I had an older version of SMOS (installed in the summer) running fine for months.
But when trying to mine different coins I couldn't get other miners working....there were various issues
So I decided to reinstall.

I just downloaded a fresh copy of SMOS from smos-linux.org and successfully imaged it to USB using Etcher.
I'm simply trying to get booted off a USB and the current issue is Linux freezes during the boot with the following error:

[  OK  ] Started Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes.

There are some suggestions to bypass the error but I cant get to the command line to do so. 
I can get to root via recovery mode but it wont accept my password (tried blank, password, miner, donate, my email)

I haven't even plugged in the GPUs yet.  Just trying to get-up on bare bones HW
I have a MSI Z270 SLI PLUS Mobo.....4GB Ram....Pentium bG4400 3.3 GHz CPU......EVGA SuperNOVA GOLD 750W PS
I did all the BIOS settings shown here https://simplemining.net/page/help

I'm really stuck on this one and appreciate any help from the hive here.


Thanks
Jim