I tried the following that was in a linked ubuntu forum that was sent to me further up the string:
If that doesn't fix the problem, you should try re-registering GRUB with your firmware's NVRAM. The way to do this that's most reliable is to use bcdedit in Windows. Open an Administrator Command Prompt window and type:
This managed to give me a menu with Zorin and Windows. Yay!!
While I’m getting closer the problem is that selecting the Zorin option gives me a black screen. Selecting windows works normally.
I’m wondering if I have to edit the script by inserting the “acpi=off spec_store_bypass_disable” that I had to have to get into Zorin setup from the usb stick. If so not sure where to add it, perhaps after quiet splash? Also, if it does work, how can I make it a permanent change and not have to edit it every time I boot up? And given the the acpi=off apparently turns off the cooling fan is that a good thing for other than temporarily?
Here’s the screen behind the Zorin choice that leads me to the black screen
Yes. If your Zorin OS is installed, you can make it permanent. From the grub menu, select Zorin on 6.8 (recovery). Arrow key down to Drop to root prompt. Then run:
nano /etc/default/grub
Arrow key down to "quiet splash" And change it to "quiet splash acpi=off spec_store_bypass_disable"
Tap ctl+o to overwrite, then enter key to save the current configuration. Tap ctl+x to exit the editor.
That would have it's place in the GRUB File. When You are in Zorin, open the Terminal and type sudo nano /etc/default/grub and type in Your Password. In the opening Window, You will see this:
In the white Text Block (red marked), You see the Line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
And there You add Your Parameter behind quiet splash. Then it should look like thia: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=off spec_store_bypass_disable"
When You have done that, press ctrl+o to save the Change, Enter to confirm and ctrl+x to exit. Back in the normal Terminal type sudo update-grub to make the Change affect. Don't forget that! Without that it will not work.
Unfortunately didn't do what I hoped. Doing the acpi and the specstore did get me a little further: a zorin icon followed by the word Zorin but then another black screen. doing nomodeset instead of quiet splash gave me a whole screen of machine codes and then nothing else. Evidently it's hanging somewhere else.
Perhaps whatever actually loads Zorin is defective or missing due to the fails in the install process which was when iinstalling grub. I probably didn't manage to get that fixed when getting the boot menu done but I tried both install and boot repair after getting the menu and still got the same fails.
The nomodeset parameter disables modesetting and that can resolve some issues.
Kernel Modesetting allows the kernel to manage the display modes, rather than the display modes being managed in User Space. This allows for faster graphics or better graphics performance.
Not all hardware plays well with it, though.
And some try to initialize the driver prior to init; which causes it to crash - these problems can be bypassed by not using modesetting and letting the actual user space and xserver manage it.
It won't solve all problems, but it can cover a few.
As to why you having a black screen: Normally I would suggest checking firmware updates - but you covered that.
In Zorin OS 16, it usually was an issue with the kernel not having full support yet on the 5.10 kernel... but 17 is up to 6.8 with full Alder Lake support...
Instead of nomodeset, you might try i915.force_probe=*
I am hesitant to mention the Wayland or Xorg situation, since it seems youa re not even able to reach that point, yet...
There were several suggestions about bypassing the nvRAM lock, one of which was to install as MBR.
But, if Zorin OS was installed as EFI and the motherboard is set to MBR - That would cause init (boot) to not see the kernel...
So can you double check this?
You can check in BIOS settings - and by using a Zorin LiveUSB to look at your root file system (on the installed drive, not the usb) and see if you have a /boot/efi directory in root.
Pretty sure everything is EFI. I've never done anything to motherboard and the partition with the windows OS boot was EFI.
I'm not in Zorin right now. Went back to windows to check the forum. How do I use live USB to look at the root file system? I didn't see a terminal option in the live USB version but I'm going by memory.
I'm inclined to think that installing the kernel might have been one of the Zorin installation steps that never happened because of the fatal error in installing the grub, which always ends the process.
I went into try Zorin and tried poking around to see if I could find anything interesting or possibly helpful.
I found “all apps” that I hadn’t seen before and evidently that’s where terminal is that I hadn’t been able to find.
I also poked around in the files app which is kind of like windows explorer that I’m used to. Some of the stuff I found (which may be relevant or may be just because I’m only in live usb mode):
In the Zorin partition (other locations/100GB volume):
I found boot efi folder was empty
Root folder was also empty
Mnt folder was also empty
The only squash file I found was in x86-64-efi squash4.mod
Vm Linuz and vm linuz…generic both said the specified locations were unmourned
In the /computer location:
Again the root folder was empty and had a big red X on it
There were a lot of files in /sys/kernel
I don’t know if any of this is helpful or suggests anything I should try to edit. This is all kinda new territory for me.
Ah, but you are exploring it - and that helps you a lot.
What you saw in
is normal. These are the LiveUSB directories.
So, what we need to do is fill /mnt
Mount is where you would mount media. In this case, the drive you installed Zorin OS on. Once it is mounted, you can use the file explorer to explore it - just the same as you did on the Live USB.
You can run a command to mount it in terminal; to provide this command, you need to know your device ID... But - I will try something new.
on the LiveUSB - app menu - select Disks
Navidate to the Disk you installed Zorin OS on. Click on the ext4 partition that is Zorin in the main window to select it. Click on the Settings icon button below it and select Mount from the menu.
There isn’t a mount option but there is an edit mount options choice. That has user session defaults toggle on and the defaults appear to be mount at system start up and show in user interface. I assume I don’t want to require additional authorization. It also says “nosuid,nodes,nofall,x-gvfs-show”. And the mount point is /mnt/1c7ac384-6b57-4894-998e-f0cee4a0826d
Identify as is /dev/disk/by-uuid/. And the same string as follows /mnt/ above. Says matches the device with the given UUID. Another choice would be /dev/nvme0n1p5 which is the name of the partition.
If I go back to the disks table for the c drive it says the partition is mounted at /media/Zorin/and the same string from UUID
Interestingly there is another “disk” called “6.8GB Loop Device”. I don’t know what this actually is but it’s contents are “Unknown (squashfs 4.0) — mounted at /rofs “
This is the Live Session you are in on the LiveUSB booted stick.
That is your installed Zorin OS - it may have automounted from the File manager. But there it is, mounted up.
Is this the Drive and Partition (nvme and partition 5) that Zorin OS is installed on?
If unsure, you can check using Gparted or disks - It usually says the drive and parition number - Zorin will be titled or it shown as a large ext4 partition.
If it is:
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt
ls /mnt/boot
ls /mnt/boot/efi
If it is not; replace nvme0n1p5 with the actual drive and partition. (If it is partition 3, for example, it will be nvme0n1p3)
