Okay, I researched multiple different threads for hours, and found a few things to get my new system working and thought I would share.

 

1. GET UNRAID TO BOOT FROM USB -- My Motherboard saw the UEFI bootable thumb drive, but I couldn't get it to boot for the life of me.  I used the Unraid imaging utility and tried making a new thumb drive (I was continuing to use my existing one, as this was an in-place upgrade), and couldn't get it to boot.
        -- The FIX?   Rename the "EFI-" directory on the flash drive to just plain "EFI" - problem solved.   
        -  Also, you can't enable legacy compatibility mode (CSM) on this motherboard if you are using the iGPU - I guess something about it prevents you.  Essentially you need a GPU card if you want to support legacy compatibility mode.  See ASUS article  
2.  UPDATE OS TO RELEASE CANDIDATE - I read some other threads that mentioned upgrading to 6.10.0-rc2.  I'm not sure if I NEEDED to do that or not, but I did.   And for those of you who don't know how to upgrade from the stable release train to the Release Candidates (RC), you go to TOOLS --> UPDATE OS --> SELECT "NEXT" ON BRANCH   .    NOTE:  Be sure you backup your boot/thumb drive FIRST before upgrading!    (Go to the "MAIN" menu, click on your boot device (Flash) and then click the "FLASH BACKUP" button.  It will download to your PC.)
3. GETTING iGPU TO WORK FOR PLEX - I found this thread helpful to get this piece working.   I was originally unable to get anything to be created for /dev/dri .   I did the following to get my i915 graphics to show up, and have the directory get created.
    --  Blacklist the i915 drivers so they don't load by unraid:  "echo "blacklist i915" > /boot/config/modprobe.d/i915.conf "
    -- I then installed the "Intel GPU TOP" plugin.   
    -- FYI - After doing the two above tasks, I now have the /dev/dri directory, and inside it are two files "renderD128" , "card0" , and a directory "by -path".
   Both of these two things seem to help get the iGPU recognized and working properly.
4. GET PLEX TO USE HARDWARE -  I then edited the docker container (advanced) for Plex and added the text "--device=/dev/dri" to the "Extra Parameters:" field.

 

I hope this may help anyone who is looking to upgrade to the latest Intel Alder Lake CPU.  So far, so good, this newly upgraded rig is FAST...    I did have to re-enable FTP after the upgrade.   I also installed 2 NVME drives to use as a new cache, but am not sure exactly how to migrate everything from the old cache pool to the new one.  Part of me wonders if I just move everything over, and then edit the docker containers to reference the new path, so if anybody knows, please feel free to chime in here.   Thanks!

Edited December 6, 20214 yr by abbzer0
keyword edit

As a follow up, I had issues rebooting and the USB functioning properly.  Had to disable fast boot, and problem solved booting from USB upon reboot.

Thanks a lot for your Support Guide, actually it speeded up my setup (Quick Boot Problem).

For iGPU usage i'm currently trying to add first VM.

 

I was wondering how you setup your memory for stable Operation. Are you using XMP Profile?

Wouldn't be default (Auto) setup be more stable to use?

 

 

On 1/8/2022 at 9:01 AM, maxx8888 said:

Are you using XMP Profile?

From watching Level1Linux, looks like enabling XMP on some motherboards puts the system in "overclock mode" where it disregards all "best core" indicators (including for the e-cores). But I can't confirm.

I had overclocked successfully, but eventually had some random crashes I couldn't explain.  Removed the XMP profile and ran memtest86 successfully, brought things back online, and stable since.  Had issues with random docker crashes with iGPU transcoding, but a single 4k steam seems to do just fine with CPU transcoding instead.

Yep, same for me. I've decided to keep XMP Profile off also hoping that this helps to keep system stable (and without RAM Errors).

For iGPU i was hoping to be able to attach it to a WindowsVM were i have Plex running, but so far this doesn't work 😕

gvt-d seems also to be supported only till 10th gen. Would be great if something similar will be availabe for newer CPUs in future...

25 minutes ago, maxx8888 said:

Yep, same for me. I've decided to keep XMP Profile off also hoping that this helps to keep system stable (and without RAM Errors).

For iGPU i was hoping to be able to attach it to a WindowsVM were i have Plex running, but so far this doesn't work 😕

gvt-d seems also to be supported only till 10th gen. Would be great if something similar will be availabe for newer CPUs in future...

SR-IOV is planned to replace gvt but i dont think support is in qemu yet. Also I cannot get igpu passthru working to a vm. I get a pci check some error.

You are my hero. 

 

Couldn't get my new system (with identical hardware) to boot. Disabling fast boot alone didn't work. Additionally changing the folder name to just "EFI" did. Thank you!