Solved Here's a new one I thought I'd never post.

[xlbooyahlx]

My Asrock Industrial Nuc Box-1260P (Intel 12th Gen (Alder Lake-P) Core Processors i7-1260P) got delivered today, along with 32Gb GSkill DDR4 3200 Ram and 2TB M.2 SSD.
After dropping the ram and m.2 SSD in, and closing up the box, I do what I always do, which is push a Linux Mint USB into the USB port and boot up (to see what the boot looks like, then choose a distro afterwards).
This is the VERY FIRST machine that refused to boot Linux Mint. I tried three different USB sticks, with fresh formats, and I'd get to the Grub menu, click enter, and the screen would immediately go to sleep. No errors, just simply go to sleep ("no input detected" on the screen), and stay there no matter how long I waited, or how many different keys I mashed.
So, I updated and reset bios to defaults, making sure secure boot was still set to "off", and still nothing.
Next step, download an ArcoLinux D ISO, burned it to USB, pushed it in, and it booted right up, no on screen errors, right to the desktop.
Currently at 79% and installing.
The point behind this long winded post is that I honestly didn't think I'd see the day that Mint wouldn't boot on a machine, and especially in the manner that it refused to do so.

 

[KGIII]

The last time I installed Mint on anything, I recall having an unusually long wait before anything popped up on the screen. but that doesn't seem to be what you're experiencing. I'm talking like a 10 minute wait, only for it to install in a matter of minutes once into the live instance.

How long did you wait it out?

 

[xlbooyahlx]

The last time I installed Mint on anything, I recall having an unusually long wait before anything popped up on the screen. but that doesn't seem to be what you're experiencing. I'm talking like a 10 minute wait, only for it to install in a matter of minutes once into the live instance.

How long did you wait it out?

The first time just a few minutes. The second time I walked away for 30 minutes, and still no joy.
Was up until 3AM distro hopping on it, and boy did I see some strange things going on. I know 12th gen support came out in kernel 6.? IIRC, but it's still not great.
However, at approx 2:30 am I couldn't give up on mint. Booted up into recovery mode, advanced options.
Did the install, rebooted and it went to sleep upon reboot (no input detected), as before. I know that Mint uses an older kernel, so I booted up into recovery mode again and installed liquorix kernel, and voila!
Here's the rub though, it takes approx 2 minutes to fully shut down, so I'll have to investigate further.
I did get in the top 3% on Geekbench Linux users using that particular CPU, the i7 1260 CPU though, so when it's up, it's fast, and it runs just a bit warm for my taste.

 

[KGIII]

The second time I walked away for 30 minutes, and still no joy.

Yeah, that's definitely enough time.

People have been recommending the AHS version of MX Linux for people with new hardware, as it has better hardware support out of the box.

I have zero experience, but from watching the threads it does indeed solve some problems.

The heat is concerning. Did you build this yourself and skimp on thermal paste? Can you slap on a better cooler?

At regular loads, it should use less electricity - which means there should be less heat waste.

It's too bad that systemd-analyze only works with the boot process. It'd be awesome if it also stored the previous shutdown and let you examine that (at least until the service was shut down).

 

[BigBadBeef]

After dropping the ram and m.2 SSD in, and closing up the box, I do what I always do, which is push a Linux Mint USB into the USB port and boot up (to see what the boot looks like, then choose a distro afterwards).

That put a smile on my face.

Anyway, sorry to hear it wouldn't boot. Nucs are nifty little toys but if I were to go for a pocket pc, I would have gone for it's AMD alternative for the sake of compatibility with Linux distributions, like this one:

EliteMini HX90

Minisforum Elitemini HX90 is a high-performance mini computer specially designed for game lovers. Supported by AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX and AMD Radeon™ graphics cards. It brings powerful performance with the fast technology of the future and provides power for your daily calculations.

store.minisforum.com

It also has that additional graphics kick for those moments where even a non-gamer has got that itch that needs scratching. I've heard it can do AAA games @ 1080p 30+fps.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

Did you build this yourself and skimp on thermal paste? Can you slap on a better cooler?

This is an industrial NUC box. SFF PC.
Check it out.
The cooler is set in stone, and the thermal paste is applied at the factory. The Intel 1260P (12 core 16 thread) is a 12th gen Laptop CPU with IrisXe IGPU.
That's how they fit them in a approx 4"x4" box lol.
To get to the cooler requires a total teardown.
To put the ram and m.2 SSD is 4 screws on the bottom, pull off the bottom plate, snap your SODIMM RAM (laptop DDR4 3200) in, slide your m.2 in and screw it down.
It's been 8 months since I built a tower case PC.
IMHO there's few reasons for most users to purchase, or build something that big, when they can get pretty close to the same performance out of a 4'x4" box.
The first rig in my sig with the RTX 2060 GPU is approx 7"(w)x5"(d)x1.5"(h), and it's a beast!
I REALLY like my little babies lol

 

[KGIII]

This is an industrial NUC box. SFF PC.
Check it out.

Your link is broken, but I know the type of device you're speaking of.

I'm not sure that I'd have taken the plunge on a device like that. With even a laptop, I can get in and swap in a new video card or, more likely, a wireless card that works out of the box with Linux.

Then again, you might be able to do that with that device too, I don't really know. In the few times I've seen one similar, everything was pretty much soldered in place. I'll do a lot to use Linux, but soldering in components is not one of those things.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

That put a smile on my face.

Anyway, sorry to hear it wouldn't boot. Nucs are nifty little toys but if I were to go for a pocket pc, I would have gone for it's AMD alternative for the sake of compatibility with Linux distributions, like this one:

EliteMini HX90

Minisforum Elitemini HX90 is a high-performance mini computer specially designed for game lovers. Supported by AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX and AMD Radeon™ graphics cards. It brings powerful performance with the fast technology of the future and provides power for your daily calculations.

store.minisforum.com

It also has that additional graphics kick for those moments where even a non-gamer has got that itch that needs scratching. I've heard it can do AAA games @ 1080p 30+fps.

I don't think you can get much easier than an all intel box when building for linux (IMHO).
I almost bought one of those, but Minisforum QC has taken a dump post Covid, so either you get one that works, or a DOA, or one that dies in a matter of hours, days, or weeks.
I usually build with Intel NUCs, but they just announced that the gen 13 will be their last, and they'll let their partners build them from now on, which is why I picked this AsRock Industrial NUC, to see their build quality, etc.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

Your link is broken

Sorry, fixed it and ty for the catch

 

[xlbooyahlx]

Then again, you might be able to do that with that device too, I don't really know. In the few times I've seen one similar, everything was pretty much soldered in place. I'll do a lot to use Linux, but soldering in components is not one of those things.

Wifi is a m.2, one screw and replaced, the CPU/IGPU is exactly what you get with an Intel based laptop.
Ram and ssd are drop in

 

[xlbooyahlx]

AHS version of MX Linux

so for those that don’t need the newer open source graphics stack, there is little point is using AHS
Just an FYI

 

[KGIII]

so for those that don’t need the newer open source graphics stack, there is little point is using AHS
Just an FYI

Yeah, with it all being Intel you should be golden. This mystifies me even more, 'cause Mint should have happily installed in that case.

And, yeah, being all Intel is good - in my experience. That's typically what I do when buying a new device.

That you can even swap components is neat. I saw one that had a motherboard largely covered with a generous helping of epoxy. They REALLY didn't want you to upgrade that one.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

They REALLY didn't want you to upgrade that one

Yeah, I stay away from cheap boxes like that lol

 

[z7vl7abxc]

People have been recommending the AHS version of MX Linux for people with new hardware, as it has better hardware support out of the box.

mint offered an "Edge" iso version for 20.x that had a similar idea to this i believe: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/edge.html

i haven't seen one mentioned or listed for mint 21 yet, but there is a linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04 package in the ubuntu repos that looks like it will install a 5.19 kernel: https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04

and linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04-edge that seems to install a version of 6.2: https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04-edge

i know @xlbooyahlx already installed a still newer liquorix kernel and is good to go, but thought i would add that for general knowledge about a different route to possibly get newer kernels with mint and ubuntu-based distros.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

i know @xlbooyahlx already installed a still newer liquorix kernel and is good to go

Actually I traced that kernel down to being the culprit of my 2minute+ shutdown times, so I did another clean install with this, instead of liquorix:

apt install linux-oem-22.04c

And now have the 6.1.0-1017-oem which seems to be working great!
My main rig runs great with the liquorix, but while it got me going on this rig, it hung the reboot and shutdown times considerably.
A lot of timeshifts going on in this install, as I can't stand to do things half baked lol
I appreciate the heads up though brother

 

[xlbooyahlx]

Ok here's a final tidbit in case anyone runs into this with newer hardware:
Dmesg error

 5.183795] tpm tpm0: [Firmware Bug]: TPM interrupt not working, polling instead

I did a lot of research on it, and while it's a harmless error (and my only error in dmesg), it was the cause of my 2 + minute shutdowns and reboots with the Liquorix Kernel.
With the 6.1.0-1017-oem kernel, everything is great.
MANY posts around the internet saying "just disable TPM", but when I did that, the 6.1.0-1017-oem kernel started giving me the 2 + minute shutdowns again just like the Liquorix did whether TPM was enabled or disabled on the Liquorix kernel.

I actually found an old github kernal post on whether they were going to address this error in their next update or not (the post was some time ago), and it looked like it was 2 or 3 to 1 in favor of not addressing it, and so it goes.
Again this is not a critical error, so just disregard.

It's going to take someone far more proficient with Linux than I to figure that one out!

So if anyone runs into the problems I had, with initial boot to live USB, this is what I did.
Bootup the live USB in recovery mode Linux Mint, do the install, when you reboot after install, do so in revovery mode again.
run:

sudo apt install linux-oem-22.04c

For the latest 6.? kernel, reboot, and all is well with the world!
It all seems so simple now, but going through it and trying to run down the culprit was an ordeal, at least for me.

 

[xlbooyahlx]

mint offered an "Edge" iso version for 20.x that had a similar idea to this i believe:

And the new release edge iso was just announced on the Linux mint blog:
In parallel to LMDE 6 we’re also planning to release an EDGE ISO for Linux Mint 21.2. This ISO will feature a kernel 6.2 and make it easier to boot Mint on brand new hardware.

Yay!