Rocky 9.5 Install Failing with LUKS Encryption

Rocky Linux Help & Support
1

Hoping to get some direction here as I’m totally lost on whats happening.
Trying to install Rocky 9.5 on an ASUS NUC Pro model NUC14RVK, the install works totally fine without the LUKS encryption, boots up normally and I can ssh in no problem.
However when I enable LUKS encryption, the install totally crashes in the middle of it, and the NUC shuts off and becomes unresponsive. I’ve tried disabling secure boot in the bios, and that didn’t change anything (not sure what it would affect in this situation anyways as the install doesn’t reboot in the middle of it typically). When I do finally get the NUC to turn back on again (by disconnecting and reconnecting the power supply), it just boots in to GRUB and I’m not really sure what I can do with GRUB to fix the issue if thats at all possible.
I’ve tried accessing log files with the recovery option from my install media, but I can’t seem to find them if they’re accessible that way and I’m honestly stuck.
I’ve tried two different systems, I’ve tried two different versions of Rocky 9, the only thing I haven’t tried that I can reasonably change is the USB stick but my office requires specific ones for security reasons so I haven’t gotten to it yet.

I’d say the install typically fails around the same spot everytime, after downloading files. Also the drive encryption does work because when I use the recovery option from the install media it asks for the password.

If anyone has any ideas, even just how to get to the log files so I can better diagnose the issue, I would love any help. Honestly haven’t even been sure what to google for this because most install issues I find aren’t DURING the install itself, just before and after.

2

If it crashes in the middle of the installation process, that means the installation process hasn’t finished, and your system won’t boot anyway.

Have you tried doing say a Debian/Ubuntu installation with cryptsetup and does that also crash? Or does the installation finish and then everything boots normally?

Also, when installing Rocky, what partition layout are you using? I would expect /boot, /boot/efi to be separate and not encrypted from what I remember since the system won’t boot if these are encrypted.

3

Yes, I’ve installed Ubuntu Server on the same model NUC with the same NVMe with LUKS and it was successful.
I’m using the automatic partition layout, with the Workstation set of applications to install.
I just tried the install again to double check what layout I was using and I watched for specifically when the system shuts down, and it was right after installing the applications when it was configuring system files. I saw configuring system.d and then straight to a black screen.

4

Update, in case anyone else runs into a similar issue somehow:

I used the minimal install iso, with the same settings, and everything installed correctly. Then I added in the workstation packages post install and that also installed successfully. I’m really not sure where the issue was, but the minimal install did the trick!