Booting the installer phase is stuck at "is now current device"

[cbioley]

Hi,

I am trying to install NixOS.

I downloaded this ISO and used this command to prime the USB stick (on macOS):

sudo dd if=nixos-23.11.20230623.3ae20aa-apple-silicon-release-2023-06-25.iso of=/dev/disk2s1 bs=1m

Here is what I get when I try to boot:

U-Boot 2023.04 (Jun 06 2023 - 07:24:12 +0000)

Model: Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1 Max, 2021)
starting USB..
Bus usbe702280000: Register 200047f NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
Bus usbeb02280000: Register 200047f NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
Bus usbef02280000: Register 200047f NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
scanning bus usb@702280000 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found 
scanning bus usbeb02280000 for devices.   1 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus usbef02280000 for devices.   1 USB Device(s) found
scanning usb for storage devices.
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
1 Storage Device(s) found
Device 0: Vendor: Apple Reu: 874.120. Prod: Oba0161141894e21
    Type: Hard Disk
    Capacity: 954204.1 MB = 931.8 GB (244276265 × 4096)
... is now current device
Scanning nvme 0:4...
Failed to load '/'
Loading Boot0000 nvme 0:4 failed
EFI boot manager: Cannot load any image
Device 0: Vendor: USB Reu: 1.00 Prod: SanDisk 3.2Gen1
    Type: Removable Hard Disk
    Capacity: 58674.0 MB = 57.2 GB (120164352 × 512)
... is now current device
=›

From what I gathered here, GRUB should starts.

Everything stays put at the =>.

The exact same thing happens if I press a key to interrupt autoboot and type env set boot_efi_bootmgr ; run bootcmd_usb0.

I tried with two different keys.

What am I missing? 😬

[cbioley]

The issue was coming from a badly prepared stick.

I did the dd operation on a Linux VM and now it works.