LM Live USB not booting AFTER turning off BitLocker

[Mule Fan]

Hi guys!

I'm having an issue installing LM, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I would appreciate some help.

I have a Dell Inspiron 16 that I purchased new a few months ago, and I'm so sick of Windows, and I would like to dual boot LM side-by-side, which is something I've done many times before on other machines (though I'm basically still a Linux noob after nearly 30 years of use lol!).

I downloaded LM 21.2, I choose the "edge" version because I have a newer laptop. I created a bootable USB using Etcher. I resized the Windows C: partition using the Window's shrink tool. I popped the bootable USB in, restarted the machine, and selected "Boot from USB...." in the BIOS boot menu. I did not change any other BIOS setting at all. The system started, the USB drive was found, and the software started to unpack. In no time I had a live Linux Mint session up and running and the desktop was immediately nicely sized for my hardware; awesome!

I clicked the "Install LM" icon on the live desktop, and the installer began to run. All was going as expected up to this point. I made it just a few steps through the install when I got a new-to-me message saying basically that I had BitLocker enabled, and needed to disable it. Following the provided instructions, I closed the LM installer, rebooted Windows, and turned off BitLocker.

Now, after turning off BitLocker, the bootable USB disk is seemingly no longer recognised by the either the BIOS or possibly the LM installer itself When I try to run the USB stick, I get a very fast, very small and hard to read message. There are four lines, and I can't make them out, but they all say something like "Image: not found". Again, there are four lines, but they all end with "not found" as if either the BIOS or the LM installer cannot find or read the USB drive. That message is up for a second or two before the machine just shuts down. It doesn't even try to boot Windows, which has been booting up just fine throughout all of this.

I tried formatting and rewriting the USB stick (several times). I tried rewriting it with Unetbootin, that didn't help. I did try turning off SafeBoot in the BIOS and that didn't help. The installer fired up and ran perfectly without any changes to the BIOS before turning off the BitLocker, so I'm hesitant to make further BIOS changes, but I don't really know what else to try.

Could someone please help me through this install? Thank you very much!

[PaulL]

Could be a number of problems. In the BIOS, make sure Secure Boot and Fast Boot are disabled (may not be a setting for the latter). While you're in the BIOS, double-check the boot order, as well. In Windows, turn off Fast Boot (as well as in the BIOS), and make sure Windows is completely shut down and powered off, not Suspended, or Hibernating.

Then try booting the live session (USB stick) again. If it still doesn't start, a real expert will have to come along and advise you. But don't rule out the possibility that your USB stick has suddenly gone bad, either. I've had that happen!

BTW, I'm not sure what your need is for Windows--and I'm not judging, honest! --but I just have to say how much fun it is, being free of Microsoft and all its works for the first time in 40 years!

[Mule Fan]

Hello and thank you very much for your reply!

I have been using Linux on and off since Red Hat 5.2 around !994 or so, yet I find that I still can't live without Windows for some things, plus I feel like I paid for it with my new laptop, so I'd prefer to dual boot if I can figure this out.

I had thought that the USB stick may have gone bad. I don't have another handy to try, but I've tried this one several times. Etcher seems to be able to flash the USB stick, and even verifies that process before completion, and at least with Etcher my USB stick seems to be fine.

The first time I started up the installer it ran fine and I didn't have to make any changes to the BIOS (safeboot, or otherwise). I did try again with safeboot turned off in the BIOS and that didn't help. I don't know where fastboot is on Windows or in the BIOS.

I also tried from a fully shut down, cold-boot state, and nothing.

I don't get it, I've never had this problem, but something happened after I turned off BitLocker, and I don't know how to fix it.

Thanks again for your help!

[PaulL]

Unfortunately, thumb drives can go bad rather suddenly. The two options are either to take this thumb drive to a friend's computer and try it, or to get a new thumb drive and test that.

The only other thing I can think to ask, in the name of covering all the bases, is that you are sure you selected the right drive to boot off, right? My HP desktop BIOS can be confusing on that score.

As I mentioned, I am new to LInux myself, so someone else is going to have to take things from here. Good luck!

[Mule Fan]

Hi guys!

I kind of gave up on this, but I'd really like to get LM installed on this Dell machine, and I'd very much appreciate any help.

At one time, my computer loaded LM from the live USB with no problem and without me making any changes to the BIOS at all. But when I tried to install LM I got a new-to-me error about needing to turn off BitLocker. I aborted the install, and tried to follow the steps to turn off BitLocker. Ever since doing this I have been unable to boot LM form the live USB stick. I get the following error, which comes up shortly after the machine starts to read the UBS drive, I see it for maybe 5 seconds, and then the computer just shuts down.

failed to open \efi\boot\mmx64.efi - not found
failed to load image \efi\boot\mmx64.efi - not found
failed to start mokmanager: not found
something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed : not found

I have since disabled Secure Boot in the BIOS, and no change.

It's not the USB stick, I used this very stick to reinstall LM on two older laptops this morning.

I tried searching and believe that my error is specifically complaining about a missing MOK key, but I am completely unfamiliar with MOK, what it does, or how to get past this error.

Could someone please help me figure this out? I'm so sick of windows and would really like to get a LM install working. Thank you in advance for your help!

[mikeflan]

I don't know where fastboot is on Windows

It is called faststartup. Boot into windows and disable faststartup:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disa ... st-startup
viewtopic.php?p=2067102#p2067102
https://fosspost.org/prepare-your-pc-fo ... cure-boot/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdLcJLKEMbY

I tried searching and believe that my error is specifically complaining about a missing MOK key, but I am completely unfamiliar with MOK, what it does, or how to get past this error.

I think MOK is for Secure Boot. If Secure Boot is disabled in the bios I would not expect any MOK key warnings.

[Mule Fan]

Thank you very much for your help!

I have Secure Boot disabled, is this fastboot in Windows my problem? I found at least one post, which of course I can’t find anymore, about someone with the same error and, again, I am a total noob here, but I believe they had to restart their MOK management or in some other way “clear” the MOK error. I believe this is my problem because at least once in all this I did see a BIOS message on startup about MOK management. I thought to myself, what the heck is MOK, and I clicked continue anyway or something similar. Maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about.

I will check out your links and see if they help my situation. Thank you very much for your help!

[Mule Fan]

I don't know where fastboot is on Windows

It is called faststartup. Boot into windows and disable faststartup:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disa ... st-startup
viewtopic.php?p=2067102#p2067102
https://fosspost.org/prepare-your-pc-fo ... cure-boot/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdLcJLKEMbY

I tried searching and believe that my error is specifically complaining about a missing MOK key, but I am completely unfamiliar with MOK, what it does, or how to get past this error.

I think MOK is for Secure Boot. If Secure Boot is disabled in the bios I would not expect any MOK key warnings.

I disabled "fastboot" in windows, and no change.

Any other ideas?

What's confusing to me is that originally I did nothing to any settings (BIOS, windows or otherwise) and the LM live USB booted without any problems. I did have to abort the install, and ever since I'm getting the error I posted above when I try to boot from the live USB. This has to have something to do with MOK, but this MOK is entirely new to me, and I have no idea what to do. Is there a way to "clear" this MOK error? I do also have "secure boot" disable in the system BIOS.

Any help would be very much appreciated! I'm so tired of Windows. Thank you for your help!

[mikeflan]

You might have something there with that MOK, but I can't help and I think you might find it is a rabbit hole.

I have since disabled Secure Boot in the BIOS, and no change.

Meaning that after disabling Secure Boot in the BIOS you still can't boot the Live Boot stick?

I aborted the install, and tried to follow the steps to turn off BitLocker. Ever since doing this I have been unable to boot LM form the live USB stick.

What steps? I guess the instructions given in the LM installer, heh?

Now, after turning off BitLocker, the bootable USB disk is seemingly no longer recognised by the either the BIOS or possibly the LM installer itself

Well, I guess I would be tempted to turn on BitLocker and see if the Live Boot will boot again like it used to.

I have never heard of BitLocker in windows preventing an install to a different partition than the BitLocker is on. In fact I have never heard of BitLocker having any affect on a LM install. I sure would like to hear from an expert regarding this.

Note: I know very little about windows nowadays, but I do know what BitLocker is. I thought every windows user had BitLocker installed and enabled, whether they use it or not.

[Mule Fan]

Thank you for your reply!

Yes, I disabled Secure Boot and I still cannot boot from the live usb.

This was about a month ago now, so I'm a little fuzzy, but yes, the LM installer was going absolutely as expected like I've seen many times before. But it got to a point when it told me that I had to disable BitLocker and there were instructions to do so. Ever since doing that I have been unable to boot from the live USB and I get the four line of errors I posted above.

[Mule Fan]

I reenabled secure boot and no change. I reloaded the BIOS defaults, and no change. This is really frustrating since the installer was at one time working without an issue. I've never had this happen before. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

[mikeflan]

Try boot repair:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1103234 ... -not-found

[Mule Fan]

Try boot repair:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1103234 ... -not-found

Thank you for your help. I have found similar fixes as well, it looks like you just rename the file on the USB stick, is that right?

If so, I'll give it a try, but I still wonder why I have to do anything like this at all when the USB stick worked perfectly before. But if you think this will help, I'll try it.

Thank you again!

[mikeflan]

it looks like you just rename the file on the USB stick, is that right?]

I don't follow you there. Which file?
.

[Mule Fan]

Hey all!

I'm sorry about the late reply, but I'm just getting back int trying this, and still have the same error and cannot get the live USB disc to boot. I'm beyond sick of Windows and frankly this new Dell laptop runs flaky at best. I'm hoping for better if I can get LM installed on it.

Does anyone have any ideas? I followed the link above that instructs to change the D:\EFI\boot\grubx64.efi to D:\EFI\boot\mmx64.efi, but I belive this is to fix a hard disc issue. My issue is that I can't get the live USB to boot anymore.

Is there someone that can help me through this please? Thank you!

[geoffsid]

Hi, I have the exact same issue on a new Dell Inspiron 15. I began the Mint install and got to "disable BitLocker". Followed the instructions but found that BitLocker is not available in Win11 Home Edition, so I disabled "Device Encryption" thinking it was the same thing. Now I get the same "mok" message when trying to boot Mint or Chrome Flex, both of which booted OK previously from USB. Looks like a bug in the Dell firmware to me, will contact Dell support. Very frustrating, I only bought the Dell to install an up to date Linux distro. PS: I have re-enabled Device Encryption in Windows but no luck!

[geoffsid]

PPS: Disabled "Drive Encryption" in Win 11 Home and Secure Boot in BIOS. Wiped USB drive on a Macbook and formatted as FAT32 (Win 11 couldn't do it). Flashed USB drive again with Balena Etcher on Win 11 and now Linux Mint will boot from USB. Be sure to have the drive recovery key while playing with the BIOS as the machine can be made unbootable if you alter some settings!