I'm not sure if this is a Manjaro issue or something I'm not setting up correctly in the VM settings, but every edition of Manjaro 16.10.3 that I've tried to make a VM of reacts the same way. Some bootup text with many [OK]s, but ultimately stopping at a black screen with a white blinking cursor in the top left corner of the screen. The install grub never even shows up, so I'm never even prompted to do anything. I've tried installing with 5 different editions on two separate machines, using different VM machines, and different core assignments, all with the same result. Googling found some other people with similar issues dating a few years back, but those solutions do not seem viable in the context of a VM. I'm curious if anyone else has had any issues installing Manjaro into their unRAID VMs? If so, did you have to use specific machine settings to get it to work? Is anyone else seeing the same issues I am?

 

Additional information, I have not had any issues installing various other Linux distros using the same VM settings (ARCH default template with additional cores and memory). I've also properly installed other Arch based distros such as Antergos and Apricity with no issues. Whatever is causing it only seems to be related specifically to Manjaro.

Hi, late reply, but I ran into this exact problem today and found the fix. 

 

You need to go into 'Advanced View' of a new virtual machine, then change the BIOS to SeaBIOS. The default setting is OVMF and doesn't work.

I've found that you can't change this setting on any existing virtual machines through unRAID, you can only set it to be what you want when you create a new one.

 

Edit - I also had to set the "Primary vDisk Bus" to Sata, the default setting seems to be VirtIO which doesn't work.

Edited May 31, 20179 yr by mintjberry

the thing is, im trying to install gnome edition. and just get this starting tls startup/shutdown i dont even get to the install page. however the kde version works fine no problems. im running the latest stable version of unraid. in virtual box, my manjaro gnome iso works fine no issues. so how can a free vm program work fine but a paid for hypervisor doesn't? its really annoying because with unraid being a linux hypervisor, im like this should work with anything then fails miserably and really puts me from committing to unraid. i guess that other have had the problem before but why have limetech not fixed this issue. or is there something i need to change? its not the iso as it works fine so why cant unraid?

Edited October 28, 20187 yr by thehacker

On 3/30/2018 at 12:25 AM, binhex said:

I know this is an old thread, but as Manjaro is getting really popular at the mo i thought i would chip in with a better solution to switch to SeaBIOS, which is a bit crap really,

 

so here is the alternative workarond to the problem:-

 

 

if you do not do the above or switch to SeaBIOS then after you attempt to boot using the live cd you will get stuck at a black screen with a flashing white cursor top left.

 

So the issue does still exist at the time of writing, this is run with the latest Manjaro Deepin live cd release and unRAID 6.4.1

I just installed Manjaro Gnome, so I thought I'd bump this topic.

To get up and running I used the arch template as a starting point and found I only needed to change vnc mode to cirrus, OVMF / Q35 worked with no workaround needed.

 

Without the VNC change I had the flashing white cursor, I suspected VNC mode was the issue as eventually (+10min later) it spat out some errors about the vnc keyboard.

Edited April 19, 20197 yr by tjb_altf4

Tried cirrus with XFCE version, it works... But very very laggy.
Basically unusable.

I tried systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service but I hang at the screenshot provided.
The only other time I got something different was by hitting e and changed radeon=1 to radeon=0, but then I got a message that something was already running.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

3 hours ago, deuxcolors said:

Tried cirrus with XFCE version, it works... But very very laggy.
Basically unusable.

After install I was able to flip back to QXL successfully.

Not sure whether you passing through a GPU also?

No GPU, but it was so laggy I couldn't even get the install running

this is how i got several flavours installed

boot and install using Arch as base (Manjaro is based on Arch-Linux) use cirrus as VNC video Driver for boot and install..once installed shut down and change driver for VNC to QXL and start the VM..worked for me on Cinnimon, Architect and Gnome and a few others

 

On 8/3/2019 at 2:13 AM, Can0nfan said:

this is how i got several flavours installed

boot and install using Arch as base (Manjaro is based on Arch-Linux) use cirrus as VNC video Driver for boot and install..once installed shut down and change driver for VNC to QXL and start the VM..worked for me on Cinnimon, Architect and Gnome and a few others

 

Is this still the best way? I'm finding the installer stalls during install, and eventually restarts.

I'm deleting my vdisk and starting fresh. In case something with vdisk I created is the issue.

Unraid 6.6.7 (Awaiting 6.8.* to avoid database corruption issues)

Settings:

Base VM: Arch

Distro: I've tried both Manjaro KDE and XFCE

Primary vDisk bus: Virtio

Graphics: VNC Cirrus

Bios: OVMF
Machine: Q35-3.0

 

Both installers have been stalling at or before 30%. I've tried all the above with `systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service` set as well.

 

Edit: I got a stable install by wiping my entire hard drive from the install media, and then selecting the ext4 partition I wanted to install onto.

Edited November 13, 20196 yr by paperblankets

11 hours ago, paperblankets said:

 

 

Is this still the best way? I'm finding the installer stalls during install, and eventually restarts.

I'm deleting my vdisk and starting fresh. In case something with vdisk I created is the issue.

Unraid 6.6.7 (Awaiting 6.8.* to avoid database corruption issues)

Settings:

Base VM: Arch

Distro: I've tried both Manjaro KDE and XFCE

Primary vDisk bus: Virtio

Graphics: VNC Cirrus

Bios: OVMF
Machine: Q35-3.0

 

Both installers have been stalling at or before 30%. I've tried all the above with `systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service` set as well.

 

Edit: I got a stable install by wiping my entire hard drive from the install media, and then selecting the ext4 partition I wanted to install onto.

6.8 RC4 and on corrected the database corruption that some got (I never did see it for the last few years)

try my method I have since my last post removed all the manjaro VM's

Edited November 14, 20196 yr by Can0nfan

4 hours ago, Can0nfan said:

6.8 RC4 and on corrected the database corruption that some got (I never did see it for the last few years)

try my method I have since my last post removed all the manjaro VM's

I'm eagerly awaiting 6.8 stable, I think I'm going to hold off on the RC's. I ran into the corruption issues a few months ago and rolled back.

Your method did work for getting the install media to boot. My install issues seemed to be related to the install failing to properly format the drive. Eventually I just saved onto the partition of a previous failed attempt and that worked.

 

 

Alternative approach to changing to SeaBIOS or switching to Cirrus:-
 

1. mount iso for 'live cd' and boot vm

2. once you get to the grub menu press 'e' and append the following, failure to do this will mean you wont be able to boot to x windows:-

systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service

3. press ctrl+x to save this change and the vm should boot.

4. once booted then install to vdisk and shutdown (do not reboot it will get stuck unmounting iso)- may require 'Force Stop'

5. once shutdown edit vm and remove the iso

6. start vm, this will get stuck at a black screen, you now need to press ctrl+alt+F2 in order to get to command prompt

7. login with root and the password you defined.

8. issue the following command to remove the symlink to mhwd - note this cannot be done at step 4. as the symlink does not exist

sudo rm -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-mhwd.conf && reboot

9. enjoy manjaro! - tested on 'cinnamon' and 'openbox' editions of manjaro.

Edited December 4, 20196 yr by binhex

On 12/5/2019 at 12:50 AM, binhex said:

Alternative approach to changing to SeaBIOS or switching to Cirrus:-
 

1. mount iso for 'live cd' and boot vm

2. once you get to the grub menu press 'e' and append the following, failure to do this will mean you wont be able to boot to x windows:-

systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service

3. press ctrl+x to save this change and the vm should boot.

4. once booted then install to vdisk and shutdown (do not reboot it will get stuck unmounting iso)- may require 'Force Stop'

5. once shutdown edit vm and remove the iso

6. start vm, this will get stuck at a black screen, you now need to press ctrl+alt+F2 in order to get to command prompt

7. login with root and the password you defined.

8. issue the following command to remove the symlink to mhwd - note this cannot be done at step 4. as the symlink does not exist

sudo rm -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-mhwd.conf && reboot

9. enjoy manjaro! - tested on 'cinnamon' and 'openbox' editions of manjaro.

Thank you for this!! I can confirm this works and got Manjaro 18.1.5 KDE Plasma running using binhex's method.

In case anyone can't increase the resolution in Manjaro to anything beyond 1024x768, run the command sudo pacman -S xf86-video-qxl and reboot the VM.

Im currently struggling to install manjaro 21.2.1

 

Installation works without any changes to arch template.

 

But after reboot i get black screen with one _

 

@binhex i tried to enter tty2 console in this state but nothing is working / it does not seem to react to any keypresses.

 

Is this still possible? Can anyone support me here?

 

 

On 1/18/2022 at 11:35 PM, Teifun2 said:

Im currently struggling to install manjaro 21.2.1

 

Installation works without any changes to arch template.

 

But after reboot i get black screen with one _

 

@binhex i tried to enter tty2 console in this state but nothing is working / it does not seem to react to any keypresses.

 

Is this still possible? Can anyone support me here?

 

 

 

I've had the exact same problem and I finally managed to solve it:

 

My issue was that the X-server crashed because of the `vmmouse` driver. To fix this I've followed this post https://forum.manjaro.org/t/qemu-vm-no-x-after-stable-update/93601/2 .

 

1. Boot into the Manjaro Live ISO

Edit your VM, go into XML View (top right corner) and change the "<boot order='2'/>" of the cdrom device to 1 and the disk device to 2.

After you've done that, start the VM and it should boot into the Manjaro Live ISO.

 

2. Open terminal and chroot into your manjaro installation:

Follow the chroot section of https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/chroot , to get the path to the drive just use the file manager.

 

3. Remove the "xf86-input-vmmouse" package

Run

$ sudo pacman -Rns xf86-input-vmmouse

in the chroot'ed terminal.

 

Now, change to boot order back and boot into the Manjaro installation and it should work again.

 

Other tips for newbies like myself

To get ssh access to the vm with no gui: Follow steps 1 and 2, and enable the ssh daemon with "sudo systemctl enable sshd". Then boot back into the installation and start a ssh session on a different machine to get full terminal access.

See what crashed with "journalctl -r".