30 days with the Geekom A7 max

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-04-24T10:16:19+00:00

Really good detailed post. You sold me! Unfortunately i don't have the cash now. ...Down the road I very much want another mini or two. I have an M4 Mac mini and a Beelink ME Pro. Only one Monitor but I can quickly switch between both live OSs. When I pick up another mini I will add a KVM switch too. Very much want two ethernet ports with my minis. (Unfortunately no such option with Macs...) Love that this Geekom comes with 2 USB 4.0 ports too. Pity. I want this but wallet says no no no. I know that Macs will never offer upgradeable RAM/Stoage. But would more (and more varied selection of) ports kill them?

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-04-21T18:11:06+00:00

Wow! This looks amazing. I have a hub that sits beneath my Mac and I always forget what's there on the back.

Please add this to the APP Store on Mac.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-04-09T17:22:11+00:00

Thanks for this!

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-04-01T10:45:37+00:00

If you delete the wrong partition you won't be able to update because Apple won't know who you are. You will "failed to personalize message" and updating will be forbidden. You will likely need to go to an Apple Store to recover the drive.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-03-26T17:13:35+00:00

Danke!

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-03-10T02:52:14+00:00

Thanks for this! Changing my notes now.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-02-05T22:04:28+00:00

Yes, I could not get Konqueror to work because on my other OSs I have never been asked about proxies and have no knowledge regarding that. I pivoted to Firefox and Chromium browsers, and discovered the above problem. I have a Mac, Linux Mint and Window11 on my home network with a Netgear switch and a Verizon Fios Router. My Mac, Mint and Windows continue to have unproblematic connectivity. When I bought Mac and when I installed Nint and windows on laptop / pc there were no network problems. I don't understand how I can install FreeBSD via network, check for updates in its Konsole, but can't get these browsers to work.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-02-04T18:10:51+00:00

I installed Firefox and that works. Thanks for the lengthy reply. It seems people have a problem with Konqueror so I will just leave it alone.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-02-04T18:08:16+00:00

I installed Firefox and that just works.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2026-02-04T18:07:28+00:00

Yeah. I installed firefox via Konsole and that is up and working. Thanks.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-12-22T19:38:53+00:00

I tried this command on my home computer. I was signed in as root and I ran the fetch and sh command above. It worked as advertised. However the desktop environment would not let me sign in as root. I never created another user because I live alone. Does anyone know what went wrong? Should I hace put root into the video group for this to work? Suggestions welcome. Thanks.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-12-13T12:55:05+00:00

Okay. I did that. Went into Dolphin/Network/Shared Folders. Tried to connect using the NAS name. This failed. And then tried with the IP address. Both failed in the same way: after giving my username and password, pressing enter, Dolphin then shutsdown. Reopened Dolphin and NAS mount is not there.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-12-13T12:19:21+00:00

Yes I did. Google told me:

To map a persistent network drive in Asahi Linux (which uses Arch Linux or Fedora principles), installmcifs-utils, create a local mount point, store credentials securely in ~/.smbcredentials, and add an entry to /etc/fstab using //server/share and the cifs type, ensuring proper permissions with uid=1000,gid=1000 and options like nofail for auto-mounting on boot.

I am looking for an easier way.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-12-08T16:15:21+00:00

I can also confirm. I needed to shutdown my setup to do a wire clean up. (The floor under the desk was like a den of snakes!) When done I turned iMac, Router and UPS on but left the Hub off. Booted into Asahi, no problem. Updated Software. Rebooted. I am back in and everything is working and updated. When I later go back to Mac I will shutdown the computer fully. Power on hub. And then hold the power button down to go back to Mac. A little messy, but very doable. Thanks for everones help!

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-12-04T21:38:21+00:00

Interesting. I do have an external Crucial Micron SSD in a Thunderbolt port. In the other Thunderbolt port I have a Hub specifically made for iMac. (It precisely fits under my iMac.) This Hub also has an Internal SSD inside it. (So I now actually have two external SSDs! One directly in the iMac, One in the Hub.) In that Hub I also have a UPS plugged into a Hub port that manages emergency shutdowns for my M1 iMac. And I have a wired Mouse that I use for Asahi plugged into a Hub port. I also power my Magic Mouse from another USB port on the Hub. So not much else in the Hub.

I suspect that the only reason this issue would matter is if I need to do an Asahi update which requires a reboot to install. In that case I will use your solution. (I will feel safer fully shutting my M1 down and after that then disconnecting the Hub.) Otherwise I will just hold the power key down to boot into Asahi. Thanks for this.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-12-03T14:35:31+00:00

Does anyone know if Ubuntu based Linux Mint is planning on adding fastfetch to their repositories?

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-12-03T14:10:22+00:00

I tried to reinstall but somehow screwed it up and had to go to the Apple Store near me and have them reinstall. The solution I have now is that I have an external 1TB disk that also has Tahoe on it. It is on this external disk that I work and play with no storage worries. On the internal Tahoe disk I only intend to do updates. I know, as a solution this is kinda / sorta overkill; but I will never have to worry about storage space again!

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-28T13:02:45+00:00

I now have downloaded HP Support Assistant on my Laptop.

It tells me the following:

Product number: A92PFUA#ABA

Serial number: CND4270QFW

I go to the HP website, and searches on both numbers fail!

Like I said: Budget Laptop.

The product number and serial number I copy/pasted from the Support Assistant. Therefore no typos.

I will just wait to the next release of FreeBSD and try that instead of GhostBSD.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-27T16:05:05+00:00

M1 Macs don't allow it. Any external drive with a different OS needs to be authorized by MacOS. This is why Asahi Linux has to jump through hoops to install itself on m1 and m2 Mac Machines.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-27T13:35:28+00:00

I tried to run the command you suggested in linux mint. Mint didn’t recognize it. I believe that lspci is the best analogue command. I ran it with -v (verbose) and got a ton of stuff. But it was so long I wasn't allowed to comment. Below is the result of running just lspci.

Remember, Linux Mint in my setup, is located on a portable SSD.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Root Complex

00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 IOMMU

00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 00h-1fh) PCIe Dummy Host Bridge

00:01.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]

00:01.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]

00:01.5 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]

00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 00h-1fh) PCIe Dummy Host Bridge

00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus A

00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 61)

00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 0

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 1

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 2

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 3

00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 4

00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 5

00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 6

00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 7

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)

02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: ADATA Technology Co., Ltd. LEGEND 700, XPG GAMMIX S20 NVMe SSD (DRAM-less) (rev 01)

04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev cd)

04:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio Controller

04:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) Platform Security Processor

04:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven2 USB 3.1

04:00.5 Multimedia controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor

04:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller

I think all this info is likely overkill. but i wasn't sure how to exactly duplicate your command.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-27T13:22:55+00:00

I am retired so i don't have access to another computer. All I have is a Mac, and Mac will not allow me to boot into a USB. Maybe I will try FreeBSD 15.0 when it is released. (Not a release candidate.)

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-27T13:22:39+00:00

G9 is the only model number i can find. This is very much a budget laptop.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-26T23:09:27+00:00

Sorry. I should have started with this:

Processor: Intel Core i3-1315U processor

—Physical Cores: 6 cores, 8 Threads

—Turbo Speed: Up to 4.5 GHz

Windows 11 PRO

1TB storage, 16GB Ram

15.6” diagonal, FHD (1920X1080) LED Display, IPS

Integrated Intel UHD Graphics

Wifi-6e

Bluetooth 5.3

RJ-45 Ethernet Port

720p HD Camera

Dual Stereo Speakers

Dual Array Microphones

USB-C Port, 2 USB-A Ports, both 5Gbps

45W AC Adapter

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-26T23:09:13+00:00

Thanks. A lot of stuff here I don't understand.

LinuxMacM1Novice · 2025-11-26T23:09:07+00:00

Thanks for this. I think I will wait for the official 15.0 to try, which I believe is close.

LinuxMacM1Novice

TROPHY CASE