Hi everyone. Not sure if this is the right forum. I took the plunge on buying a mini pc off of Aliexpress after watching this video. The mini pc in question that I purchased is this model (looks like they dont offer the J4125 anymore) with no ram/ssd. I started out by following the official Negate pfsense install, but after the usb wouldn't boot, I tried troubleshooting a lot based on what I could read on google.
The minipc's bios is American Megatrends 2.19.1268. I added a PNY 8gb ddr4, and a sandisk 128gb ssd using the sata cable. This was formatted beforehand.
I downloaded "pfSense-CE-memstick-2.6.0-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz" from Netgate and verified the integrity of the download. I used rufus to create the bootable usb, then tried balenaetcher since it didn't work, then tried both again on a different usb and neither worked. I also used balenaetcher with an ubuntu iso just to see if anything changed, and nothing did.
The ram is recognized by the bios, but I also went and exchanged it at best buy just in case the first stick was bad. Didn't help.
The usb drives are in the boot option list in the bios. So I've tried disabling other options (the sandisk ssd), force booting from the usb's etc, or choosing one of their partitions to boot from. I've tried disabling uefi and only doing legacy boot, so it won't even show me the partitions in the boot list, just the devices. Nothing has worked. Tried swapping the usb ports, not having my keyboard plugged in, did a little dance when it booted up, nothing.
If I disable all other devices, only have the usb plugged in, and turn on the minipc, I get a long beep and the pc gets stuck on the bios splash screen. But everywhere I read doesn't indicate that this bios has any error codes of 1 long beep.
Sometimes depending on what I mess with in the bios, when I turn off the pc and turn it back on, i get one short beep and it gets stuck on the bios splash screen.
What in the heck else can I even try? I'm at my wits end, and nobody replied to me on reddit lol.
Edit: after troubleshooting a lot.. it now turns on with no video output. Maybe its a faulty unit. Idk
The minipc's bios is American Megatrends 2.19.1268. I added a PNY 8gb ddr4, and a sandisk 128gb ssd using the sata cable. This was formatted beforehand.
I downloaded "pfSense-CE-memstick-2.6.0-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz" from Netgate and verified the integrity of the download. I used rufus to create the bootable usb, then tried balenaetcher since it didn't work, then tried both again on a different usb and neither worked. I also used balenaetcher with an ubuntu iso just to see if anything changed, and nothing did.
The ram is recognized by the bios, but I also went and exchanged it at best buy just in case the first stick was bad. Didn't help.
The usb drives are in the boot option list in the bios. So I've tried disabling other options (the sandisk ssd), force booting from the usb's etc, or choosing one of their partitions to boot from. I've tried disabling uefi and only doing legacy boot, so it won't even show me the partitions in the boot list, just the devices. Nothing has worked. Tried swapping the usb ports, not having my keyboard plugged in, did a little dance when it booted up, nothing.
If I disable all other devices, only have the usb plugged in, and turn on the minipc, I get a long beep and the pc gets stuck on the bios splash screen. But everywhere I read doesn't indicate that this bios has any error codes of 1 long beep.
Sometimes depending on what I mess with in the bios, when I turn off the pc and turn it back on, i get one short beep and it gets stuck on the bios splash screen.
What in the heck else can I even try? I'm at my wits end, and nobody replied to me on reddit lol.
Edit: after troubleshooting a lot.. it now turns on with no video output. Maybe its a faulty unit. Idk
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