3mo ago

Linux won't boot, looking for help

Hey there. I’m totally new to Linux. I’m not the most tech savvy, but I’m fed up with windows and want to go elsewhere. For the time being I figured I’d dual boot, and got everything set up on a usb. I plugged it in, booted up Linux Mint, and it worked smoothly. I ended the session, powered off my pc, removed the usb, booted up windows 11, freed up some disc space and did some other stuff on my computer, then turned it off for a bit. When I went to boot it up again, I got this message:

    
Failed to open \EFI\B00T\mmx64.efi - Not Found Failed to load image ??: Not Found Failed to start MokManager: Not Found
Something has gone seriously wrong: import mok-state() failed: Not Found

and then the computer powered off. I tried disabling fast start or whatever it’s called, as well as secure boot, and it’s still giving me that. Windows still boots up just fine. Does anyone have any advice? Like I said I don’t have much technical knowledge so a dumbed down response would be really appreciated. I’ve looked up a few forums and nothing gave me much.

Oh also, when I try to boot it and it gives me the error and turns off, if I turn it back on but boot up windows, I get a message saying something was blocked due to a security system I have to disable, but doesn’t tell me what that security system is or how to disable it. It’s getting a little frustrating. I don’t know why it worked once but not anymore.

Update: I got it working. Thanks everyone for the help.

11 comments

Did you install anything yet?
It sound like you set up the installer usb, tried it, then went into windows to free up disk space, and now the usb no longer boots?
If I got that right, tell us more about the usb drive you used, and the software you used to make it bootable.
- It was just a regular usb drive as far as I know, nothing fancy. Completely clean before hand, new. I used Balenta Etcher to flash Linux Mint onto it. It was specifically the August 2023 version of BE if that makes a difference. The current version was bugging and would just freeze.
  
  Did you try re-doing that?
  The EFI partition is something that exists on the storage device being booted, so if something is wrong with that, then the problem is something on the USB.
  Since windows still works, the EFI partition on your computer must be fine.
  You can also give Ventoy a go. It replaces the need for Balena Etcher/Rufus.
  After you install Ventoy on the usb, it will continue to work like a normal usb drive. Now you just put the .iso file you want on the usb. Or multiple at a time, even. And you can continue using it as a usb drive without removing Ventoy or the isos. It wont care if there are other files on it.
  When you go to boot from it, Ventoy will show you a menu of the isos on the usb, and let you pick one to boot. Makes it really easy to try a bunch of different distros if you want.
  And it works with windows isos, too.
Not an expert either, looks like maybe the EFI partition is missing a file or not present. When you installed did you use UEFI mode or legacy mode?
- Pretty sure it was UEFI
This is still from a USB drive or some sort, right?
Quite possible it's just bad, especially if an SD in an adapter. Try and verify the drive with whatever tool you used to write it, and I bet it fails.
- It’s from a regular usb drive as far as I know. It’s new and never been used, didn’t hold anything on it until I flashed the Linux Mint ISO onto it. I used Balenta Etcher to flash it, not sure how to verify with it.

11 comments