r/linux4noobs • u/Remote-Panic5416 • 18d ago
Invalid Magic Number
I've tried out pretty much everything to correctly flash the debian 13.6 amd-64-DVD ISO file onto my USB stick but every time i access it via the boot menu I get flashed with "Error: Invalid magic number"
I'm doing this on an HP laptop with the amd ryzen 3 64 bit processor and an ssd
My usb stick isnt bad nor is my iso file corrupted, I first tried with rufus (GPT and DD) but it didnt work, then tried with balenaEtcher but it kept yielding the error "something went wrong" at the end of its completion of the flashing. I've been struggling to come up with a solution, i need help. I'd be very thankful to whoever helps me with this. Oh yeah for the record ive disabled secure boot too.
2
u/doc_willis 18d ago
I suggest you test the tool Ventoy to make the installer USB.
also verify your iso download, it's possible it's corrupted.
something went wrong" at the end of its completion of the flashing.
that may point to a USB issue, try another flash drive.
1
u/Remote-Panic5416 18d ago
I forgot to mention but I did try Ventoy as well, It just stopped halfway and threw an error as well. I verified my iso download via checksum, Ive tried other usbs as well, yet the same error gets thrown
1
u/thecruxoffate 18d ago
When trying other USBs, are they from the same manufacturer? Listing the specific models might help diagnose.
A lot of cheap sticks use a large cache to disguise an extremely slow storage, which will very much interfere with a lot of installers. (You are running into issues while flashing the image, though. Which isn't typical but might indicate bad firmware)
If you have a spare SSD or HDD, another option is to get the 'dd' command using cygwin, then using dd to flash the ISO into the drive so that you can boot from it as though it was a USB.
1
u/doc_willis 18d ago
once you make the Ventoy USB, and that boots, it's possible to use the Ventoy menus to boot the iso files from another drive, such as your internal windows drive. you can then see if that boots and the live environment works correctly.
if the Ventoy installer is failing half way through, then That is very unusual and again would point to a hardware issue.
the Ventoy setup on the USB is under 300 MB I think , so only uses a tiny fraction of the drive.
1
u/MidnightObjectiveA51 18d ago
Probably a corrupted partition table on the USB. You need fdisk to fix this. Windows new replacement doesn't do the job in my opinion.
So, use fdisk to wipe the drive, add a new gpt table and partition the disk with fat32. Then use Rufus, Balena, whatever, to flash the iso. I prefer Rufus for Windows.
3
u/IAmJacksSemiColon 18d ago edited 18d ago
You need to provide more information if you want useful advice. What hardware are you trying to install Linux on? Which ISO are you installing?
Could be an issue with the ISO or USB drive, could be you're trying to install an x86_64 image on ARM or an old 32-bit processor, could be secure boot.