I’m trying to install the latest Fedora Workstation on my laptop, which has an Intel Ultra 5 CPU and an integrated graphics card.
However, I’m stuck at the installation screen, where only a black screen with a “_” in the top left corner appears.
I posted about this issue earlier this year when trying to install Fedora 40 (link to discussion). Someone replied that the kernel might not be compatible with my laptop for installing Fedora 40/
So, I waited for Fedora 41 and tried again using Ventoy’s GRUB2 mode to install Fedora 41, I tried Fedora basic graphical mode, but it still doesn’t work.
Could anyone help me figure out what’s causing this issue? I find it hard to believe that installing the latest version of Fedora would still lead to the same kernel problem. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Additionally, I would also like to know how to submit this issue to the Fedora development team so they can address it in the next version.
===
I can install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS successfully on my laptop.
Maybe linux users with the same model have found a solution on another distro. Linux developers tend to use the high-end models from vendors that support linux, so it is often up to users to sort out issues with hardware the developers don’t use.
You can compare details between your system and the successful installs in the LHDB for the Ultra 7 CPU model with Meteor Lake-P [Intel Graphics] PCIID 8086:7d55:1d72:2307 using the i915 driver which I gather works for you in the installer. There are 19 LHDB probes for this graphics hardware.
Use the LHDB to compare BIOS versions and other details for your system and systems that work.
Try using the grub2 editor to remove the rhgb quiet in order to see messages while booting.
Try using the grub2 editor to add <space>3 to end of the kernel command line to boot to a text console.
Thanks, Vlasislav and George. I’ll try each of your suggestions one by one and list the results here. This is also a great opportunity for me to learn how to troubleshoot these kinds of problems.
Use the LHDB to compare BIOS versions and other details for your system and systems that work.
I got my bios version using the command line below. I contacted several users who successfully installed Fedora on their Ultra 7 laptops. They told me they did not encounter any issues during installation with the default boot settings, meaning they did not need to edit GRUB.
I found from the laptop brand official website, I can only download this bios RMAMT4B0P0A0A
Should I install the Ultra 7 laptop BIOS? I’m not sure if it is compatible with my laptop.
[yulijia@ubuntu ~]$ sudo dmidecode -t bios
[sudo] password for yulijia:
# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.6 present.
# SMBIOS implementations newer than version 3.5.0 are not
# fully supported by this version of dmidecode.
Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 26 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: XIAOMI
Version: RMAMT4B0P0A0A
Release Date: 06/04/2024
Address: 0xE0000
Runtime Size: 128 kB
ROM Size: 8 MB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
EDD is supported
Japanese floppy for NEC 9800 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
5.25"/360 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 1.10
Firmware Revision: 1.10
Handle 0x0025, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
BIOS Language Information
Language Description Format: Long
Installable Languages: 8
en|US|iso8859-1,0
fr|FR|iso8859-1,0
zh|TW|unicode,0
ja|JP|unicode,0
it|IT|iso8859-1,0
es|ES|iso8859-1,0
de|DE|iso8859-1,0
pt|PT|iso8859-1,0
Currently Installed Language: en|US|iso8859-1,0
Try using the grub2 editor to remove the rhgb quiet in order to see messages while booting.
I tried, but it displayed the message shown in the next picture and stopped there.
This issue is not specific to Fedora but to your model’s “BIOS”. I have often found appropriate command-line parameters for a specific model in forums for other linux distros. The dmesg data in the LHDB does include the kernel command-line, but looks like all the Ultra 5 probes only have “detected” for the iGPU.
The parameters don’t depend on the distro – kernel version and vendor “BIOS” are what matters. Did you make all 10 changes at once or try them one-by-one?
Finally, I updated the BIOS and installed Fedora 41 successfully.
Procedures:
Consulted the laptop brand’s after-sales service online and got the information that the official website only provides the factory version BIOS. If I want the latest BIOS, I need to consult the local after-sales service store.
Consulted the local after-sales service store and got the latest BIOS version, RMAMT4B0P0909.
By default, the BIOS upgrade software tested and showed that RMAMT4B0P0A0A was newer than RMAMT4B0P0909…Start to google how to downgrade BIOS…
I think the laptop brand tries to avoid users upgrading the BIOS by themselves, so they made the initial version use the largest number, 0A0A.
The after-sales service staff was pretty sure that 0909 is the latest version.
Studied how to use Process Monitor to find the BIOS update program extracted by the BIOS upgrade software. It will look like 7zS9F19.tmp or similar sounding, inside theWindows > Temp folder, but not in the User > username > AppData > Temp folder.
Edited the platform.ini file in the [Bios_Version_Check] section. Changed Flag=1 to Flag=0 to remove the version check when upgrading the BIOS, then successfully upgraded the BIOS.
Tried installing Fedora via Ventoy but got the error message on the screen: /ventoy/busybox/sh: can't access tty: job control turned off
Created a new installation USB using Rufus and installed Fedora 41 successfully in normal mode (didn’t need to switch to basic graphics mode).
The link (https://file.io/lE6YF3MYlm2L) expires in one week. Please make sure you need RMAMT4B0P0909. I only know that it works for my laptop. All my consultations were done online. You can ask the local after-sales service store to get the latest BIOS without needing to visit the store.
Thank you very much! However, the BIOS ID for your model appears to be TM2307, while mine is TM2309. I just contacted the local after-sales service center, and they informed me that they can only provide version 0A0A instead of 0909. It seems I’ll have to wait for future kernel updates, which may not be available until after February next year. Anyway, I really appreciate your help!
You need to ask the after-sales service store about the specific version. However, do not assume the latest version is 0909; it might be 0707 or another number.
I don’t think the file will stay online for long because it contains sensitive data, so the platform might delete it before the expiration date I set. Please check with your local after-sales service store to get the latest version of the BIOS. I won’t be sharing it again.
