[SOLVED] Install issue on Mele Quieter 4C

mcloaked · 2025-12-11 11:47:10

I have done an install on a Mele Quieter 4C mini-pc, in the same way I have been doing arch installs for years on other desktops. This computer ( MeLE Fanless Mini PC Quieter 4C N100(up to 3.4GHz) 16GB RAM 512GB ) comes with Windows pre-installed that I did not want to keep, so I re-partitioned the nvme drive, to keep the efi partition, but delete the others and make new partitions for root, boot, opt and a swap partition, making the boot partition type ea00 as an extended bootloader partition in preparation for using sd-boot. Creating ext4 filesystems on the new partitions looked normal, and the usual set of config changes applied, the pacstrap command executed normally to create the system on the mounted partitions before using 'arch-chroot -S /mnt' ( as changed as necessary recently to allow the bootctl command to complete correctly) to complete the setup, and run the bootctl command to create the bootloader files after setting up appropriate loader.conf and a loader entry for the arch kernel in the efi and boot partitions.

The bootctl install command creates the set of files as normal, with a (hopefully benign) warning about permissions:

root@archiso ~ # arch-chroot -S /mnt
Running as unit: arch-chroot-1279_mnt.service
Press ^] three times within 1s to disconnect TTY.
[root@archiso /]# bootctl --esp-path=/efi --boot-path=/boot install
Running in a chroot, enabling --graceful.
Copied "/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi" to "/efi/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi".
Copied "/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi" to "/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI".
⚠️  Mount point '/efi' which backs the random seed file is world accessible, which is a security hole!  ⚠️
⚠️ Random seed file '/efi/loader/random-seed' is world accessible, which is a security hole! ⚠️
Random seed file /efi/loader/random-seed successfully refreshed (32 bytes).
Created EFI boot entry "Linux Boot Manager".

The nvram boot entry appears to have been created and with the MS Windows related directories in the efi deleted, the directories in the efi look normal:

root@archiso ~ # ls /mnt/efi/EFI/         
Boot  systemd

efibootmgr shows the expected two entries:

exit
root@archiso ~ # efibootmgr           
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0003
Boot0000* Linux Boot Manager    HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
Boot0003* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 2.0PMAP    PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/CDROM(1,0x2602e0,0x7d840)0000424f

The BIOS has the Linux Boot Manager as the first boot entry, but when rebooting sd-boot fails to load, and it reverts to the BIOS setup, or booting the usb install media only. The expected sd-boot options fail to appear at all on the screen.

I have run out of ideas, and I wondered if anyone has any experience of installing arch on this mini pc, and has some tips on key steps needed to get around this issue? I would appreciate any help anyone could offer.

I did see some past forum posts about needing to change a BIOS setting to switch from Windows to Linux but I was unable to find that option among the large number of advanced settings, and none in the 'chipset' section. The main change in the BIOS is turning off fast boot, and saving that change.

Last edited by mcloaked (2025-12-12 22:12:58)

mcloaked · 2025-12-12 19:18:13

I have been working to try to find a way to boot this new system. After seeing various suggestions on alternatives to when bootctl install fails to give a bootable system I tried the following.

First I used the --full-dev-path in the efibootmgr command to generate the NVRAM entry:

[root@archiso /]# efibootmgr --create --full-dev-path --disk /dev/nvme0n1 --part 1 --loader '\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi' --label "Linux Boot Manager" --unicode
efibootmgr: ** Warning ** : Boot0000 has same label Linux Boot Manager
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0003,0004
Boot0000* Linux Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
Boot0003* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 2.0PMAP PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/CDROM(1,0x2602e0,0x7d840)
Boot0004* UEFI OS HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI
Boot0001* Linux Boot Manager PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/NVMe(0x1,00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00)/HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
[root@archiso /]# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0003,0004
Boot0000* Linux Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
Boot0001* Linux Boot Manager PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/NVMe(0x1,00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00)/HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
Boot0003* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 2.0PMAP PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/CDROM(1,0x2602e0,0x7d840)0000424f
Boot0004* UEFI OS HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI0000424f
[root@archiso /]# efibootmgr -b 0000 -B
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0003,0004
Boot0001* Linux Boot Manager PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/NVMe(0x1,00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00)/HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
Boot0003* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 2.0PMAP PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/CDROM(1,0x2602e0,0x7d840)0000424f
Boot0004* UEFI OS HD(1,GPT,9e3b7982-8adb-4e82-8ff7-330c6b4a8e60,0x800,0xc8000)/\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI0000424f
[root@archiso /]# exit
exit
root@archiso ~ # umount /mnt/efi
root@archiso ~ # umount /mnt/boot
root@archiso ~ # umount /mnt
root@archiso ~ # exit

This seemed to work, but when booting back into the BIOS setup this new entry was not listed as one of the boot options, and the system would not boot to it.

So the next attempt was to boot the arch install iso ( December 2025 archiso ) on usb, as before, and select the UEFI Shell. Once in the UEFI shell, it is possible to use the bcfg command to write a boot entry directly:

bcfg boot add 0 FS1:\EFIzsystemd\systemd-bootx64.efi "SD Boot"

This seemed to work, and indeed, the BIOS setup shows this new entry as the first priority boot option - but - booting cold the system still will not boot to this new item. So this looks either like a very buggy efi implementation, or there is a critical setting in the BIOS that I need to change - but I cannot find what it is. In versions of the BIOS from this hardware from a few years ago there was a setting under the chipset tab in the BIOS setup to change from Windows Boot to Linux Boot - but this option appears absent in the current BIOS.

If anyone can offer any suggestions at all to help with this it would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by mcloaked (2025-12-12 19:18:48)

mcloaked · 2025-12-12 22:12:32

Another user helped with the key to get my system going - I had simply forgotten that the efifs package is needed for the drivers to be in the efi partition - that allow the boot to proceed when reading the boot files in the (ext4) /boot partition. A simple error - and placing the driver files in the efi allows the system to boot without any problem. So this is solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-12-11 11:47:10

[SOLVED] Install issue on Mele Quieter 4C

#2 2025-12-12 19:18:13

Re: [SOLVED] Install issue on Mele Quieter 4C

#3 2025-12-12 22:12:32

Re: [SOLVED] Install issue on Mele Quieter 4C

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