Hello Qubes Forum!
I have been troubleshooting trying to install Qubes 4.2 on my machine, which has already been running Q4.1 for over a year. I am not doing an in-place upgrade as I still need to utilize my main install while troubleshooting. I will be attempting an in-place after I successfully get an install running on a separate drive.
I am able to proceed through the Install, all the way up till the Initial Startup where it installs the template qubes etc. After installing and rebooting, I am brought to a screen that says
LightDM.service …
start hold until boot process finishes
This brought me to this thread here
https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/start-hold-until-boot-process-finishes-blackscreen-or-reboot-after-decryption-post-install/15561
Apparently for them there is a PCI device interfering with startup in the sys-usb qube, and the fix is to skip the initial startup, remove the PCI device from sys-usb, and then manually start the initial startup again.
I tried to do this, however quitting the initial startup reboots me and stays still at a console window, manually turning off the machine and rebooting does not bring up initial startup again but instead leaves me stuck at the start hold until boot process finishes like before.
I am not sure if I am doing this correctly, after quitting out of the startup are you supposed to reboot to get a GUI with no qubes? or remove the PCI device via console?
I then tried editing the grub config, removing QUIET and entering qubes.skip_autostart
Doing this, it is able to proceed past the start hold until boot process finishes. The console output I get looks like this
plymouth-quit-wait.service - hold until boot process finishes
Bluetooth: hci0: Waiting for firmware download to complete
Bluetooth: hci0: Firmware loaded into 1452964 usecs
Bluetooth: hci0: Waiting for device to boot
Bluetooth: hci0: Malformed MSFT vendor eventL 0x02
Bluetooth: hci0: Device booted in 15881 usecs
Bluetooth: hci0:Found Intel DDC parameters: intel/ibt-1040-0041.ddc
Bluetooth: hci0: Applying Intel DDC parameters completed
Bluetooth: hci0: Firmware timestamp 2023.35 buildtype 1 build 70976 kauditd_printk_skb: 204 callbacks suppressed
audit: type=1131 audit(1710129487 .548:232): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg=‘unit=systemd-rfkill comm=“systemd” exe=“/usr/lib/systemd/systemd” hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success’
I am not sure where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated 
Hardware
Motherboard: MSI Z790 PRO DDR4
CPU: Intel I7-13700KF
RAM: 32GB DDR4
GFX: PNY RTX 4070 TI
Other Notes
- For my Qubes 4.1 install, I have to install with kernel-latest or the GUI is slow and choppy, kernel-latest works as intended. I am using the same graphics card on Qubes 4.2.
- I am using Dasharo custom bios, which has improved the install actually as it fixed other problems that were prevalent before flashing it.
- I have tried installing with and without kernel-latest on Q4.2
- I have tried removing ALL USB devices, which did not help anything
- I am yet to try a different install media / destination, but do not see this as being the issue
I am thinking it is either a graphics card issue, or a bluetooth / PCI device issue but I am not sure.
Thanks for your help in advance!