Dell XPS 15 9570 - Unable to install manjaro (Paritions: Efi partitions is completely blank)

Newbie Corner
#1

Hello Forum,

recently, I bought a Dell XPS 15 9570 and wanted to install Manjaro on it. I deactivated Secure Boot in the BIOS/UEFI and also disabled Bitlocker in the currently installed Windows System.
With Rufus I created a bootable USB, first using the ISO format.
When I try to boot from this USB I always instantly find my self in grub rescue. After searching the web I couldn't manage to get passed it. So it created my USB using the DD format.
This time it is bootable, as long as I use the free drivers. But when I see my desktop everything seems to work except the touchpad. I also tried connecting a mouse via USB but even this didn't work.
So I tried to boot my computer with the non-free drivers. But here the boot process gets stuck at "TLP system startup/shutdown".

Since I'm not very familiar with drivers and kernels and all that deep down stuff, I'm feeling pretty lost.
I appreciate every answer. I hope you guys can help me with this.

Install Manjaro on Dell XPS 15 (9570) - No EFI Partitions found
Install Manjaro on Dell XPS 15 (9570) - No EFI Partitions found
#2

Have you searched the forum for similar issues?
You can try this workaround (and review that tutorial and other forum relevant topics to get an idea for the possible workarounds for your model) and maybe add some grub parameters if you still can't boot.

#3

Thanks for your answer.
I was able to boot with non-free drivers. I also managed to change the section in the file "main.py". I wasn't able to use my touchpad, but this wasn't to bad, since I could use my USB mouse.
However, when I'm in the installer at the section "partitions", the installer detects nothing to install manjaro on. This select box is completely blank. So I might be a step further, but still without being able to install manjaro on my device...

#4

This does not look fine.
Please run Calamares in debug mode in terminal and provide the terminal output (use proper code wrap as explained here)

sudo -E calamares -d
#5

Thanks for the tip.

Here's my log file:

22:59:14 [6]: Using log file: "/home/manjaro/.cache/calamares/session.log" 
22:59:14 [6]: Using Calamares settings file at "/etc/calamares/settings.conf" 
22:59:14 [6]: Using Calamares branding file at "/usr/share/calamares/branding/manjaro/branding.desc" 
22:59:14 [2]: WARNING: the branding component "/usr/share/calamares/branding/manjaro" does not ship translations. 
22:59:14 [6]: Loaded branding component "manjaro" 
22:59:14 [6]: STARTUP: initQmlPath, initSettings, initBranding done 
22:59:14 [6]: STARTUP: initModuleManager: module init started 
22:59:14 [6]: STARTUP: initModuleManager: all modules init done 
22:59:14 [6]: STARTUP: initJobQueue done 
22:59:14 [6]: Available size QSize(1865, 1050) 
22:59:14 [6]:   Proposed window size: 1140 684 
22:59:14 [6]: STARTUP: CalamaresWindow created; loadModules started 
22:59:14 [6]: Matching exact locale QLocale(English, Latin, UnitedStates) 
22:59:14 [6]:  .. Matched locale  "en_US" 
22:59:14 [6]: Looking for translations for "en_US" 
22:59:14 [6]:  .. Calamares using locale: "en_US" 
22:59:14 [6]: Welcome string false "Manjaro Linux 17.1 \"Hakoila\"" 
22:59:14 [6]: ViewModule "welcome@welcome" loading complete. 
22:59:14 [2]: WARNING: guessLocaleConfiguration can't guess from an empty list. 
22:59:14 [6]: ViewModule "locale@locale" loading complete. 
22:59:14 [6]: ViewModule "keyboard@keyboard" loading complete. 
22:59:14 [8]: Loaded backend plugin:  "pmlibpartedbackendplugin"
22:59:14 [6]: ViewModule "partition@partition" loading complete. 
22:59:14 [6]: ViewModule "users@users" loading complete. 
22:59:14 [6]: ViewModule "summary@summary" loading complete. 
22:59:14 [6]: Module "partition@partition" already loaded. 
22:59:14 [6]: QML import paths: 
     "/usr/share/calamares/qml" 
     "/usr/bin" 
     "qrc:/qt-project.org/imports" 
     "/usr/lib/qt/qml" 
22:59:14 [6]: Module "locale@locale" already loaded. 
22:59:14 [6]: Module "keyboard@keyboard" already loaded. 
22:59:14 [6]: Module "users@users" already loaded. 
22:59:14 [6]: ViewModule "finished@finished" loading complete. 
22:59:14 [6]: STARTUP: loadModules for all modules done 
22:59:15 [6]: STARTUP: Window now visible and ProgressTreeView populated 
22:59:15 [2]: WARNING: guessLocaleConfiguration can't guess from an empty list. 
22:59:15 [6]: Need at least storage bytes: 8482560409 
22:59:15 [6]: Need at least ram bytes: 1073741824 
22:59:15 [6]: A battery exists, checking for mains power. 
22:59:15 [6]: RequirementsChecker output: 
     enoughStorage :   true 
     enoughRam :   true 
     hasPower :   false 
     hasInternet :   true 
     isRoot :   true 
22:59:15 [8]: getting smart status failed for  "/dev/sda" :  Operation not supported
22:59:15 [6]: Removing unsuitable devices: 1 candidates. 
22:59:15 [6]:   .. Removing device with iso9660 filesystem (probably a CD) on it "/dev/sda" 
22:59:15 [6]: LIST OF DETECTED DEVICES: 
22:59:15 [6]: node	capacity	name	prettyName 
22:59:15 [6]: .. 0 devices detected. 
22:59:15 [6]: xkbmap selection changed to:  "de" - "" 
22:59:15 [6]: Fetching GeoIP data from "https://geoip.tools/v1/json/" 
22:59:15 [6]: "Osprober lines, clean:\n" 
22:59:15 [2]: WARNING: system is EFI but no EFI system partitions found. 
22:59:15 [6]: GeoIP reporting "Europe/Berlin" 
21:59:15 [2]: WARNING: guessLocaleConfiguration can't guess from an empty list. 
22:59:15 [2]: WARNING: guessLocaleConfiguration can't guess from an empty list. 
22:59:15 [2]: WARNING: guessLocaleConfiguration can't guess from an empty list. 
22:59:15 [2]: WARNING: guessLocaleConfiguration can't guess from an empty list. 
22:59:39 [6]: Got locale language "en_US.UTF-8" 
22:59:39 [6]:  .. extracted country "UnitedStates" :: ("en", "US") 
22:59:39 [6]:    .. looking for locale part "US" 
22:59:39 [6]:    .. matched "us" 
22:59:39 [6]: Next level: "en" 
22:59:39 [6]: xkbmap selection changed to:  "us" - "" 
22:59:42 [6]: xkbmap selection changed to:  "de" - "" 
22:59:54 [8]: Shutting down Calamares... 
22:59:54 [8]: Finished shutdown.

I looked in Gparted and the hard drive isn't even recognized at all.

#6

This is really strange...

Which boot parameters have you tried already for the Installer ISO?

#7

None at all.
Actually I'm quite a Newbie in this area. I'm glad I can use Linux and fix issues with packages but when it comes to the OS itself, like booting, drivers, kernel, ..., I don't quite know anything yet...
Thanks for your assist in this issue.

#8

I now also looked for a setting in the BIOS which would prevent any changes or even the detection of the harddrive if the system wasn't windows, but I couldn't find anything.
I also tried to shrink my partition in windows, so I would have some unallocated space, but even this is not being recognized...

#9

Now that's very weired:
With the Media Creation Tool, I created a USB to reinstall Windows and get rid of all the Dell services, which were preinstalled. Interestingly, the windows installer found the hard drive. Then I tried to install Manjaro again. And out of nowhere the touch pad finally works. But unfortunately, the manjaro installer still doesn't find the hard drive..

#10

Maybe @philm can see if this is a bug or some misconfiguration.

#12

A friend of mine and I fixed it. In the BIOS set the SATA Operations from "RAID ON" to "AHCI". Now the hard drive is being detected.

1 Like
#13

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