So gdm does start up? Then that’s a different issue, no?
I observed the same effect, yes. I wrote about this in the other thread here and you either log in via serial or ssh or you boot from an sd-card.
Yes, freezing issue is known. See the other thread linked above. To fix this, flash the latest system-image to an sd-card. That image has the new reform-tools version which I released this morning and thus it comes with a new convenience script called reform-rescue-shell. That tool will attempt giving you a shell inside the system you have on your emmc/nvme. If it doesn’t work, please tell me so that we can fix it.
If it does work and once you are inside your system, I suggest you just run a apt update && apt full-upgrade. That should fix up your system. You can then leave the rescue shell by pressing ctrl+d or by running exit.