Unable to live boot Solus
 

I have been live-booting different Linux OS's to see which one I like best and works best on my computer (a Vista-era Dell with 6 GB RAM and 600GB of storage). I have live-booted Elemetary, Mint, several flavors of Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Antergos, Manjaro, and Korora.

I have heard many great things about Solus, and seeing how it is the rising star of Distrowatch, and how its Budgie desktop is one of the only ones not to have screen tearing, I am eager to give it a spin.

But wouldn't you know, its the one distro that just won't live boot on my computer. I tried setting up the USB with Rufus as a DD image as the Solus website suggests. I even went back and tried it as an ISO image, as I do with all the other distros. But Solus just won't boot up. After the Solus logo countdown page, the screen goes black, and "Unable to get SMM Dell signature" pops up briefly in text, then back to black with a flashing curser. And there it just stays.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me to try before I move on and cross Solus off my list? Thanks for your help in advance.

noobmoron,

What model of Dell are you using?

I have installed Solus MATE via DVD and USB drive (using dd or Rufus) on various PCs/laptops and all worked without any problem.

It could possibly be a Dell bug:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=244640

The Solus Forums may also be able to assist:
https://solus-project.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=3

Don't cross off Solus just yet. It is a nice Linux OS.

It's a Dell Inspiron 530, Intel Core 2 Quad.
I'll check out those links. Thanks.

noobmoron,

I have just had a thought.

I think that your Dell 530 may only only capable of running a 32 bit OS.(INCORRECT).

Solus is now 64 bit only.


EDIT:
The Intel Q6600 is a 64 bit CPU:
https://ark.intel.com/products/29765...z-1066-MHz-FSB

Yes, it is 64 bit. I found that Solus does not support Secure Boot
https://www.reddit.com/r/SolusProjec...fi_and_kernel/

But I don't think my computer has secure boot. I think that didn't start until Windows 7 or 8.

noobmoron,

Your Dell 530 definitely does not have Secure Boot.

Seems it has a history of being a problem.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...module-361367/

I wasn't aware of what an SMM signature was until I found this
http://wiki.phoenix.com/wiki/index.p...M_SYSTEM_TABLE

So, it looks like Solus for some reason has trouble with your version of UEFI or your uefi has trouble with that version of Solus. Not a solution, but perhaps a start towards finding one. Perhaps a simpler answer would be to try Budgie with something else, like Ubuntu Budgie or even Archman.

move on ... plently of other stuff to check out... and desktops can be installed on any Linux/GNU distro by the hand of the user.

Yes, I think I will be moving on for now. Maybe in 6 months or so I may circle back around to Solus. I did try Ubuntu Budgie and I really liked it. In theory I really like the idea of a rolling release, so where I'm at now, I think I will roll the dice on PCLinuxOS and dual boot it on my hardrive with Windows. Should it not work out, or not be as stable as I would like it to be, or I'm just not experienced enough to maintain it properly, then I think Ubuntu Budgie will be my back up choice. And like I said, in 6 months or so, maybe I'll give Solus another try... see if they fixed the issue by then.

Void Linux is a rolling release. it is a decent enough Distro Original built their are a few in here that run it too. I use too but Slack is my main OS. It has Budgie too I just checked there repo
https://www.voidlinux.eu/packages/

Just a quick update. I installed PCLinuxOS (KDE Plasma) on my computer, dual booting it with Vista. So far I really like it, and have only had one problem- after a kernel upgrade, I've been getting some video glitches: within the first 2 days after the upgrade, the monitor would occasionally go black except for the cursor and plank. That hasn't happened since then, but at random times I will only get audio when I play video files. But I did discover a solution for the Solus problem thanks to this quick video: https://youtu.be/UHyravdf2Qk

For anyone else having problems live booting Solus,
1. When you see "Automatic boot in x seconds..." press up/down arrows to get menu.
2. Press Tab while "Start Solus" is selected
3. On line that appears delete "--" and replace with "nomodeset".

Doing this, I was finally able to live boot Solus. But I will be sticking with PCLOS for the foreseeable future.