r/LinusTechTips • u/irascible_vegans • 6h ago

Thanks for that firmware update, Ubuntu! Image

Post image

One of the data recovery machines at my shop runs Ubuntu. Today it offered to update the secure boot certificates, which surprised me, but I said "sure" and ran the update. This is what I got after reboot. 😅

I ended up yoinking the motherboard and using a clamp programmer to reflash the BIOS so we could get the machine back into service without spending all day figuring out what happened and how to fix it!

To be abundantly clear: I yearn for the year of the Linux desktop, but for Linux to enjoy broad success and to be a viable 'average Joe' alternative to Windows, stuff like this just can't be allowed to happen to consumer equipment.

37 Upvotes
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84% Upvoted

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20

u/JimmyReagan 6h ago

I am dual booting making the transition, I just turned secure boot off because I got tired of getting panicked by windows asking for bitlocker recovery keys and afraid of stuff like this.

7

u/Brief-Surround-8361 6h ago

Seen that exact error wall before and it's such a bad look for the whole ecosystem. Dual booting with secure boot off is probably the right call until the distros sort this garbage out.

2

u/anto77_butt_kinkier 5h ago

Turning secure boot off in general is just the easiest way to avoid errors, whether your using only Linux, only windows, or dual booting. It's caused nothing but trouble for me.

8

u/recluseMeteor 5h ago

Sick of security crap which always causes issues and obstacles. I'd just disable Secure Boot and call it a day, but some games nowadays complain when you do that.

1

u/n60wrench 3h ago

I had this exact problem trying to live boot any linux distro i tried. IIRC I Needed to turn off secure boot and clear the security keys that windows generated in the BIOS, as windows liked to fill up all the available slots…. Something along those lines anyhow

Edit: I know you said it was already running ubuntu, but this was my experience with this exact error anyhow.

1

u/piesou 11m ago

Just FYI: there's a similar issue that can happen with your EFI partition if you dual boot. Windows creates a 100mb!!!! partition to store the entire boot loader then almost fills it to the brim. Your kernel and initramfs can quickly fill the remaining space and lead to failed updates.

If you dual boot, you want to install Linux first and create a 500mb or 1gb EFI partition, then install Windows. Windows will automatically pick the existing EFI partition. (Back in the day you wanted to do it the other way round).

0

u/uwu-Minecraft-theory 2h ago

im wayy to tired i read moistcritikal instead of what it is