I realized I didn’t change the word “summary” to the name of the ISO when I posted this (it was getting late…this was actually the last machine I did last night even though it is posted earlier in the list).
I clicked took a peek at the inxi to see which one it was, but wait…
Oops! I think I must have installed an older ISO by accident.
So I reinstalled on this same machine with garuda-dr460nized-linux-zen-240319.iso, and now:
Loading Linux linux-zen ...
Loading initial ramdisk ...
error: you need to load the kernel first.
Press any key to continue..._
Bingo!
This leads me to my first theory:
It seems possible the issue is related to AMD CPUs.
Plus this post: Garuda Hyprland Feb ISO's won't boot after install and this one: Garuda Hyprland Feb ISO's won't boot after install - #21 by davidthewatson were both AMD rigs, and also two other machines we were looking at in team chats with this issue (@SGS, @FGD) were AMD as well.
Any thoughts what could cause this? It seems the image may be missing a needed consideration for AMD CPUs.
It’s just a theory at the moment; if anyone has an Intel machine that has the issue then please speak up!