I have installed Debian testing many times, many ways but not in the
last year.

I followed some recent online instructions to put what I thought was an
iso of testing on a stick and inserted the stick into the new laptop.

The laptop has Windows 11 with room on the SSD drive for Debian.

When I restart and select USB I get a grub prompt. I haven't figured a
command to do the install from there.

I'm certainly allowing that I don't have what I thought on the USB stick.

TIA for any help,

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 27 May 2026 14:03:27 -0700
Paul Scott <waterhorsemusic@aol.com> wrote:

I followed some recent online instructions to put what I thought was
an iso of testing on a stick and inserted the stick into the new
laptop.

You didn't specify which instructions you followed. I suggest you start
with the Debian Installation Guide. I will guess that you want AMD64. https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

I don't believe there is a Guide for testing yet. In any case, I doubt
there are any great differences between testing and stable right now.

The laptop has Windows 11 with room on the SSD drive for Debian.

See 6.3.7.1. Detecting other operating systems in the Guide. https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s03.en.html#di-make-bootable

When I restart and select USB I get a grub prompt. I haven't figured
a command to do the install from there.

I don't know what that USB stick has on it, but it isn't the Debian
netinst DVD image.

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 7:29?PM Charles Curley < charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:

On Wed, 27 May 2026 14:03:27 -0700
Paul Scott <waterhorsemusic@aol.com> wrote:

I followed some recent online instructions to put what I thought was
an iso of testing on a stick and inserted the stick into the new
laptop.

Are you writing the drive with dd from GNU/Linux or are you using a GUI
program on a non-Linux machine.
If you are writing the drive with Linux try:
Use lsblk to locate your thumb drive.
Replace /dev/sXX with your drive for example /dev/sdb.
sudo dd if=./debian-live-13.5.0-amd64-kde.iso of=/dev/sXX bs=4M
status=progress && sync
I always use the KDE Live install image. I recommend it over the Net
Install image. If you have limited bandwidth or have a intermittent
connection then the Net Installer can have problems.
You can download the KDE Live image from: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-13.5.0-amd64-kde.iso

You didn't specify which instructions you followed. I suggest you start
with the Debian Installation Guide. I will guess that you want AMD64. https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

I don't believe there is a Guide for testing yet. In any case, I doubt
there are any great differences between testing and stable right now.

The laptop has Windows 11 with room on the SSD drive for Debian.

See 6.3.7.1. Detecting other operating systems in the Guide.

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s03.en.html#di-make-bootable

When I restart and select USB I get a grub prompt. I haven't figured
a command to do the install from there.

I don't know what that USB stick has on it, but it isn't the Debian
netinst DVD image.

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--
???????
??????? Debian - The universal operating system
??????? https://www.debian.org/
?????


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 5/27/26 4:03 PM, Paul Scott wrote:

When I restart and select USB I get a grub prompt. I haven't figured a command to do the install from there.

I'm certainly allowing that I don't have what I thought on the USB stick.

I have run into similar problems from time to time. The normal debian installer iso was not working, no way. I even tried several other
distros, none would work properly. Finally I tried a different USB stick
and everything simply worked. Beware some cheap USB sticks.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 23:40:36 -0700, Paul Scott wrote:

$ sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/file.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress oflag=sync

with if pointing to the iso file and of=/dev/sdb1

That's an error. It should be of=/dev/sdb not of=/dev/sdb1.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Thu, May 28, 2026 at 07:07:43AM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:

On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 23:40:36 -0700, Paul Scott wrote:

$ sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/file.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress oflag=sync

with if pointing to the iso file and of=/dev/sdb1

That's an error. It should be of=/dev/sdb not of=/dev/sdb1.

Well spotted! It somehow escaped me.
Cheers
--
t


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Thu, May 28, 2026 at 09:50:27AM -0700, Paul Scott wrote:

On 5/28/26 7:24 AM, Paul Scott wrote:

On 5/28/26 5:02 AM, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

On Thu, May 28, 2026 at 07:07:43AM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:

On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 23:40:36 -0700, Paul Scott wrote:

$ sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/file.iso of=/dev/sdX
status=progress oflag=sync

with if pointing to the iso file and of=/dev/sdb1

That's an error.ÿ It should be of=/dev/sdb not of=/dev/sdb1.

That was it! I was a little nervous when the stick was not flashing this time, writing somewhere I shouldn't be writing.

The install is now in progress.

The installation is maybe complete. When I restart and choose Debian from
the standard grub menu I get

error ../../../grub-core/commands/efi/tpm.c:144:command failed.

[...]
Hm. Perhaps your BIOS has a flaky secure boot implementation. Try
playing with the BIOS settings for secure boot?
Just a shot into the (very) dark.
Cheers
--
t


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)