[x86-64] LE 12.2 doesn't boot on ASUS Chromebox (CN60)

scaesare · October 6, 2025 at 10:48 PM

So, I upgraded my ASUS Chrome box to 12.2 (from 12.02) via the LibreElec settings page.

After successfully unpacking the .TAR file and updating the kernel and system, after the first reboot and splash page, I get no GUI, but rather a pointer, that flickers and reappears every few seconds... as if the graphics subsystem is in a restart loop... apparently the network isn't up either as I can't ping it SSH into it. Subsequent reboots do no good.. same behavior.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

**Da Flex** · October 6, 2025 at 10:59 PM

What did you installed exactly? LE x86-64 legacy? What are your hardware specs?

scaesare · October 6, 2025 at 11:21 PM

I installed 12.2 non-legacy via the LibreElec setting app as outlined on THIS page:

Quote

Users with 12.0 installs, or 11.0 installs on x86_64 hardware, can manually update as normal using the LibreELEC settings add-on or by placing an update file in the /storage/.update folder.

In the settings app I selected the 12.2 channel, and it showed as available. This is the same process I've used to upgrade a number of times on this box. I believe if it HAD been legacy (as I had to do on another box) the channel name in the settings app would have specified that?

It's an ASUS Chromebox CN 60 as described HERE. It uses an Intel 2955U CPU with integrated Intel (not NVIDIA) graphics.

Thanks for responding and any help.

scaesare · October 7, 2025 at 7:30 PM

Following up on this...

I dug out another identical Chromebox CN60 I had x86 generic_legacy 12.0 on. For it, there is no 12.2 Update Channel listed in the settings app, but did have an 12.0.2 available version. I updated to that, and after reboot, still had no 12.2 listed as a Channel or available as a version.

It does turn out that "legacy" is only called out in the "About" pane of the settings app not the Update Channel name as I had thought. However, the fact that 12.2 was not available on the generic_legacy installation but had been on the one stuck in the loop tends to reinforce the borked one was indeed not a legacy install.

I can get into the BIOS boot menu, so could ostensibly boot from alternate media (USB or file?). But if that doesn't buy me anything, then I may have to just re-install...

**chewitt** · October 8, 2025 at 7:47 AM

Reinstall the spare box with the latest LE13 nightly 'Generic' image. If there is no Kodi GUI after, the Samba server is on/enabled by default and when you access the 'Logfiles' share over the network Samba generates a zip archive containing a bunch of logs. Share the zip so we can see what's happening (or not).

scaesare · October 8, 2025 at 8:04 PM

To be clear, by "spare box" are you referring to the 2nd one I referred to that is currently running legacy 12.0.2 or the initial one that's borked?

I'm a tad hesitant to crater the second one as it's now been pressed into service in light of the initial one having failed...

**chewitt** · October 9, 2025 at 6:58 AM

In 99%+ of cases where a user reports "Kodi doesn't start" the OS is running happily in the background and if SSH has been enabled you can login via SSH to capture logs. If SSH is not enabled, drop 12.0 files in the 'Updates' Samba share and reboot to downgrade to the earlier release and enable SSH, then update to the problem version again.

Alternatively, boot from a 12.0 installer USB, interrupt boot and type 'run' to boot/run from USB instead of installing, then enable SSH to access the console and edit syslinux.cfg in the internal drive's boot partition (mounted under /var/media/) to append 'ssh' to kernel boot params so the SSH daemon is forced to start on boot. Then shutdown and reboot to the problem OS to poke around and share logs.

Or just do as suggested; access the 'Logfiles' share on 'a' problem box and upload the zip here. Until you share some evidence of the problem we have no idea what the issue might be, and cannot do anything more for you.

scaesare · October 10, 2025 at 4:07 PM

As I mentioned in my original post, I can't ping it nor SSH in to it... as a matter of fact looking at my DHCP server I don't see a lease for it..., so feels like it's rebooting very early in the process...

I had already imaged 12.2 on to USB boot media. and when booting that (using either "run" or "live"), it wants to run the Install Wizard with no obvious way to break out of it (ESC, nor CTRL-C work) to enable SSH ...

Thanks for the response and guidance...

**chewitt** · October 11, 2025 at 2:16 PM

It's years since I booted the Generic image so I have fuzzy recall, but press keys when the syslinux prompt is showing and it should stop and allow you to correct and type 'run' and not enter the installer.

Another idea if it's failing early is edit syslinux.cfg and remove 'quiet' from boot params and it will dump the system log to screen. If it fails with an obvious kernel splat take a picture and share it. Or take a video on a phone in slow-mo mode with a high frame rate and the resulting video can be scrolled through to look for errors.

**Da Flex** · October 12, 2025 at 5:19 PM

I think your GPU is not supported on any Linux:

Quote from scaesare

It's an ASUS Chromebox CN 60 as described HERE.

Quote

Linux GPU Support : No

**chewitt** · October 12, 2025 at 9:21 PM

Quote from Da Flex

I think your GPU is not supported on any Linux

How do you explain it working on 12.0 then ???

**Da Flex** · October 12, 2025 at 11:53 PM

Quote from chewitt

How do you explain it working on 12.0 then ???

Maybe the GPU is not supported by newer kernels, and older kernels had an unofficial driver.

scaesare Can you compare the BIOS options of the working and non-working box? Maybe that's all it needs for booting LE.

**chewitt** · October 13, 2025 at 7:15 AM

If 12.0 works and 12.2 (or 13.0) does not work the issue is most likely in the kernel, or we broke EFI boot, but the latter would likely be flagged on a bunch of hardware. Without some kind of log/error to provide a hint on where the problem is, it's hard to comment.

CN60 is listed here https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html so the hardware is supported. How old is the MrChromebox firmware?

scaesare · October 13, 2025 at 6:06 PM

Thanks again for the response...

Perhaps I'm missing something, but as I mentioned above:

Quote

...when booting that (using either "run" or "live"), it wants to run the Install Wizard with no obvious way to break out of it..

According to the LibreELEC boot menu:

"run" = booting using RAM for temp storage

"live" = booting using the USB for temp storage.

Both run Kodi, however, ... and then auto-start the install wizard, with no apparent way to exit out of it and/or drop to a shell, enable, SSH, etc...

I guess I'll see if I can build a generic Linux boot USB and see I can then mount the Chromebox's internal SSD and edit syslinux.cfg unless I'm simply missing something about how to exit the Install Wizard...

Thanks.

Quote from Da Flex

I think your GPU is not supported on any Linux:

Quote from chewitt

How do you explain it working on 12.0 then ???

Yeah, it's been working for several years, and was on 12.0.2. It was one of the devices listed on Mr. Chromebox's page and I used his script to flash the firmware & install LibreELEC.

**chewitt** · October 13, 2025 at 6:39 PM

I'm not sure whether Chromeboxes boot using syslinux or EFI boot, but the boot menu is in the syslinux.cfg file (for syslinux) or a file under the EFI directory for EFI. Both files are human readable and you should be able to edit the boot menu to change the default option from install to live, then you don't need to hit a key. You can also place "textmode" somewhere in the list of boot params and the box will boot to a text console instead of Kodi. That's sometimes useful for narrowing down whether it's the kernel that causes the problem or not. If the OS is usable then the issue probably lies in the userspace side of the graphics stack and if you manually start Kodi via its systemd service while also accessing via SSH to tail logs, you might get some clues. Adding "ssh" to boot params forces the daemon to start.

**Da Flex** · October 13, 2025 at 7:27 PM

Quote from scaesare

Yeah, it's been working for several years, and was on 12.0.2. It was one of the devices listed on Mr. Chromebox's page and I used his script to flash the firmware & install LibreELEC.

Do you use the same BIOS settings in both boxes?

scaesare · October 21, 2025 at 7:15 PM

Quote from chewitt

I'm not sure whether Chromeboxes boot using syslinux or EFI boot, but the boot menu is in the syslinux.cfg file (for syslinux) or a file under the EFI directory for EFI. Both files are human readable and you should be able to edit the boot menu to change the default option from install to live, then you don't need to hit a key. You can also place "textmode" somewhere in the list of boot params and the box will boot to a text console instead of Kodi. That's sometimes useful for narrowing down whether it's the kernel that causes the problem or not. If the OS is usable then the issue probably lies in the userspace side of the graphics stack and if you manually start Kodi via its systemd service while also accessing via SSH to tail logs, you might get some clues. Adding "ssh" to boot params forces the daemon to start.

Got back from travel, and had a chance to do this. Appended "SSH" to the "run" option to boot the 12.2 installer on USB using RAM for storage, I was able to SSH in. The internal SSD is sdb and on in the .kodi/temp/kodi.log I find:

2025-10-13 17:09:20.550 T:1099 info <general>: CAESinkALSA::Initialize - Attempting to open device "hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0"
2025-10-13 17:09:20.571 T:1099 info <general>: CAESinkALSA::Initialize - Opened device "hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0,AES0=0x04,AES1=0x82,AES2=0x00,AES3=0x00"
2025-10-13 17:09:20.572 T:1099 info <general>: CAESinkALSA::InitializeHW - Your hardware does not support AE_FMT_FLOAT, trying other formats
2025-10-13 17:09:20.572 T:1099 info <general>: CAESinkALSA::InitializeHW - Using data format AE_FMT_S32NE
2025-10-13 17:09:25.483 T:1087 info <general>: Saving exitCode 66
2025-10-13 17:09:26.069 T:1087 info <general>: Quitting due to POSIX signal
2025-10-13 17:09:26.086 T:1087 info <general>: Stopping the application...
2025-10-13 17:09:26.086 T:1087 info <general>: Stopping player
2025-10-13 17:09:26.086 T:1087 info <general>: Storing total System Uptime
2025-10-13 17:09:26.086 T:1087 info <general>: Saving settings
2025-10-13 17:09:26.090 T:1087 info <general>: Saving skin settings
2025-10-13 17:09:26.090 T:1087 info <general>: Stopping all
2025-10-13 17:09:26.090 T:1087 info <general>: ES: Stopping event server
2025-10-13 17:09:26.155 T:1115 info <general>: ES: UDP Event server stopped
2025-10-13 17:09:26.198 T:1122 error <general>: Exception ignored on calling ctypes callback function
2025-10-13 17:09:26.198 T:1122 error <general>: :
2025-10-13 17:09:26.198 T:1122 error <general>: <function Connection.add_filter.<locals>.wrap_function at 0x7f79e0df70a0>
2025-10-13 17:09:26.198 T:1122 error <general>:

2025-10-13 17:09:26.198 T:1122 error <general>: Traceback (most recent call last):

2025-10-13 17:09:26.198 T:1122 error <general>: File "/usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/dbussy.py", line 2616, in wrap_function

2025-10-13 17:09:26.199 T:1122 error <general>: File "/usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ravel.py", line 2036, in _message_interface_dispatch

2025-10-13 17:09:26.199 T:1122 error <general>: File "/usr/share/kodi/addons/service.libreelec.settings/resources/lib/dbus_bluez.py", line 70, in Release

2025-10-13 17:09:26.199 T:1122 error <general>: NotImplementedError
2025-10-13 17:09:26.199 T:1122 error <general>: :
2025-10-13 17:09:26.199 T:1122 error <general>:
2025-10-13 17:09:26.199 T:1122 error <general>:

2025-10-13 17:09:26.270 T:1087 info <general>: CWSDiscoveryListenerUDP::Stop - Stopped
2025-10-13 17:09:26.270 T:1087 info <general>: stopping zeroconf publishing
2025-10-13 17:09:26.280 T:1113 info <general>: SETTINGS: stop_service # ## LibreELEC Addon ## STOP SERVICE DONE !
2025-10-13 17:09:26.280 T:1127 info <general>: SETTINGS: run # updateThread Stopped
2025-10-13 17:09:26.280 T:1128 info <general>: SETTINGS: run # Received exit
2025-10-13 17:09:26.692 T:1087 info <general>: Application stopped
2025-10-13 17:09:27.276 T:1087 info <general>: AddOnLog: peripheral.joystick: Disabling joystick interface "linux"
2025-10-13 17:09:27.276 T:1087 info <general>: ADDON: Dll Destroyed - Joystick Support
2025-10-13 17:09:27.276 T:1087 info <general>: unload skin
2025-10-13 17:09:27.291 T:1087 info <general>: Unloaded skin
2025-10-13 17:09:27.321 T:1087 info <general>: unload sections
2025-10-13 17:09:27.323 T:1087 info <general>: CWSDiscoveryListenerUDP::Stop - Stopped
2025-10-13 17:09:27.934 T:1087 info <general>: Exiting the application...

This appears to be choking after attempting to initialize graphics hardware. Interestingly the 12.2 installer booting from USB boots in to it's GUI just fine...

Quote from Da Flex

Do you use the same BIOS settings in both boxes?

Yes. There are practically none.

**chewitt** · October 22, 2025 at 9:14 AM

Always share the whole log (and system log) else you're missing a ton of useful info. Just run "pastekodi" and share the URL.