I want to install Fedora 44 on my Dell XPS 13 laptop, which runs on Snapdragon X Elite. After all, it was advertised as having better Snapdragon compatibility.
Before scolding me: I read through all the countless troubleshooting guides, ARM64 installation wiki by Hans de Goede, I plagued Gemini & Co., etc.
But all troubleshooting instructions always start with editing the grub parameters.
But on my Dell XPS, there is never a Grub menu when I boot from the USB. You select the USB to boot from, the screen goes blank instantly for a few seconds, then the laptop reboots.
I even went so far to edit an iso, change its grub.cfg with the proposed additions, put the dtb file into the iso, too. But still no luck. I never ever reach the Grub menu. The laptop always reboots instantly after ca. five seconds.
Is there anything I’m missing?
Note: I tried the latest Ubuntu, too. It boots and runs on it just fine.
I tried both the aarch iso and the raw image, and back when F44 was in Beta, I tried the nightlies as well. I tried both Workstation and KDE. And since Kinoite (Aurora, for that matter) is my daily driver on one of my desktops, I gave its Arm64 image a shot as well, despite not being the best idea for Arm64, from what I’ve read so far.
In case you’re asking: I downloaded them directly, used Fedora Media Writer, used Balena Etcher, Rufus, you name it. Also used the FMW integrated download feature. Tried several different USB drives. Left USB port and right USB port. Not a single difference.
In case that’s another question: I ran the BIOS up and down, from everything on to everything off. Secure Boot on, off, deployed mode, audit mode, all security sub-options, in any particular order. Manually pointing to any of the boot files on the USB.
…no difference.
And Ubuntu boots on this same tin without any issues…
I’m at a loss then - you’ve covered off everything I was going to suggest and then some.
Personally, I’d just run with Ubuntu for the time being and occasionally try a Fedora image when it’s updated - life is too short to dick about to this level with firmware, EFI files and all the stuff you’ve just spent time fiddling with.
You’d be absolutely right with that. However, being in tech/sci/IT support, I guess I’m just too ambitious for that. Things like this just bug me a lot.
During the last year, I installed dozens of different distros about a gazillion times, finding my way back into Linux after a long hiatus. Nothing I couldn’t resolve along the way. This, though…
Ubuntu is no option for me. It drains the battery a lot, and the other day I came to my desk late at night, finding the XPS glowing red hot because Ubuntu messed up the shutdown cycle and went crashing at the end, going full throttle without me noticing.
Inspired by the last comment, I tried a different approach. You can follow me through here. I’m going to keep it brief.
Since Ubuntu runs on my external SSD, I created a separate partition on it and moved Fedora44’s ARM64 live raw image into it.
Then I went and created a custom menuentry in Ubuntu’s Grub that points to this live image - et voila, it booted!
So I went to my onboard SSD, created a new partition next to Windows, and installed Fedora. Successfully finished the installer. But then came the next puzzle…
Well… Booting into the properly installed Fedora after the installation didn’t work. Again, just like with the original post regarding the live media boot failure - while I DO reach Fedora’s native Grub, booting will result in another reboot after a few seconds. Difference now, though, is that I do see the Fedora boot logo for a few seconds before it reboots.
Being stuck once again, I went back to the external Ubuntu SSD, created another custom menuentry that points to the installed Fedora on the XPS’s disk… AND IT BOOTS!
I just don’t get why it boots from the external Ubuntu Grub, while it doesn’t boot from its own Grub. Of course I went and checked all file/folder paths, the additional options in the linux line were already there from the start, the dtbs are in the right place - but no success.
So I copied the contents of my Ubuntu custom menuentry for the installed Fedora into a custom entry in Fedora’s Grub, but it also fails.
I don’t know where this is going, but now that I’m 95% there, I don’t want to give up.
Any ideas anyone?
Valid question. Of course I did.