syu linux-lts linux-lts-headers linux-mainline linux-mainline-headers

On the Grub boot menu, choose advanced options and boot with a different kernel.

[Storm_AT]

How can I get a command line to install these kernels?

I just booted from the live USB twice to reinstall and get the kernels before installing nvidia drivers, but now even that gets stuck here and I can't install the OS again:

[filo]

Try to switch to a text console with CTRL+ALT+F2.
If not working, you can boot to a text console: when you are in the grub line that you use, press button E go at the end of the line starting with linux and add a 3 at the end (with a space before...), then CTRL+x

[Storm_AT]

Nevermind, it just took a lot longer than usual and went through despite being frozen. The live environment is really struggling tho, will try to install again but it keeps freezing every click

[Storm_AT]

Other tty definitely weren't working, so I will try this now rather than reinstalling the OS, thanks.

[Storm_AT]

Good news!

linux-mainline doesn't work and gives the same outcome, but linux-lts and linux-xanmod (the kernel I was planning to install/use anyway) work perfectly fine, boot past the grey screen and let me log in.

One thing I noticed though is that optimus manager is missing. Is optimus even preinstalled anymore, or has some kind of new solution emerged? (it's been a while, sorry)

[filo]

Switching between integrated and dedicated graphics

[Storm_AT]

That sounds a whole lot better than the system entirely relying on the 3060, thank you <3