The laptop that died on Sunday literally could not onboard Linux, because it wouldn't read even an earlier-gen USB from the BIOS setup. Just a quirk of a really bad system build on that machine.
I will probably be able to make the attempt on this machine, but I *just* pulled it out of storage and have been trying to catch up on lost workflow from the laptop dying on Sunday, so the attempt will come when I have more time to lose to a system swap. Cheers.