So my late 2014 MacMini is dying. Running very hot and starting to lag quite a bit. Not surprised, it is 10 years old. So I’m getting a new budget/mid range mini pc. Should arrive tomorrow. It’s coming with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. Specs below…
KAMRUI AK2 Plus Mini PC
12th Gen Intel Alder Lake-N100 Processor
(4C/4T, 6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz , 6 W TDP)
Integrated Intel UHD Graphics
16 GB DDR4 RAM
512 GB m.2 NVMe SSD (For OS)
1 TB 2.5" SSD (Extra Storage)
Gigabit Ethernet support
2.4G+5.0G dual-band WiFi 5
Bluetooth 4.2
2 Full Sized HDMI Ports
2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3
Combo Headphone/Mic Jack
My main question is do I actually need to boot into Windows first, or can I move straight to installing EOS via ISO on USB Thumbdrive and not deal with Windows at all?
You don’t need to boot up Windows If you don’t want.
Just disable Secure Boot in the firmware settings, boot up your live usb, test drive it a bit to see everything works. If so, launch the installer and choose “erase and install” (or manual option if you want a customized install).
If there is something not working, perhaps it would be a good idea to post about it here to see if there is a solution.
There’s actually one very good reason to fire up a prebuilt Windows machine before you do anything else, since it’s already preinstalled and preconfigured - checking that the hardware is all in good shape.
The last thing you want to do is blow the OS away, jump straight into EOS, and then have to play “is it just a Linux problem I can solve with some research or is this component DOA and I just have to RMA the box and try again” for an indeterminate amount of time if something isn’t playing ball out of the box.
Good point. I just didn’t want to go through the process of logging into my Microsoft account to register the machine if I didn’t need to. Considering Microsoft did away with local user accounts. Or at least made creating a local account a workaround mess.
You just have to know the dark arts of the microsoft command prompt
Don’t connect to a network on first boot, wired or otherwise.
Instead, when you get to the network setup screen of the initial setup, hit shift+F10 to bring up the command prompt and then run OOBE\BYPASSNRO
You’ll reboot and when the setup screen comes up again, make sure you still haven’t accidentally plugged in an ethernet cable and the “I don’t have internet” button will magically be back so you can local account to your heart’s content
Pleasantly surprised at the setup to get started with this minipc. The Windows setup is local account by default. Secure boot is also off by default. A ran across a comment at Reddit where someone posted about the Kamrui mini PCs saying that they ship with Windows but are “Linux-ready.” Seems to be the case here. I’m going to see if there are any firmware updates and see if I can get EOS installed today or tomorrow. So far so good. Well… except for being on Windows 11 at the moment.
