Solved Simply Linux 10 on MSI B350 PC MATE - live USB doesn't boot, shows "grub>" command prompt

[damix9]

I used dd to burn bootable USB stick. Then in BIOS in "Boot Override" menu selected "UEFI: USB DISK 2.0 PMAP, Partition 1", and got this

$ lsblk -o NAME,RM,SIZE,RO,RM,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL,PARTFLAGS,FSTYPE
NAME   RM   SIZE RO RM TYPE MOUNTPOINT LABEL                    PARTFLAGS FSTYPE
sda     0 931,5G  0  0 disk                                              
└─sda1  0 931,5G  0  0 part /mnt/hdd                                      ext4
sdb     0 447,1G  0  0 disk                                              
├─sdb1  0    94M  0  0 part /boot/efi                                     vfat
├─sdb2  0    32G  0  0 part /                                             ext4
├─sdb3  0     8G  0  0 part [SWAP]                                        swap
├─sdb4  0 342,7G  0  0 part /home                                         ext4
└─sdb5  0  63,4G  0  0 part /opt                                          ext4
sdc     1  14,5G  0  1 disk                                              
└─sdc1  1  14,5G  0  1 part            Simply Linux 10.2 x86_64           iso9660
$ inxi -M
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B350 PC MATE (MS-7A34) v: 2.0 serial: N/A
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: A.J0 date: 01/23/2019

UPD
Solution

 

[damix9]

pv slinux-10.2-x86_64.iso | dd oflag=direct of=/dev/sdc bs=1M;sync

This is how I created installation USB stick.

 

[osprey]

pv slinux-10.2-x86_64.iso | dd oflag=direct of=/dev/sdc bs=1M;sync

This is how I created installation USB stick.

The suggested command for writing the iso to usb from

Dd - ALT Linux Wiki

en.altlinux.org

from where slinux originates, is:

dd if=bootable.iso of=/dev/sdx

It comments:

replace the name bootable.iso with the name of the ISO you downloaded from the ALT repository AND change sdx to the sd device

That suggested dd command, is more regularly used that the one mentioned in post #2. Some times it has options added to the end of it like: bs=4M. The manpage has more if one wants to use them.

Did you verify the iso download with the checksums?
The web site here:

Starterkits - ALT Linux Wiki

en.altlinux.org

suggests:

If an image looks broken verify its checksum against MD5SUMS

A quick search through the repo there showed mdsums at:

Index of /stable/x86_64/release/

but you have to find the correct ones for the iso you are working with but I can't say where they are.

On the issue of the grub prompt:

grub>

you can work with it according to some steps outlined here:

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/classic-sysadmin-how-to-rescue-a-non-booting-grub-2-on-linux.

The problem with having landed in a grub prompt is that grub has found an error in its implementation on the system. If, by chance, one is able to use the grub prompt and actually boot the system, then one ought to update grub as soon as that is possible so that grub may amend its configuration and work as intended thereafter. If all that fails, one usually needs to re-install grub.

 

[Trenix25]

You might mount that newly created bootable flash drive and check /boot/grub/grub.cfg to see what it's trying to do.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell

 

[Egzoset]

If all that fails...

I all fails i just move 'rEFInd' up at the top of my boot order. And if all fails again i discard the defective system by reclaiming its whole partition so to install yet another Linux that works... But to do that one needs to have UEFi available and enabled, of course.

 

[damix9]

pv slinux-10.2-x86_64.iso | dd oflag=direct of=/dev/sdc bs=1M;sync

This is how I created installation USB stick.

Sorry, I was wrong. This was the correct command. If you use it, you'll get successfully bootable liveUSB. First time I used just dd without oflag=direct.

dd if=bootable.iso of=/dev/sdx

Like this. And it didn't work. Hope this info will help someone.

Did you verify the iso download with the checksums?

Yes, MD5 matched.

 

[bob466]

Why don't you just use Etcher.

 

[damix9]

Why don't you just use Etcher.

I don't know, I just didn't want to install any software on the distro I was going to delete. So I decided to use dd.