Its my first topic as i recetly registered to the forum. I did it, because I desperately need help!!
I have an Asus UX303U and use to use dual boot (win11 and Zorin 16) on it. Today I've been offered to upgrade to Zorin 17. I went for it, but something went wrong and now I'm seeing only blank screen.
When I restart, as before it offers the dual boot option. If continue as always to boot Zorin, I arrive back to blank screen.
Or chosing the "advanced options for zorin" and go for a previous version (not recovery version or recovery version) still dont boot..
Please advise me what can I do
Is there any way at least to go back to zorin 16 as it was or somehow continue the upgrade?
Alternatively I would appreciate a step by step, if at this point i could do a hard reset of the laptop to vanish everything from it and put back only Zorin, possibly with no or as less as possible loss.
I'm just hazarding a guess here, but it seems like something relating to TPM is causing the system to no longer boot. I would say you could disable it in the BIOS, and that would solve the issue, however that would (maybe?) cause your windows 11 system to be non bootable.
I say maybe, because I don't recall if you just need TPM for the Windows 11 install and then can disable it, or you need it on all the time for Windows 11 to boot (haven't really dabbled with that Os). You could test by disabling TPM and seeing if your system then boots into Zorin, but I would wager (unless I'm wrong) that your windows 11 would then become unbootable.
I guess this should be the one, please coreect me if im at a wrong place.. Here both otions disabled.
Otherwise would not be a problem if i couldnt boot windows as I would like to delete and use only Zorin anyways (if it would work).
But if we sont find any solution how I can boot Zorin at this point, windown might come handy to do a total reset of the laptop and reinstall zorin from scartch.
That is one location it can be. And we do want it disabled here (secure boot) as you already have. However I know on my laptop, the TPM option is actually separate in another location. It might be worth digging deeper to see, it could be somewhere else. My laptop has it in chipset options or something weird like that.
Is there any chance this is related to the SBAT update from Windows? Since the upgrade was from 16 to 17, which needs to do some work on the bootloader, maybe it's related? Just a guess...
If you are willing to do a fresh install, it would certainly help. Fresh install is like the good old "turn it off and back on", it works wonders on odd issues like this.
First of all, I would like to express my highest gratitude for all of you guys that came to help!!!! You are awesome!
About my issue to @zenzen it could be, however I did not boot to Windows about a year ago, but not sure if that close out what you wrote..
If there is no solution to boot zorin somehow, (that would be the preferred option as I could backup all settings, apps etc) then I would just go for a hard reset. I wanted to do it anyway, as @applecheeks37 mentioned its a good thing, but better if one is prepared for it. I dont know how to do and how to install zorin back from that point moreover as I just found myself suddenly in this situation, i did not backup... So sure enough the original topic would be the best to find the way how to be able to boot zorin from this point first. If not possible, the plan b i would ask guidance for a hard reset, then how to install zorin, but I guess it would belong to another topic here...
The thing about upgrades is that they either work perfectly or fail miserably, in my experience anyway. It's really hard to say exactly what went wrong... too many unknowns to answer that for sure.
Personally, I always do this as it helps to avoid problems and keep things lean by removing files and apps that I don't even remember are still there. Maybe even consider giving it a good cleanup from the inside as well: remove accumulated dust, clean connectors with isopropyl alcohol, apply thermal paste to the CPU...
For now, though, you can boot into live mode from an external USB drive just like you would do if you were to install from scratch. While you are in this live mode it's possible to navigate the file system, so you can get your files to another storage location.
Don't install just yet! I might not have good suggestions on how to fix this, but hopefully others around here might.
I found a way to boot into zorin! I assume the problem why the upgrade from 16 to 17 failed, was because of the lack of space. When I pressed to proceed the update, in a point it stopped and warned me that i do not have enough free space. Then I deleted some music, pics and then it allowed to continue the upgrade. I believe either it allowed without having enough space or i had just enough to pass to the next step but not to complete the process. So I stuck with blank screen, not being able to boot anymore.
The solution was, to restart, boot to "advanced options to zorin", an older version in recovery mode. After it offered a clear memory or free up space (something like that) option, i chose that. Then it offered to free up X amount of space, so I pressed "y" and enter. Once it was complete, back to the options where clear some space was one of them and there I chose boot normally (something like that) and voila, I could boot into zorin. It was wierd looking without my background image etc, but there. Then I restarted, boot into zorin in a normal way and its now still not as before, but normal looking and able to use it!!!!
Hope someone will find this useful.
Now my last question for you all, to navigate me to the appropriate place to ask guidance on how to do the essencial backups and do a factory reset, wiping out windows and install only Zorin 17 with all recommended setting on particions etc, as I never done anything similar before and have no knowledge about all these. In addition some tips on what would be the recommended browser to use and download zorin 17 with, as I red in another topic that Brave (that Im using now) might not be the best.
Well, you could simply open another Thread for that. but for the Beginning:
When you want to make a Back-Up , you have several Options. You can use a Back Up Program - but be sure that it works on Linux, too. Or You simply copy and save Your data on an external Hard Drive.
To wipe Windows is relatively easy. When You have Your bootable USB Stick with Zorin, you choose in the Installation Process the Option ''Erase Disk''. That should wipe Your whole Disk and install Zorin. If you want set up custom Partition Sizes, you can choose the ''Something else'' Option.
Which Browser You take is up to you. The Brave Thing seemes to be an individual Case. But you should definetely control the Checksum of the downloaded ISO. And let Secure Boot and Fast Boot disabled in the BIOS would be good too I would say.
Nice troubleshooting, well done! In your post, you should have a button to mark it as the solution to this thread. That will help others to find it quicker and for reporting purposes.
The topic of making backups is a big one in and of itself.
For general backups you can use Rescuezilla which will create bit-for-bit copies of your entire drive, but this is something that should only be used for things like catastrophic failures given they take a long time to make and restore from.
Then there are tools like Timeshift, which you can use to make snapshots of your system. A snapshot is not a backup per se, rather they are like checkpoints in a video game that allows you to restore your system as it was at a given point in time. Snapshots are great for testing things like installing new software that may cause issues, or even system upgrades, but they shouldn't be used for personal files.
As for personal files, a backup in this sense basically means creating copies of your data on a separate location. A common backup strategy is the 3-2-1 rule. There are tools that you can use to make this easier like Deja Dup, already installed in Zorin OS.
To uninstall Windows completely, the best way is to install Zorin OS from scratch and instruct it to use the entire drive. This would override the bootloader entry for Windows and reclaim the entire disk space. In fact, depending on your drive's partition layout, this may be the only way to do that. You can see your current partitions using Disks to take a look at it.
But it would be best to open a new thread if you have any questions about any of these topics. Or even if you want to start a discussion about browsers, backup strategies and whatnot. Use the appropriate categories for that: General Help for assistance, Chat about Zorin for discussions, Feedback if there's something you'd like to see improved or share your experience, etc.
