MINISFORUM N40 Celeron N4020 Fanless Mini PC

Note: AstLinux 1.5.0 or later is recommended

Board Specifications:

The MINISFORUM N40 Mini PC currently (February 2023) can be purchased new for ~$115 USD. The value proposition is key, running AstLinux quite nicely, albeit with a single ethernet interface. Alternatively, similarly priced Mini PCs with SATA storage or reused thin clients may have a similar setup and configuration.

Negatives -> 1) The M.2 SATA SSD install is a pain. 2) The BIOS has very few options exposed, though no missing dealbreakers.

AstLinux Board Type:

“genx86_64” (Video Console: VGA)

Complete System Recommended Options:

Storage: M.2 type 2242 SATA (Transcend 32GB TS32GMTS400S or similar)

Total System Power (no VGA/HDMI connection): 3 Watts when idle.

Performance: 11.7 secs. (Single-core test, lower is better)

time ( echo "scale=3456; 4*a(1)" | bc -l )

Configuration:

/mnt/kd/rc.conf.d/user.conf

SENSEMODS="coretemp"

## Optional USB TTY serial login
#USBTTY="yes"
#USBTTY_BAUD_RATE="115200"

More Info -> USB TTY Serial Login

/mnt/kd/sensors.conf

# libsensors configuration file
# -----------------------------
# MINISFORUM N40

# coretemp CPU sensor

BIOS Setup for Auto Power On:

On startup (quickly) press the <ESC> or <DEL> key (many times) to enter the BIOS Setup, go to the “Boot” tab. Make the following changes…

Auto Power On → Power on
EMMC Enable → Disable

Important -> Disabling eMMC support will prevent booting to Windows.

The results should look like the following screen…

BIOS Boot Tab

Save the above BIOS changes, reboot.

Disable CPU C-states: (Optional)

Requires AstLinux 1.5.0 or later

Using the CLI, enter the command:

set-kcmd-cstate help

Read over the help information, if you want to disable C-states, then…

set-kcmd-cstate disable

Tip -> An added benefit to disabling C-states, it eliminates the high-pitched squeal at idle.

Photos:

Front and Sides