I really could use a hand; I've been at this for days.
So, I have 4 of these models that all have the same problem. I boot off a Zorin OS USB, the installation appears to go smoothly, but upon restarting, the computer cannot boot from the internal SSD on which Zorin is installed.
What I've tried:
Different SSDs to rule out drive FW incompatibility or malfunctioning drives.
Reflashing Zorin on a different USB drive.
Updating the BIOS.
Ensuring that the BIOS mode while booting is the same as when I was installing Zorin.
Ensuring Secure Boot and Fast Boot are disabled.
Checking to see if it can boot into Windows after installing it on the internal drive (it can).
Manually partitioning Zorin, which led to a "Reset System" bootloop.
Lastly, running boot-repair, which informed me: "Locked-NVram detected. Please do not forget to make your UEFI firmware boot on the Zorin OS 17.1 (17) entry..."
The last one confirms my suspicions that this is BIOS-related. The question is, how exactly do I "make my UEFI firmware boot on the Zorin OS entry"?
I will continue researching as I wait for answers. Thank you.
Update
Funnily, shortly after I made this post, I finally came to the solution of my problem. "Locked NVRAM" implies BIOS security settings locking out the bootloader. I played around with the BIOS settings under "Security": setting an admin password, tinkering with the security levels, disabling TPM. Then Zorin was able to boot! Interestingly, the battery appeared to not take a charge afterwards, indicated both by the GUI and the hardware battery charging LED. So then I returned to the BIOS and factory reset everything (including the security settings), and though oddly it didn't immediately resolve the battery charge issue, Zorin was still able to boot from the internal drive even with my configured security settings discarded. I'm not exactly sure what the explanation for this is; does anyone know? After a few moments the battery LED started working again and the battery did begin charging again. That's a mystery to me also. Is it accurate to theorize that the battery isn't calibrated with the new OS, causing it to be indicated as not charging despite being connected to AC? Also, the GRUB bootmenu shows 2 Zorins.
It appears that 2 installations are on my disk somehow, despite that each time I reinstalled Zorin during my troubleshooting process, I always opted to erase the whole disk, so this can't be a residual installation of Zorin. How might this have happened, and how can I remove the extra Zorin?
Update
I figured it out: it was an extra kernel. I removed it and updated GRUB to do away with the extra Zorin entry.
Now I am working on getting the fingerprint scanner to work.
Out of curiosity, can you please have a machine with just Windows on it, boot Zorin with media and select 'Try Zorin'. Then launch GParted, use screenshot tool to take a screenshot of GParted so we can see the structure of the partitions of the drive with just Windows on it.
Not sure on that issue regarding two Zorin entries showing. Perhaps on your machine, it is showing one entry for Wayland and one for Xorg!
In respect of Battery issue, look at the post with 4 votes here:
Thank you for suggesting this cmd, but it didn't appear to do anything (even after a restart). It seems that the battery would stop charging at 94% but without any full-charge nor still-charging indicator the LED panel. Then it would resume charging after some time. Based on my research it sounds like a calibration issue, so I'm going to let it drain and recharge, then see if the peculiar symptom reoccurs.
I figured out why I have 2 Zorin entries in GRUB. It's because a recent update installed a new kernel alongside the existing one. I removed it and updated GRUB to reflect the change; now my GRUB menu looks much cleaner.
Now I am troubleshooting why the fingerprint reader won't work on this machine.
Edit Actually, I just found a testimony here 20.04 - Any way to install drivers for VFS495 fingerprint reader? - Ask Ubuntu that claims they got it to work on Ubuntu 20.04 (Zorin OS 17.1). However, they say it requires downgrading the kernel significantly. I think I shouldn't bother with that, as it poses security risks, and should the next owner of this machine choose to update, the fingerprint scanner will just stop working again.
In respect of your battery issue, other users on here have reported success by using TLP. Chris Titus has a very good video on how to look after your battery and how to get long usage time in GNU/Linux:
Additionally, to preserve your battery life, keep charging cycles low by never letting the battery drain below 30-35% and never charging beyond 0-85%
