Install suddenly crashes on new PC

Hey all, new to Umbrel.

Just purchased this mini-pc to serve as my new Bitcoin node as it was a decent deal during Amazon Prime Day.

I burned the Umbrel image onto a USB drive with Balena Etcher and boot from it – I see the cool linux-esque ANSI text as the system is initializing, then it shows me the main installer menu, asking me to select a storage device by number. I can see my USB drive as an option and my hard drive. However, that screen only stays there for approximately 2 second before turning black. The screen doesn’t shut off and the PC is still on, but it’s just a black screen. Only way out of it is to power off the PC. I can attempt to quickly enter “2” for my hard drive, but it doesn’t actually seem to accept any input at this point.

Anybody have any ideas what might be going on?

Not sure if it’s worth noting, but the PC came with Windows 11 and was working fine until I attempted to boot off the USB and install Umbrel. Now when I don’t have the USB stick inserted, it takes me to an ASCII menu for “GNU GRUB version 2.04”. I have a selection box with one selection: “*Dummy Entry for Debug.”. I can drop to a “minimal bash-like line editing” CLI from here. So even without being able to select the drive I want to install to, it looks like it’s already done something to the HD that is preventing it from operating as it was originally.

Update:
Still not luck with booting into the Umbrel OS installer. I found another post and someone recommended to install straight Debian, then install docker, pull the Umbrel github repo and install from there.

I had the same issue with Debian not starting, saying “No suitable video mode found. Boot in blind mode.” I got around this by waiting for the GRUB menu to appear, then hitting “e” to edit the kernel line and add the arg “nomodeset”. This worked! I got into Debian, dropped to a terminal, apt installed Docker, pulled the Umbrel repo and tried to run the install script, only to be met with the error that Umbrel no longer supports direct installation and you have to use the UmbrelOS installer. :person_facepalming:

At this point I’m not certain how to proceed. Seems like this could be an easy fix to the Umber installer.

I have some confidence this will solve my issue even though I’m having some troubles doing it.