How to boot into desktop environment after editing boot menu

[Domarius]

Installing EndeavourOS “alongside” windows seemed to fail right at the end when it goes to modify the boot menu (I have another long thread about that, which is not relevant if I can get this to work)

I edited the boot menu by hand and have pointed it to the correct UUID. The only problem, is i need to log in and it stays at the commandline, as shown below. How do I get it to start into the desktop environment?

(Yeah I don’t know why it’s having trouble with USB, but I wait a bit and the keyboard becomes active and I can log in - no such problem in Windows so I don’t know what the issue is there)

[dalto]

You need to enable the sddm service .

However, your install didn’t finish. That isn’t the last step in the installer. I would probably just install again.

[Domarius]

Ok, this will be the 3rd attempt! It’s failed at the end the last two times with different errors and I don’t know why.
https://termbin.com/cyzy

2024-05-30 - 13:30:34 [1]:     ERROR: Installation failed: "Bad main script file" 
2024-05-30 - 13:30:34 [6]:     .. - message: "Bad main script file" 
2024-05-30 - 13:30:34 [6]:     .. - details: Main script file /usr/lib/calamares/modules/bootloader/main.py for python job bootloader raised an exception.

But I cleaned out the loader menu so it’s just Endeavour OS and Windows now, so maybe that will help.

Thanks for the advice, I will update here with how it goes as it may be a little bit before I get time again.

[dalto]

It looks like you efi partition was full.

[Domarius]

Thank you, you might be right. 1000mb and 998mb used. What do I do about this without ruining my dual boot with Windows? I know the installer can automatically find a windows installation to some degree but I’m not sure how to go about this in a way that will make it work. Like if I format the EFI partition will it automatically find the Windows one after that… any tips on what steps to take would be appreciated.

(For reference, this is what my drive looks like after a complete wipe, an install of Windows 10, and then an install of EndeavourOS “alongside” Windows. And then subsequent runs of “Replace a partition” installing EndeavourOS onto the same partition. Perhaps the latter has gradually filled up the EFI with useless stuff.

Here’s the error I got again;

https://termbin.com/rker

2024-05-31 - 13:42:24 [1]:     ERROR: Installation failed: "Bootloader installation error" 
2024-05-31 - 13:42:24 [6]:     .. - message: "Bootloader installation error" 
2024-05-31 - 13:42:24 [6]:     .. - details: The bootloader could not be installed. The installation command <pre>kernel-install add 6.9.2-arch1-1 /usr/lib/modules/6.9.2-arch1-1/vmlinuz</pre> returned error code 1.

[dalto]

@Domarius

What do I do about this without ruining my dual boot with Windows?

Windows takes up less than 100MB. That is probably all Linux data.

If you are only keeping Windows, you can remove the contents of loader/entries and also the directories that start with your machine ID.

[joekamprad]

was to late to say thanks to @dalto

[Domarius]

Here’s what I was going to post:

Thank you so much! Cleaning up the EFI partition let the installer finish, and then I was able to choose X11 over Wayland as @pebcak instructed in my other thread, and the system is finally working… to think that after all this, the X11 thing was the only issue all along after that update months ago and I could’ve kept my old installation…