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Everything went wrong after an unfinished kernel upgrade (Ubuntu 20.04.1.LTS). Bios refused to let me enter the UEFI menu. The computer turned power off when tried. I got it booting now, but grub tells "Grub failed boot detection" and nvidia is not detected. ( I can see it using the live install media) nvidia-smi : "NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running."

Of course I have the latest driver from the ppa (nvidia-driver-460). Secure boot is disabled, Bios user password is set, anyway nothing changes. I've prepared the boot info using the boot-repair utility, here is the pastebin info obtained https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/2zh3KpQCDt/

Please Help Me! I suspect that this is related to the TPM (Stat storage and endorsement function swithch) but I am not brave enough for clearing it in the BIOS since I'm afraid that the machine will never boot again

mariano
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  • Have you updated UEFI to latest available? That may reset some UEFI settings to default, so plan on redoing them. I keep a list for my motherboard. Acer Nitro 5 Missing AHCI mode Ctrl + S in UEFI https://askubuntu.com/questions/1301872/problem-while-changing-the-sata-mode-to-ahci?noredirect=1#comment2213148_1301872 You should not have to change TPM settings. You need fast boot off in UEFI when changing system. That assumes no changes, but you normally can do a "cold" boot or boot from full power down.Does this show nVidia driver installed for all kernels? dkms status – oldfred Jan 20 '21 at 21:04
  • Thank you for your suggestions, Oldfred. Unfortunately nothing changes by disabling fast boot. I've already enabled AHCI and disabled secure. btw, I don't have dual boot, just Ubuntu 20.04.1 as the only OS. I don't know how to update UEFI. I can't access UEFI, any attempt to touch it causes the computer to turn power off. Something weird is preventing to change it. Nvidia driver is OK:

    mariano@mariano-Nitro-AN515-52:~$ dkms status

    nvidia, 460.32.03, 5.8.0-40-generic, x86_64: installed virtualbox, 6.1.16, 5.8.0-40-generic, x86_64: installed

     – mariano Jan 21 '21 at 20:44
  • Do not know virtual installs. Have you tried getting into UEFI from "cold" boot? http://askubuntu.com/questions/652966/unable-to-access-bios-menu-after-installing-windows-8/653006#653006 – oldfred Jan 21 '21 at 20:53
  • What is "virtual install". I've just installed ubuntu as the only OS in the hard disk and it was booting fine for six months. I don't know how to make a cold boot. Acer Nitro 5 have no removable battery (if I disassemble it, I'll loose the warranty). I power off and boot, try to enter UEFI setup and the computer turns power off again. – mariano Jan 25 '21 at 07:57
  • If it powers off before even starting to boot before grub menu, or just when entering UEFI settings on start up, that is a hardware issue. – oldfred Jan 25 '21 at 16:47

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Firstly, thank you very much for you support, especially Oldfred. I had to reset the battery; enter the bios and resetting all stuff for linux (secure boot, touchpad, AHCI, etc). I could boot, but the kernel modules were still failing (and unable to install any driver, name it nvidia, virtualbox). I could not fix it by updating grub or initramfs in ubuntu rescue mode.Finally Boot Repair could solve everything. For the boot-repair utility (https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/) you can install it (after adding the ppa, http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu) or create a bootable stick.

mariano
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