Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3 - Specific to Fujitsu Laptop

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Chris53

Re: Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3

Post by Chris53 »

Right ok, update. I successfully flashed my bios, and have now regained access to my bios setup!

But I still cannot boot my installed LM17.3 from my HDD! It recognises the device, but just will not boot at all. I am not too sure if my bios is UEFI you know, it looks like a regular old bios, I have seen some UEFI setup pages and they look radically different with nice detailing on the menus whereas mine just looks like the bog standard bios of old. There is no reference to UEFI/EFI or legacy bios mode in my bios setup at all.

There is no option in my setup at all regarding secure boot, fast boot, or anything of the sort. I have no idea why it wont boot now when it did before! One thing that I have noticed is that now, in the boot menu, instead of saying "Ubuntu" like it was doing before I shorted/flashed etc it now just have the devices serial number or ID (pic below).
boot.jpg
If you guys can think of anything, that would be amazing. But I fear that I am stuck with either trying boot-repair, or reinstalling mint, but I suspect both of those methods will lock me out of my bios again! It seems I can chose to either be locked out of anything but my HDD, or locked out of just my HDD!.

Is it possible to install mint in UEFI mode, but on a non-UEFI system? If so, could that be the issue? If not (and if mine actually is UEFI), is it possible to install Mint in non-UEFI mode on a UEFI system?
Chris53

Re: Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3

Post by Chris53 »

Just another quick update:

I went ahead and used boot repair (on a usb) as I thought there was nothing else to try at this stage and now I am back to where I began :lol: . I can now get into my HDD's LM17.3 install but I cannot access bios or other boot options. This time if I press F2 or F12 it beeps (like it always has done throughout this) but instead of bringing of that boot menu with just the one option of "Ubuntu" it goes straight to GRUB.

I think I am going to give up now. At least I know the process of how to recover my system if I desperately need to.
rene
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Re: Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3

Post by rene »

[NOTE] I was typing the below while you posted your last reply; I'd still try this to get a fully functional system again. Rather then the shorting bit I'd this time first of all try the Linux-based "nvram" clearing that I posted which would supposedly do the same thing. Then another reflash, and then the supervisor password thing.

You above specified the Fujitsu Lifebook AH532 to be "almost the exact same". If this current reply still doesn't get you back up and running please specify your exact model so that I can browse through a user manual and/or attempt to locate a service manual.

But from the AH532 BIOS manual as available from Fujitsu indeed it seems UEFI or not would not be evident. Both it and yours are though: even only the BIOS-level screenshot in your original post naming the system "ubuntu" would say such. Old BIOS systems know nothing of installed systems; no name, nothing.

From that same troubleshooting link as above, http://www.linlap.com/fujitsu_lifebook_ah532, "Ubi 2013/01/16",
On my AH532 with Win8, Secure Boot was enabled, at first sight without a way to disable it. After searching the net I found the solution : Disabling Secure Boot works after setting a supervisor password.
Certainly you having been able to install and run Mint at all would mean that for you it was off (and you specified originally running Windows 7 which does not support Secure Boot so it was probably even always off.) Your current trouble seems to make sense if the reflash now caused it to be enabled. Try the supervisor password thing; it is not mentioned in the AH532 BIOS manual but you will then as per the Ubi comment supposedly be offered the option to disable it and I would expect you'd be re-offered the "ubuntu" boot choice once it is.

You can and should probably ignore the remainder now, but to answer your direct questions as well: no, you cannot install Mint or anything else in UEFI mode on a non-UEFI system, and while you can generally install Mint in non-UEFI mode on a UEFI system this needs said UEFI system switched to Legacy ("CSM") mode in its setup. Your system seems to have no option for this -- although I suppose the supervisor password thing might then also expose that one.

I haven't checked all manuals for the AH532 but many UEFI systems offer Windows utilities for the setup rather than having to go directly through the BIOS. If this is the case for you as well and if indeed you'll now be able to disable secure boot you may want to consider first restoring Windows 7 if possible and keeping it around for these utilities on a tiny partition in dual-boot manner. If you're quick about it, you can moreover today still upgrade it to Windows 10 for free -- causing your system to be registered, after which you could replace it with Windows 7 again but with the option of later going back to Windows 10 on the machine.

Anyways. Hope the supervisor password thing works because if the machine's now stuck in Secure Boot mode then it's going to be an issue to reinstall Mint as well...
Chris53

Re: Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3

Post by Chris53 »

rene wrote:[NOTE] I was typing the below while you posted your last reply; I'd still try this to get a fully functional system again. Rather then the shorting bit I'd this time first of all try the Linux-based "nvram" clearing that I posted which would supposedly do the same thing. Then another reflash, and then the supervisor password thing.

You above specified the Fujitsu Lifebook AH532 to be "almost the exact same". If this current reply still doesn't get you back up and running please specify your exact model so that I can browse through a user manual and/or attempt to locate a service manual.

But from the AH532 BIOS manual as available from Fujitsu indeed it seems UEFI or not would not be evident. Both it and yours are though: even only the BIOS-level screenshot in your original post naming the system "ubuntu" would say such. Old BIOS systems know nothing of installed systems; no name, nothing.

From that same troubleshooting link as above, http://www.linlap.com/fujitsu_lifebook_ah532, "Ubi 2013/01/16",
On my AH532 with Win8, Secure Boot was enabled, at first sight without a way to disable it. After searching the net I found the solution : Disabling Secure Boot works after setting a supervisor password.
Certainly you having been able to install and run Mint at all would mean that for you it was off (and you specified originally running Windows 7 which does not support Secure Boot so it was probably even always off.) Your current trouble seems to make sense if the reflash now caused it to be enabled. Try the supervisor password thing; it is not mentioned in the AH532 BIOS manual but you will then as per the Ubi comment supposedly be offered the option to disable it and I would expect you'd be re-offered the "ubuntu" boot choice once it is.

You can and should probably ignore the remainder now, but to answer your direct questions as well: no, you cannot install Mint or anything else in UEFI mode on a non-UEFI system, and while you can generally install Mint in non-UEFI mode on a UEFI system this needs said UEFI system switched to Legacy ("CSM") mode in its setup. Your system seems to have no option for this -- although I suppose the supervisor password thing might then also expose that one.

I haven't checked all manuals for the AH532 but many UEFI systems offer Windows utilities for the setup rather than having to go directly through the BIOS. If this is the case for you as well and if indeed you'll now be able to disable secure boot you may want to consider first restoring Windows 7 if possible and keeping it around for these utilities on a tiny partition in dual-boot manner. If you're quick about it, you can moreover today still upgrade it to Windows 10 for free -- causing your system to be registered, after which you could replace it with Windows 7 again but with the option of later going back to Windows 10 on the machine.

Anyways. Hope the supervisor password thing works because if the machine's now stuck in Secure Boot mode then it's going to be an issue to reinstall Mint as well...
Many thanks for taking the time to help out, I really appreciate it :)

When I did have access to my BIOS after reflashing, there was no option or anything at all related to secure boot (or legacy/CSM mode, fast boot or anything at all like that) , I wish I took pictures now. I think this may be because its an older AH532 which had Win7 on, on the Fujitsu website, there are two BIOS versions (for the AH532), 1.09 (mine) and 2.09 (or 2.08, I forget now) and it has very big warnings about not cross flashing a 1.0x system with a 2.0x BIOS and vice versa. I suspect that its the 2.0x systems that had Win8 on and therefore had secure boot etc as an option. Why I think this is because of a post I saw on Fujitsu's forums, relating to a AH532, but one that had Win8 preinstalled (as opposed to Win7 like mine) which had these intructions:
inst.jpg
And when I was in setup after relfashing I did not have any of those options, apart from "set supervisor password" (see paragraph below). My "bios" is called "Phoenix SecureCore Tiano" v1.09

The option to set a supervisor password, but when I did that, all it did was (after re-entering setup) give me the option to set a password for the HDD. It was set to clear by default and so I messed around with the different settings but nothing made it boot the OS from the HDD; if it set a password for the HDD, and chose to boot from HDD, it did ask for the password but then didnt boot and returned the same menu. And on my "advanced" tab in my setup, the only options were:

"Legacy USB enable/disable", "ATA and AHCI enable/disable", "Internal cam/mic enable/disable" , "WOL enable/disable" , "ODD power management enable/disable", "USB charge anytime, off/ac+bat/ac", I think that was it. I tried toggling cetain things but again nothing worked. So that is when I tried boot-repair which has locked me out of the bios again.

Below is a pic of the sticker relating to model/serial number:
sticker.jpg
Thanks! I may try that linux based NVRAM clearing instead of shorting next time, but may just leave it a while, as I really need access to my laptop over the next 4 weeks and cant risk losing my install at this critical moment; not that I can afford to at any point though! haha.
rene
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Re: Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3

Post by rene »

I see you do in fact have a AH532 but yes, it then seems there might with respect to (secure) boot be two versions of it corresponding to the 1.x and 2.x BIOS versions.

One remaining suggestion that would be easy to test would be remove the harddisk for a bit and power up the system. This could allow re-entry to your BIOS settings and if you'd "restore factory default settings" and/or set that supervisor password then maybe said access would even survive replugging the disk. Who knows at this point. Googled around a bit but I haven't been able to find information other than already present in the above. It would seem classifiable as a "Phoenix SecureCore Tiano" 1.x bug. Did notice quite a few reports of this issue, and not only when installing an Ubuntu or other Linux distribution; also the very same symptoms after upgrading the AH532 Windows 7 variant to Windows 8 are reported here and there.

The harddisk-removal thing might still be useful but I guess I'll otherwise also have to give up. If it were my own machine I'd definitely try and find out if flashing the 2.x BIOS would indeed be out of the question but that's up to you. You could certainly brick it...
Chris53

Re: Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3

Post by Chris53 »

rene wrote:I see you do in fact have a AH532 but yes, it then seems there might with respect to (secure) boot be two versions of it corresponding to the 1.x and 2.x BIOS versions.

One remaining suggestion that would be easy to test would be remove the harddisk for a bit and power up the system. This could allow re-entry to your BIOS settings and if you'd "restore factory default settings" and/or set that supervisor password then maybe said access would even survive replugging the disk. Who knows at this point. Googled around a bit but I haven't been able to find information other than already present in the above. It would seem classifiable as a "Phoenix SecureCore Tiano" 1.x bug. Did notice quite a few reports of this issue, and not only when installing an Ubuntu or other Linux distribution; also the very same symptoms after upgrading the AH532 Windows 7 variant to Windows 8 are reported here and there.

The harddisk-removal thing might still be useful but I guess I'll otherwise also have to give up. If it were my own machine I'd definitely try and find out if flashing the 2.x BIOS would indeed be out of the question but that's up to you. You could certainly brick it...
Yeah it definitely does seem to be Fujitsu/Phoenix's issue, (rather than any particular os). Ok well I will have a go at that, although I did try removing the HDD originally but wont hurt to do it again. Im very grateful for you taking the time to help anyway, thanks.
cedricoola
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Re: Cant access BIOS or boot from USB after installed LM17.3 - Specific to Fujitsu Laptop

Post by cedricoola »

Thank you @Chris53 for your detailed analysis of the problem. I face the same problem on the same pc model (Lifebook A532 not AH532 but must be almost similar). Just like you it happened only after installing a Linux distribution overwriting everything else on the laptop (Solus Linux distro in my case).
Only difference with you is that for me the issue is only with entering the BIOS setup (F2 key). The F12 key properly allows me to enter the boot menu however.
Now four years after you created this topic, did you find out anything more? did you give up?
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