[Install media] Black screen at boot

User Support
1

Hi,

I copied the qubes4.0.3 iso to a 16Gb Sandisk USB drive and when I boot from the USB drive I see some console text for 2 seconds and then the screen goes black and get stuck there.

Specs :
Custom build PC
motherboard : ASUS x470 PRIME
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Graphic card EVGA GTX 1060
RAM : 16GB

I use Fedora 31.
This thread is pretty much a continuation of this reddit thread I started.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Qubes/comments/kgdpsz/install_media_black_screen_at_boot_cant_edit/

I’m desperate to find a solution. I tried many thing like editing bootx64.cfg and accessing to grub(I cannot).

So I followed all the official installation guide, installed key and verified signatures. I used this command to copy the iso on the USB drive.

sudo dd if=Qubes-R4.0.3-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdY status=progress bs=1048576 && sync

So after some reading on github I found that I have to edit BOOTX64.cfg, but it’s read only.

chmod -rw does not works, I tried the method in the guide https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/.

parted Qubes-R4.0-rc4-x86_64.iso unit B print

and

sudo losetup -o 524288 --sizelimit 30562304 /dev/loop0 Qubes-R4.0-rc4x86_64.iso

I tried that manners , I tried to edit the file with xed, but it still says it’s read only file system.

I have no idea what to do now.

Hope you got ideas.

Thank you for reading.

2

First thoughts 16GB is quite small. Second thoughts, could be the GPU. What model is your PC/Laptop? How much RAM? Can you plug the USB into another standard machine with no GPU to see if it works?

3

Its a custom build PC with 16 GB RAM, no model.

I already checked solutions for GPU problems, nothing helped me. They all implies to access GRUB, which I cannot access since I get nothing but a black screen. Holding ETC or SHIFT or TAB does not make GRUB menu appears.
Editing bootx64 or grub or anything inside the Qubes ISO is also unsuccessful, only give blackscreen.

I don’t have any machine with no GPU.

4

Qubes is very fussy wrt hardware. I’m not technical enough to know how to get around these issues, but they are very common.

5

I managed to install Qubes OS, but trough a virtualmachine. I did not found a solution for the USB boot problem.

6

A note on this: on the hardware requirements it says there the following:

:warning: Note: Qubes OS is not meant to be installed inside a virtual machine as a guest hypervisor. In other words, nested virtualization is not supported. In order for a strict compartmentalization to be enforced, Qubes OS needs to be able to manage the hardware directly.

Read more:

7

I did not install QubesOS inside a virtual machine, but through a virtual machine. Instead of using a virtual disk, I created a fake vitrual disk with this command :

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "C:Users<user_name>VirtualBox VMs<VM_folder_name><file_name>.vmdk" -rawdisk .PhysicalDrive#

Where # is the drive wanted. I lunched the iso as a media and during installation, Qubes OS detected the empty free space on my disk and I choose the auto setup for mounting point. It worked perfectly. Now I have a independent QubesOS on its own crypted partition. Qubes is not running inside a virtual machine it was just for installation to disk. A nice trick.

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#rawdisk

8

Oh, I see. That makes sense. Apologies for the misinterpretation. And thanks for the tech tip!

9

What configuration did you use in Virtual Box: paravirtualization etc.? I’m trying this route and also tested with Hyper V but in both cases the installer runs into page fault issues and breaks earlier even than the black screen.

10

I used default paravertualization. Be sure to enable VT-x or AMD-V and IOMMU ins your BIOS setting.

here is picture of my config.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/198ErRpF3JD3_JI-Kh5ANzUj_r4_8nGP0?usp=sharing

11

Thanks for the input! I’ve fiddled around with these settings but unfortunately I’ve realized the problem is probably due to my Ryzen 4900 which only has experimental support:

I’ll probably need to wait for Qubes 4.1 and try it once it arrives.