I formatted it because I was gonna help someone else install it to their PC, but I'm realizing now I shouldn't because I know jack about any of this. Have to wait until tomorrow night to even attempt to redo everything on this laptop because it'll take forever to download it
how familiar are you with computers? especially more advanced stuff like handling system files, finding workarounds on your own, using a terminal, etc?
if you aren't comfortable with this kind of stuff, I can't recommend any form of linux that isn't preinstalled (like steamdeck's steam os for example) at all
mmm.. im unsure if it would fix it or not, but technically you can ctrl+alt+f2 to get into TTY and just type the username you set during install, press enter, then press enter when it prompts for a password