unable to boot linux live USB

[peakw4nk]

Hello all and thanks in advance. Trying to install Linux on  my brand new HP Z2 Mini G5, but although it is stated to be "Linux ready", I have serious troubles:

The problem: I created a live USB stick with the latest Solus 4.3 (Budgie) in order to try it out. However, when booting up, these messages popped up ("SGX disable by BIOS", multiple ACPI error, such as "AE_NOT_FOUND, While resolving a named reference package element PV01 (20210331/dspkginit-438)" and an usbhid error ‘couldn’t find an input interrupt endpoint'). At this point the boot sequence gets stuck and nothing further happens.

Link to image of my screen: https://ibb.co/zFPFW6T

My system: HP Z2 Mini G5
Intel Core i5
NVIDIA Quadro P620
2 SSD discs (currently both with Windows 10, planning to dedicate one to Solus).

What I didto troubleshoot this:

0) Updated BIOS (and disabled secure boot, however, couldn’t locate the ‘Legacy’ option, which I saw suggested in related problems).

1) Based on some posts (such as https://askubuntu.com/questions/139157/booting-ubuntu-with-acpi-off-grub-parameter and the first two answers there), I tried modifying the GRUB options for acpi. I went through the whole list of acpi = off/ noapic/ acpi=noirq etc. provided in the second answer in the link with little to no change. Also tried getting around the graphics card by nomodeset to no effect.

2) I tried using the usb stick in my older Dell laptop, where I was able to boot up Solus from it without issue, so I think the stick isn’t the problem.

3) Instead of using Gnome MultiWrite, I tried creating the live stick with Rufus (with the dd option). No change.

4) To see if it was something specific to Solus (as opposed to my system/mistake), I tried creating live sticks of several Ubuntu versions. 21.04, 20.04 and 18.04 got stuck in the same manner. 16.04 kinda loaded, but the desktop was squeezed to about one third of its height in the middle. Ubuntu 14.04 loaded without problems.

5) After trying the “noquiet” GRUB option, I saw that the boot sequence gets stuck at “fb0: switching to nouveaufb from simple”. Next, I think what I did next was to try the
nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0, which led the sequence to get stuck indefinitely on “Input: HDA Intel PCH Front Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input16

6) I tried another usb drive and flashed it using balena Etcher, same bad result. (Btw, the Ubuntu 14.04 which previously worked actually worked on a yet different usb stick and on the "main" one).

7) I tried to replicate the advice in  this post ( https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/How-to-install-Ubuntu-Linux-on-...), but I cannot replicate it exactly due to the missing "Legacy" options in the BIOS/UEFI settings of my G5 model (the poster had G4). Aparently, someone on HP fora already complained about the G5 support for linux here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/HP-Z2-G5-workstati...

 The alternate image linked in the post was actually for the server verison, I got some errors, but was able to proceed with the installation. I did not follow through with it, as that is not what I want, but I saw that it got past the critical point in the boot sequence where I usually get stuck and it actually loaded the OS/installer.

😎(this is supposed to be "point number 8", not an emoji)  I also made sure to try different USB ports - I was initially using a cheap USB hub and thought it could cause issues, so I also tried disconnecting it, plugging keyboard and USB right into the PC. No change.

9) It was also suggested to me to check the USB management in BIOS (as one of the errors concerns "Human Input Device"), but I do not see anything odd there, either - all ports are allowed.

10) Some people (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/acpi-error-ae_not_found-dspkginit-414-a-417568679...) say that the at least the acpi errors are due to a firmware bug - badly implemented ACPI tables, but I have no idea how to verify (or solve) that and I already played around with disabling acpi in GRUB (my original post).
I also tried making the USB stick with using NTFS instead of FAT32, as suggested, but no result.

If you got this far, thanks a lot for reading this and would be grateful for any suggestions or insights.

[WAWood]

@peakw4nk 

I'm sorry, but HP does not provide support for Linux distros -- including boot and installation issues.

IF you replace the preloaded Windows OS with a Linux distro, or add a Linux distro, then you assume full responsibility for maintaining that -- including solving any problems with booting the other OS and/or installing the other OS.

Modern PCs with UEFI, instead of the older BIOS, are especially difficult to install because you have to go into the UEFI settings and make several changes before you can even boot from a USB stick -- and we are unable to assist in that work.

Your best bet for support now is to contact the support forum of the distro you are using.

[peakw4nk]

What a disappointing attitude.  One would expect that when outsourcing the support to the “community”, the company would at least not prevent volunteers in their forums from providing  help with Linux-specific issues, especially since HP themselves claim this product to be Ubuntu and RHEL certified, listing it in its “Linux Hardware Matrix” overview: (https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA7-6280ENW). 

Not to mention that the FAQs at https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c00269588 do not make any provisions for “support for Windows machines only”, either.