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Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

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Bluedoggsd
Posts: 5
Joined: 2018-08-30 22:57

Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#1 Post by Bluedoggsd »

Tried to install Debian 9, stuck at grub rescue. Bios is locked down with greyed out options. Supervisor password while correct but didn't work, now it is greyed out too. When I say Bios is locked down,, it means I can access it, but no options except system time and date, user password and HDD password, exit saving changes and exit discarding changes. I need help, please help. Acer Aspire E 15, E5-522-89W6. I built the USB bootable disc using cloudready USB maker. Changed the iso file name to .bin as required by cloudready.
When turned on : error: secure boot forbids loading module from (hd0, gpt2)/grub/x86_64-efi/normal. Mod. Entering rescue mode.
Please help.

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GarryRicketson
Posts: 5644
Joined: 2015-01-20 22:16
Location: Durango, Mexico

Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#2 Post by GarryRicketson »

First mistake was using this "cloudready USB maker", and it is probably the cause of your problems,
Just changing the image name,
Changed the iso file name to .bin as required by cloudready.
from iso to .bin does not change the image, and that would not work. Have you tried contact the "clodready usb maker" support, ? do they even offer any,..?


What you should have done, is made and prepared your boo-table usb
using the instructions for Debian, here: https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb

As far as your problems with the bios, I think you may need to contact Acer support on that, or take it to a repair shop, that is authorized to do repairs on Acer equipment, but maybe somebody here will know more on that, we do have many members that use Acer's ....
I don't think this really is a Debian issue, you used this "cloudready USB maker" and it made a usb device that has effectively damage or bricked your bios, maybe it can be repaired, I don't know.

Seems like this is not anything new:
cloudready USB maker bricked my bios
1st hit, is a HP laptop, but get this:
From:https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... on-Problem Ok...I've tried 2 different working HP6730b laptops. Both have good drives and booted to Windows 7 just fine. They are old beaters so I thought I'd try the newly released free CloudReady. Sad to report that both are now bricked after trying the installation. Followed the directions step by step with no success. Reset Bios to factory defaults, made a second usb bin installer using the recommended Chromebook Restore utility only to get the same result. My above posts describes what's happening. If anyone has successfully installed the free version that was released yesterday ( Oct 1 ) I'd love to know the secret to making it work.
There are many more, so your best option is to contact them, at the cloudready community, and maybe they can help you unbrick your bios,
After you have the laptop working again, DO NOT use this cloudready thing to make a usb stick for installing Debian with a usb device, read the Debian documentation and use the Debian way, methods,...

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Bloom
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Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#3 Post by Bloom »

Debian can't work with UEFI Secure Boot enabled: it has no UEFI 'secure' key bought from Microsoft so the Secure Boot doesn't recognize Debian as a secure operating system. It does recognize Windows 10 as a secure operating system. Don't you just loooooooooooove Microsoft?

To get Debian to work, you need to disable UEFI Secure Boot.

Dai_trying
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Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#4 Post by Dai_trying »

Bluedoggsd wrote:Bios is locked down with greyed out options.
Bluedoggsd wrote:secure boot forbids...
This combination means that you would need to use a distribution that has the required "secure key" mentioned by @Bloom, and there are a few but mostly Ubuntu (and derivatives) although there are some Debian derivatives too (Q4OS, SparkyLinux and others).

Unless you can gain access to the BIOS settings you will not (for now at least) be able to install standard Debian.

Bluedoggsd
Posts: 5
Joined: 2018-08-30 22:57

Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#5 Post by Bluedoggsd »

Thank y'all so much. I have taken these steps
Removed bios battery for 1 hour.
Removed laptop battery as well.
Contacted Acer who won't help because of age of system. Might as well buy a new laptop per them.
I had neverware installed on this system, so my options were limited on creating the bootable USB. Which is why I was leaving neverware for the sake of being free from limitations and privacy.
I have a Chromebook, but again options are limited.
I wonder if there is a way to connect bios to net and flash the bios? Lmao I know probably not. Or could I connect to a torrent through bios or grub rescue to flash the bios?

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GarryRicketson
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Joined: 2015-01-20 22:16
Location: Durango, Mexico

Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#6 Post by GarryRicketson »

@Bloom
Don't you just loooooooooooove Microsoft?
Noooo, I don't, .....I hate to hate, but I hate it. Fortunately we do not have to use it either.

I had a Acer Aspire series, (don't remember the number now) But it came with
Windows XP, when it was new, my boss at work bought it for me.
It was pre-UEFI, so that was not a issue, but I don't like using malware, so the
first thing I did was install Freedos, I used a portable, USB optical drive to do the install from a CD, at that time FreeDos did not support USB , and the Acer Aspire's do not have optical drives, any way, now a days it is even easier, FreeDos can be installed on a USB boot stick, but don't use "neverware", you'll never get anywhere with this "neverware". Just learn how to use the Linux 'dd' command,..
Anyway, FreeDos installed fine, and with no issues, so once I had a clean system, with no malware on it, I was able go on to installing knoppix, my first experience with a Linux system.


To flash a bios, the best method that I know of is with FreeDos,

https://wiki.debian.org/FlashBIOS


https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fl ... from_Linux

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#7 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

It may be possible to flash the firmware from FreeDOS, the grml ISO image has a boot option for that:

https://grml.org/download/
deadbang

Bluedoggsd
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Joined: 2018-08-30 22:57

Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#8 Post by Bluedoggsd »

This is why I love you people! Okay, soon as I get back in the office from this trade show, I am going to see what we can do. Thanks y'all.

Bluedoggsd
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Joined: 2018-08-30 22:57

Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#9 Post by Bluedoggsd »

Well, here I am. I took the CMOS battery out. Kept Laptop plugged into power. Restarted from usb containing cloudready ISO. I am now working on the laptop from that usb operating system. So now I changed the BIOS as all options are available. If I put the CMOS battery back in I wonder if BIOS will go back to locked down?
Secondly, formating usb is not available for some reason.
Thirdly, I am going to see if I can somehow install from the command line from this point. Or format the usb from command line. Not sure where to go from here. But at least I have a terminal ability where I didn't before.

Bluedoggsd
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Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#10 Post by Bluedoggsd »

I have reinserted the CMOS battery and the bios is now available.
I have disabled secure boot and attempted to dd the downloaded Debian 9 net install to the USB drive.
My system is cloudready from neverware running on USB since I don't have a OS Installed on my hardrive
I cannot format USB from file menu. I cannot format USB from command line.
I can not use the Debian install from USB because I can't seem to get downloaded file to USB in a bootable format.
Error returns I have corrupt boot

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debiman
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Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#11 Post by debiman »

Bluedoggsd wrote:My system is cloudready from neverware running on USB since I don't have a OS Installed on my hardrive
what is that?
can't you just live boot some debian?

milomak
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Re: Bios greyed out, system boots to grub rescue

#12 Post by milomak »

why are you going this cloudready usb route to install and not the conventional route?
Desktop: A320M-A PRO MAX, AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GALAX GeForce RTX™ 2060 Super EX (1-Click OC) - Sid, Win10, Arch Linux, Gentoo, Solus
Laptop: hp 250 G8 i3 11th Gen - Sid
Kodi: AMD Athlon 5150 APU w/Radeon HD 8400 - Sid

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