Debian 12 (Bookworm) on T8Plus: Installation Report

[ccurley]

I took delivery of two T8+ computers recently. I am bringing one up as a router running Debian 12.2 (Bookworm).

A full hardware probe of the machine is at Linux Hardware Note that this was run over SSH, so any monitor information is incorrect. However, it does work with an NEC EA244WMi connected directly.

I first used a live CD to test the machine. I then used gparted to shrink the Windows partition to 60 G, giving me 177G for Linux, plenty for this application. I then booted to Windows so that it would do any necessary fixup on its partition.

I then installed using a netinst image on a USB stick, and a second USB stick for my preseed file and some post-installation scripts. All has gone well, with one glitch.

The glitch was that after the installation the T8+ refused to boot to Linux, going directly into Windows. To make the grub bootloader active after installing Linux and GRUB, in the firmware:

During boot, hit escape or delete to get into the firmware.

Security -> Secure Boot -> Enabled

Boot -> UEFI BBS Priorities -> Debian boot option

Save & Exit -> Save Changes and Exit

Note: Memtest86 does not appear to work. I believe this is a problem with Memtest86, per emails on the Debian User list.

Power use: 5 watts when idle, .28 KWH.