Surprises running 22.04 on ASUS Prime H510M-E

Question

Sorry for the length of this post...but think what it's been like to live through this :)

My PC died (the connection box to the monitor smells burnt and does not work) … suddenly, and just as I was working my way through a new translation of Skáldskaparmál … with many days of work that had not been backed up. Well ok, it was found out, I moved the HDD drive over to an old PC, started Libre and the automatic save function could then give me the whole vital text file, which I saved on an external hard drive. So far so good.

After that I installed the for me new 22.04 (has been running 18.04 so far, and was very happy with it) on a newly purchased PC with ASUS Prime H510M-E motherboard, from a USB key (optimistically thinking that it could not be that big a problem). After installation, it starts up with some error messages about 'VMX (outside TXT) disabled by Bios, SGX disabled by Bios, MTD Device must be supplied Device name is empty. Otherwise, it appears at first glance that Ubuntu is running fine.

But I had to see if I could do something about those error messages. First tried the supplied support CD for the motherboard... the DVD drive identifies the disc and reads what it contains, but when I double click on 'Setup exe' nothing happens, and when I right click and select 'Open with run software' nothing happens either. Same result with 'Open with files'. Testing with a support CD for my printer … same result. On the other hand, the drive can read images and texts well. But of course it also cannot run the disk I have 18.04 on, so it is also not an option to install the version I know and know works, and then work from there (if it is at all possible to down-date Ubuntu that way) ... and then later update to 22.04.

I first spend a couple of days looking through Ubuntu to see if there is anything that can be used there... and also read a lot of posts in various forums, but find nothing that helps me.

Then trying to go into Bios to see if I can figure something out there ... but surprice, I can't get in, neither F2 nor Del works (they did before I installed Ubuntu, I had to start by changing the boot-settings as they were set to only boot from net/lan connection … and I can't deny that I might did something critically wrong there, but I don't think so, I've tinkered with many Bios over the last 40 years or so, and has learned to be careful … and has never broken anything before). And after again trying everything I can think of in my desperation, and making a lot of mess by installing everything that might work (but didn't), I decide to reboot with the USB key, and reinstall ... but it wont. It ignores the USB boot key during boot-up. Aha, I think, maybe there's a bug on that USB drive... although it's unlikely, since I've managed to install 'gellyfish' from it once (but I can't be sure if the bugs are due to bugs in USB boot key), and try different things again, and sometime deep in the night I end up pulling out the USB stick a little too quickly before it finishes 'ejecting'. Then it died too (or rather it split into 3 different drives that were write-protected (by the Bios, a protection that couldn't be removed since the attributes tab wasn't there) so the USB couldn't be formatted. Shit.

Next step is to create a new boot USB, on a new fresh USB key. I do it on the new PC, and 22.04 really highlights how much easier Ubuntu is to work with than Win. Finally something that works... laughs. Unfortunately it makes no difference, the computer still ignores the USB during startup … it won't boot from it … but I can read it.

So the error most probably lie in the Bios. So I pull the battery out of the motherboard and do a hard reboot to return the Bios settings to default, and when I start up... nothing has changed. The DVD drive still does not work properly and the computer will not boot from the USB key. And F2/Del dont work either. Another hard reboot to get into the Bios, and seeing that the problem with the reinstall seems to be that the Bios will now only boot from the SSD drive … after carefully reading the info there, I'm trying some things that sound reasonable... like disabling 'ASUS performance enhancement' and somehow I bring up some other boot options and move USB up as top of boot priorities ... and reboot with the key in. And still it doesn't work, Bios ignores the USB-key and boot (now very slowly) from the SSD drive, and with the same error messages.

I can see that the problems probably have to be solved in the Bios setting ... and it seems quite impossible to have to describe all the options there in writing, because even if I have an old computer I can start up and chat/communicate in the forum from, I can't at the same time see Bios (so I can describe the settings, what I suspect is necessary) on the new PC, as I only have one monitor. It probably requires me to find someone who knows the ASUS Prime H510M ... or maybe that I buy an extra screen (and keyboard). And it's not because I'm too stingy to do it, my PC is a crucial work tool for me ... I'm just quite discouraged by now, and slowly losing faith that this is something I can handle myself ... or in my more dark moments, that it is something that can be managed at all (even though the latter I know is unrealistic, everything technically has a solution (I hope), and I have great respect for both Ubuntu's wingspan of possibilities, and the knowledge the user environment) contains ... so!

This is about where I wanted to call a friend. But my friends all use Windows (which is just a shame when you need someone to spar with), and my problems with Ubuntu probably won't lure them away from it. So I really need help from someone with serious knowledge of Ubuntu/Linux and Bios.

Edit.

Almost there. Just need to get my DVD to work. In settings it shows ‘device /dev/sr0 read-only’. I want the DVD to read the exe files on installation CD's for motherboard and printer, and it dont. Trying to read motherboard-cd, nothing happens, and trying to read printer-cd, it's full of little red dots with x's in them and they cant be read either. And when I put in a disk for a old game (Warlords III) that I want to run via Wine (that did run in 18.04), again the exe-files will not run. I know exe-files are not normal for Linus, but in 18.04 I had no trouble reading them, and I could install the driver for my printer ... but not now.

I tried lsblk, it says sr0 are 1 RM size 2K rom (but there is a sda disk, 1 RM size 0 K). Brasero can write to it (with a lot of noise, and now the DVD will not open more than halfway, and must be dragged out). But it do not changes the shortcomings described above. And can it be true that Ubuntu 22.04 in itself can't write to a DVD?

Answer 1

Under Utilities/Disk, turn off User session defaults and select Mount at system startup under settings for USB drive and DVD.