Dear forum,
I am at loss trying to install Linux to this new little machine. The usb stick does not show up among the boot drives. I have verified the stick on other machines, which boot nicely from it.

First, set "other OS" (not Windows UEFI):


The usb stick does register with the BIOS, but none of the available settings makes it show up in the boot list:


The boot list:


Google turns up very little on it, but it appears that people have indeed managed, just not described how...

Any pointers appreciated.

/cahlfors

P.S. My Linux skills are probably somewhere on the intermediate level - not totally new and not sysadmin.//

probably you can find something usable here: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1013017/

Maybe. The ASUS video clearly specifies that the stick must be formatted with FAT32. Mine is iso9660, because that's what the downloaded image is - not much I can do about it. If ASUS can't do iso9660, then why is there a CDROM option in the dropdown? I still don't understand.

This is what I would ask ASUS.

Image 2 has 4 selections for your 8G stick. Choose HDD, then try booting from it.

I have tried all four options. Same result.

cahlfors,

Somebody using Ubuntu MATE on an Asus PN41, but no installation details:
https://tweakers.net/productreview/2...bbc052mvn.html

Translation from the original Dutch is:

I purchased this PN41 as a replacement for a NUC from 2014.

It runs Ubuntu mate LTS on an nvme SSD 256GB, 8GB memory, and can be connected to the internet 24/7 via a Nordvpn connection (nordvpn linux app with kill switch).
It is headless here and can be accessed via Nomachine, but installation is of course via monitor, mouse and keyboard.

Installation went well, all hardware is immediately recognized by Ubuntu. No issues encountered in terms of drivers or the like, except for the logitech MX keys keyboard and MX Ergo trackball that did not work via bluetooth but did via the universal usb.

This seems to be an Ubuntu thing from this LTS version, which can be solved with the Blueman application, which does support low bluetooth energy devices.
System is fanless and therefore completely silent. heat is somewhat felt on the outside of the case under heavy use.

Performance is what you can expect from a 6W dual core Celeron N4500. Standard applications and system runs fine and acceptable in terms of performance. You can't really expect more. Nomachine on Full HD is already heavy for this PC. Installed (update) the slightly lighter KDE Plasma, it performs even better on this.

There are USB and USB-C ports and HDMI + VGA. Internal NVME and SATA 2.5", 2 memory banks and that's it.

Other than that, it does what it's supposed to do, and I'm happy with it.

EDIT:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Fanless-...ustomerReviews

Review from one purchaser:
Bought this to replace a Gigabyte Brix I had been running. No noise due to fanless design and temperatures haven't been a problem thus far. Note to those wanting a complete system: this is a barebone as mentioned in the item title. You will need an NVME or SSD drive and memory to complete it.

I've been running Manjaro XFCE on mine for about a month now and it's been great. Everything worked out of the box.


This Asus PN41 generally gets poor reviews, so if it is possible to return it with Windows still on it, that may be your best bet.
Then find something more suitable.

The alternative is to wipe Windows and start afresh with a Linux installation:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...al-boot-38956/

NB Be warned that if you wipe Windows, you will not be able to return the Asus PN41.

Yes, reassuring isn't it?
I have seen similar accounts, but no details. It's usually quite a simple process to boot from a usb key, so no need to explain... But I'll create one for another distro like Mint or Ubuntu just to see if it behaves differently.

Try latest Fedora?

Maybe try turning off secure boot(?).

Yes. Are you referring to the fact that it says "secure boot state - deployed"? It's grayed out and non-changeable. Is there some key combination or something that can unlock the parameter?

I tried a Mint stick and it booted directly, without my even going into BIOS to set the boot order. No wonder people don't bother to explain how to do this, ha ha! IIRC, Mint & co are able to deal with secure boot and UEFI (not sure of the difference?) and that might be key here.

LinHES is based on Arch, so I will try to boot from an Arch image next. If that works, it can be noted that the LinHES image is from 2019, in case (boot) technology has changed since then. And yes, it's 64 bit.

cahlfors,

If you wish to use an Arch-based OS, I recommend using EndeavourOS which is a doddle to install:
https://endeavouros.com/

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?di...tion=endeavour

Forum:
https://forum.endeavouros.com/

More specifically, I am trying to install LinHES on it, which is Arch based. I have now tried plain Arch, which also worked. The weird thing is that it also uses an iso9660 file system, just like LinHES. Asus specifically requires FAT32 in the video.

The conclusion then, is that the problem is LinHES oriented, rather than Linux oriented. I was fooled by the fact that the stick didn't show up in the boot list at all, rather than just refusing to boot. It could still be that secure boot thing, but there is nothing I am able to change beyond the pictures from the first post.

If all else fails, I will have to wait for a new version of LinHES, there is one cooking. The current one is from 2019...

Sorry for the lateness, but maybe my contribution finds someone else running into issues with PN-41 later.

I've tried a few different distros on my PN-41, as well as Windows 11, and haven't had many problems getting it up and running. Like with every other machine I've used Linux on, it's been a hassle to get Chrome running and self-updating properly (which, if you use Chrome, is IMO an essential requirement, to stay reasonably secure), and everything comes to a halt when support ends and you need to upgrade to a new OS release. I stumbled across this thread because I'm about to embark on a fresh install (will give Kubuntu a spin this time). Tedious as it is, it's a lot easier than attempting to figure out why the upgrade process doesn't work.

Side rant: Can Linux devs start to actually test and do some work to make it easy even for users who don't subscribe to the dogmatic "software should be free, as in not paid and also as in open for anyone to do whatever they want with"..? I don't actually know this, but I suspect I find upgrades impossible because in order to run Chrome, I have to spend hours copy-pasting sudo command magic I don't understand off web pages that happen to rank high in google searches into a terminal, and then later, when I am warned that support is about to end for the release I am using and I better upgrade, I say yes, the updater goes to work, and midway it suddenly shows a dialog box informing me that "some software sources have been removed" or something like that. Presumably ones I have added because I needed them, but the devs didn't bother to say which ones they remove, or how to get it back, and the whole thing feels a lot like some dark angel deciding to punish me for having the audacity to decide to trust someone other than them to put code on my computer... I freely admit that I am a bad person for using Chrome, or anything Google has any hand in (I actually regard it as the most harmful company ever to have existed, they are public enemy number one, they are guilty more than anyone else of creating the attention economy, which is rapidly destroying trust and institutions and therefore the very fundament of democracy, in my view). But I can't trust all my passwords and credit cards to something like lastpass, or some other smallish actor who doesn't have as much to lose as Google if they mess it up, and for myself, personally, I am more afraid of being a victim of identity theft than I am of Google machine learning how to most effectively manipulate me, which is their business model. I use Safari on my phone but don't have a Mac and don't think I can afford to buy into the whole Apple ecosystem, and as with Google it comes down to a pragmatic decision - I am not among those who imagine that I'll undo the attention economy if I switch to Brave.

Anyway: I used Rufus (on Windoze) to write my USB stick. In Rufus, you get to choose if you want to write an ISO in "ISO image mode" or "DD image mode", and the former basically just unpacks the ISO archive and copies all the files to the target, so with that, you get to choose the file system and such. Plus, it has some very neat features I don't fully understand, but that presumably might help. For instance, the kubuntu image I just wrote referenced a version of grub that was not in the image (?? I'm confused myself, sorry), and offered to download it for me and fix the issue. Btw, for anyone interested in the heretic OS called Windows, it can download official images for you, knows the checksum and verifies it, and then lets you make awesome modifications to the ISO before writing it to do things like remove bloat, choose all the best privacy defaults (though Win10+ likely are still bad choices if privacy is the main goal) and modify the installer accordingly (skipping all the questions/traps designed to make you agree to stuff).

I don't know if there's an equivalent on Linux, but surely at least there must be some USB writers that let you choose file system and formatting options and simply unpack the ISO? If not, you could try to just do the formatting and then unpack the ISO file (it's just a glorified zip file after all) to the freshly FAT32-formatted stick.

If it is impossible to switch "Secure Boot state" from "deployed" to "disabled" (or similar) don't try to install any software, don't wipe Windows, delete all personal data and return this device. Impossibility of disabling secure boot in UEFI is a heavy product fault.