Hardware (ASUS prebuilt desktop):
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ASUS ROG Strix G15DS (OEM prebuilt — limited BIOS)
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AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
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NVIDIA RTX 3070
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M.2 NVMe (Windows on one SSD; empty second SSD as Linux target — dual-boot intent)
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Monitor on DisplayPort (also tested HDMI)
Symptom:
GRUB menu loads fine. After selecting any entry, boot freezes at the EFI stub stage. Last lines on screen:
EFI stub: Loaded initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path
EFI stub: Measured initrd data into PCR 9
These lines show only on linux mint with compatibility enabled other distros get stuck before, right on choosing install.
Then a frozen screen — no kernel messages ever appear, keyboard goes unresponsive. Have to hard-power-off.
Already tried (no change):
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All three GRUB entries: default CachyOS, LTS Kernel, Legacy Hardware (GPU nomodeset)
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Kernel params:
nomodeset,nouveau.modeset=0,iommu=off,acpi=off -
Secure Boot disabled (OS Type → Other OS, cleared Secure Boot keys — confirmed off)
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BIOS updated to latest (ASUS Windows updater)
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fTPM disabled (TPM Device → Discrete TPM) — hang just moved from the PCR 9 line up to the “Loaded initrd” line, so TPM isn’t the root cause
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Tested all video outputs: GPU DisplayPort, GPU HDMI, and motherboard iGPU HDMI — identical hang on all
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Single monitor only
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USB re-flashed in DD mode (Rufus); also tried ISO mode
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Cross-checked other distros: Bazzite (NVIDIA) and Linux Mint Cinnamon hang at the exact same EFI stub line — so it’s not CachyOS-specific or a GPU/driver issue (fails before the kernel even starts)
Any way to solve this? I would love to use cachyOS