I've searched for some Linux distros for me to try out, and KISS Linux caught my eye. I tried installing it in a QEMU/KVM virtual machine, but I couldn't get the kernel to boot regardless of what I did. Here's some bullet points of what I tried:
A BIOS install.
A UEFI install.
Using grub as the boot loader.
I've also tried installing grub from outside of KISS Linux via grub-install --boot-directory /mnt/boot /dev/sda
Foregoing a boot loader and using efibootmgr instead.
Using the (unmaintained) original KISS repo.
I was able to boot, but I couldn't replace the old repo with the kiss-community repo due to mismatching checksums.
I love the idea behind KISS Linux, and I think it might be the end of my distrohopping. If any more information is required, please ask and I'll try to supply it.
Did you properly generate the GRUB config file? I had this exact same issue on an Arch VM and it turned out that I forgot to generate the GRUB configs. Also if you're making a UEFI VM you need both grub and efibootmgr packages
I did make sure to run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg in both my BIOS and UEFI attempts.
I also made sure to install efibootmgr during my UEFI attempts.
From my understanding, the issue is probably the kernel, as I can't use modules or an initramfs, but I'll try using tinyramfs on my next attempt.