Hello. I'm French (translated into English by the web) and I chose to install Zorin after much deliberation. After the initial installation, display and sleep mode bugs started. Then, my computer completely crashed. I later realized that I had incorrectly chosen the installation settings for the Zorin .iso image using Rufus. I formatted my hard drive and then reinstalled Zorin 18.1 with the correct UEFI settings. I haven't changed any settings since the reinstallation, which is a clean install. Now, while working in Firefox, my screen freezes and redirects me to the Zorin login screen to reconnect. My system configuration: Asus P8 Z68-V Gen3 (2010); Asus GeForce GT640 (2012) and NVE7 driver; Wayland. My question: should I permanently abandon Firefox for another browser? Thank you.
Switch to Xorg. Logout and at login screen click on your username, then a cog wheal appears at the bottom right corner. There select "Zorin Desktop on Xorg" and then login with your password.
Also try to disable the hardware acceleration in firefox. Can you make settings in the browser or does it freeze? If you can't make settings, please tell us in which package format firefox is installed. You see this in the software center when you search for firefox. On the right side is an arrow. Which package format has a green 
(Zorin apt, flatpak, snap)?
How much RAM do you have?
Does the default brave browser work on your system?
Que dire de plus, @Forpli a tout dit, si tu préfère écrire en Français pas de problème le forum a un traducteur automatique 
Please keep on writing in English if it is okay for you. It is much easier to translate English into other languages with the browser, and the internal translator tool doesn't translate long posts.
Welcome to the Forum!
Is this only with Firefox or with other Programs, too? What Kernel do You use? You can check that with the Terminal Command uname -r
Also: Your Hardware is a bit older. It could be neccessary to install an older Kernel and the fitting Nvidia Driver.
Thank you for your replies. Since posting this, I’ve tried the ‘Brave’ browser and it also froze (had to restart the computer). I then switched to ‘Zorg’, which isn’t any more stable.
My PC has 16GB of RAM. I’m running kernel 7. I tried 6.7, but it’s the same problem. I’ve installed the “nve7” driver. I think I’ve tried everything, so it seems Zorin 18.1 isn’t designed for older PCs. Is Zorin 17 more stable? Will I have to switch to another Linux distribution (the ‘big brother") ?
Zorin 17 or Zorin 17 Lite often run better on older hardware, and you can install even older kernels as e.g. kernel 5.15 there. There are two nvidia drivers for the GT640 if the informations I found are right. One of the GT640 cards need the 390 nvidia driver (wich can run on kernel 5.15 or - by adding kelebek333 ppa - on kernel 6.8), others can run with the 470 nvidia driver (therefore you need kernel 6.8).
But usually, nouveau makes less problems and I would first test it with the nouveau driver.
You actually have enough RAM for running Zorin 18, so I'm not sure what the problem is when kernel 6.7 (??? Are you sure? It is no longer supported) didn't help. Have you booted with kernel 6.8 or just installed it? After the installation of an older kernel you need to select "Advanced options for Zorin" in the grub menu and select the older kernel to boot from (not the recovery kernel), otherwise Zorin boots with the latest 7.0 kernel.
When you install Zorin, select the normal installation and not the option for modern nvidia drivers. Then nouveau is set as default. You can install the nvidia drivers later if you want to test them.
At Software&Updates > Additional drivers you can see which drivers are offered for your nvidia card. When there is shown the 470 driver, it should work with kernel 6.8 in Zorin 17.
You can find older Zorin .iso versions here:
Select 17 to see the .iso files for Zorin 17.
I personally run Zorin 17 Lite on my Dell E6430 (2012) with an old nvidia card, i3 and 8 GiB RAM and nouveau driver, and it runs well in normal use.
I started my PC this morning, and two minutes later, it froze. I restarted it and disabled GPU acceleration in Firefox. The PC lasted for fifteen minutes before the screen froze and it returned to the login screen.
At startup, just before the login screen, I get the following message: "failed to open \EFI\ubuntu\ - not found." Then, after the login screen opens, I have a white cross on a black background in the bottom right corner of the screen, which appeared a day after a clean install of Zorin 18.
New twist.
I disabled the "x11 gestures," "zorin desktop icons," and "zorin tilling shell" extensions and restarted. I've been working on the PC for an hour now, opening and working with text files, photos, music, and... no freezes or unexpected screensavers have appeared. Now I just need to figure out which extension is causing the problem (it feels strange not having any icons on the desktop).
Do you have user installed gnome extensions (besides the preinstalled ones)? If yes, which ones?
Here are the other extensions that are checked by default : "remove drive menu" ; "user themes" ; "zorin applindicators" ; "zorin menu" ; "zorin printers" ; "zorin taskbar"
.... Unfortunately, I just experienced a frozen display after 5 minutes of use.
I would suggest to install an older Kernel then.
To do that, type in Terminal:
sudo apt install linux-headers-6.8.0-136-generic linux-image-6.8.0-136-generic linux-modules-6.8.0-136-generic linux-modules-extra-6.8.0-136-generic
When installed reboot. To use the Kernel, You have to choose on Startup on the GRUB Menu ''Advanced Options'' and there choose the one with eh 6.8 Kernel (without Recivery Mode). If You don't have the GRUB Menu on startup, try to get it with spam-pressing Esc or the left Shift Key.
Should both not work, You can manually activate it. To do that, type in Terminal
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
Then, You should see this Textblock:
Here, You have to chage the Lines 2 and 3 to:
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=20
The 20 makes that the GRUB Menu appears for 20 Seconds before it boots in the default. If that isn#t enough or too much Time, you can use a different Value like 10, 30 or 50 for Example. Or You set it to -1 which makes that the Menu stays until You make an Input. What You choose is up to You.
When You have make the Changes press ctrl+o to save, Enter to confirm and ctrl+x to exit. Then type in Terminal sudo update-grub to make the Changes affect. Don't forget that! Without it, it will not work.
When booted in the 6.8 Kernel type in Terminal to install the Nvidia Driver:
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-470 nvidia-dkms-470
I would give the Desktop Icons a Guess. You could replace them with Desktop Icon NG or GTK4 Desktop Icons NG.
Is Your BIOS in UEFI or Legacy Mode?
I see an "efivars" folder, so I'm in UEFI mode.
The message "failed to open \EFI\ubuntu\ - not found" often is shown when UEFI is set but the system doesn't support secure boot.
Hello,
I found a solution from 2025 in the Zorin Knowledge Base for the same problem with Zorin 17.
Please have a look into the folder and show us the output.
admin:///boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu
Despite the message "failed to open \EFI\ubuntu\ - not found." the folder should be there and EFI files in it. But there must be a reason that it can't access it during boot. Question to the experts: Could it help during boot to bypass the shimx64.efi and using the grubx64.efi instead and how?
As @Forpli already mentioned there might be a mismatch with secure boot. Even your system is older, could you check if secure boot is enabled?
Within Zorin OS in the terminal you can check Secure Boot status like this and post the output:
mokutil --sb-state
If secure boot is enabled you can disable it within BIOS.
To boot into BIOS:
sudo systemctl reboot --firmware
Also check under Tabs Boot and Security the following parameters:
Within BIOS disable Fast Boot and CSM if they are an existing parameters and defined as "enabled". "OS Type" should be set to "Other OS".
The boot order is important to check, make sure that your latest Zorin OS Installation partition is on first place here, named as "ubuntu" or as you gave the name to it.
Can You open ''Disks'' and check if Your Drive uses GPT Partition Sheme? Make some Screenshots and post it here. So, we can take a Look at it.
Thanks for your replies. I just realized that during my last Zorin installation, the partitioning and partition deletion didn't go right (I didn't know how to use the tool properly), and I ended up with two copies of Zorin OS on my drive! I managed—with some difficulty—to set up fresh partitions (remembering the FAT32 partition for UEFI...) and reinstall Zorin. However, an "ubuntu P3" entry still remains in the BIOS boot menu; it doesn't lead anywhere, but it's hard to remove.
So, Your Stuff works now, right? Only the BIOS entry is left.
To adress this: Type in Terminal efibootmgr and post the Output here please.
here is :
"efibootmgr
EFI variables are not supported on this system."