Hey @hannahgirl!
Apologies for missing your post. I’ve been looking into it and we might try something else to see if that works. From your black screen message, it seems that this might be a problem of the login manager, AKA greeter. In Linux Mint, the greeter is LightDM. Since Cinnamon is Gnome-based, we can try by replacing the login app to the GDM (Gnome Desktop Manager).
Hi @vasileios, thanks for your reply! I’m sorry for the long time gaps between my replies, but I did try the things in your last post the day after you posted them. It’s just that I’m only now getting time to reply.
Okay, so that first step didn’t work at first because apparently GDM is outdated, but a forum post I found said that GDM3 is good, so I did that instead. (Hope that was okay? I don’t want to change things up when you’re trying to help me.) The login app switched perfectly after that: when I restarted the Dell it had a new login page. It looked great and seemed to work fine… except it wouldn’t boot Mint after I would sign in with my password, ha! I restarted 5 times but it just did a black screen after logging in and playing the Mint start-up sound. On the 6th restart I wasn’t sure what else to do, so I pressed F12 and turned Secure Boot back on. The new login app came up, I signed in, and then Mint loaded just fine.
Here’s the crazy thing though, all that above doesn’t really matter anymore because… the internet is now fast again! Not sure why, but yay! Even with Secure Boot turned back on for almost a month now the internet is still fast, so I don’t think I need any more help with that for now
So, even though my internet is fast now, I wanted to write a little bit about the second step in your post. I did try to reset the time and date, but the commands in the article you linked didn’t work. The terminal kept saying, “no such command”. And, when I did the command to check the time and date, it was already accurate. So, I don’t need to update/change it since it’s accurate, right? Or should I still reset it just in case? But again, the internet is fast on this Dell laptop now, so maybe I don’t need to worry about the time and date anymore? I mostly wanted to let you know that the commands in that article didn’t work in case that’s helpful for you to know.
Hey @hannahgirl!
Since your system works with Secure Boot on, then you may leave it at that. The reason is that - during installation - the OS evaluates what is enabled and what is not, and installs accordingly. Any changes after that may require a lot more tweaking, which may not always be ideal. However, if you - at some point - decide to install a bleeding-edge distro, I’d recommend you switch Secure Boot off before you attempt an installation. That way, you won’t have to encounter any issues similar to that.
Per the time settings, if they are accurate, then you need not bother. Just keep an eye on them in case something changes and you see your clock get “out-of-order”! If it does, the servers will spot it and a few things will stop working.
And thank you for letting me know about the article. It’s funny how some people pump material out without doing a good test first.
@vasileios, Hi All, I just got a new old Dell desktop that I want to install Mint on. It does not have any OS on it at all, but at one time it did have Windows 10 on it. I put the USB in to install Mint and it wants me to do the secure boot. I knew this could be a trick, so I came to this forum before going any further to find the answer, which brought me here. (I cancelled out of the Mint install.)
My question is, should I simply go to the BIOS and disable the Secure boot? Or do I have to go through all the other steps of deleting the keys, doing the command in terminal, etc.?
Hey, @Margo!
My apologies for the delayed response. I’m prepping the NextCloud Hub II course for our group, and it has taken all of my time (a private solution that fully replaces Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox etc.).
The process is simple. You can just disable the Secure Boot and clear the keys directly from the BIOS. I will explain why I recommend that (we also have an LMS course on the why):
When you boot into Linux, the first thing that starts is an image of the Linux Kernel. If Secure Boot is on, then that image has to be signed. This is done via a SHIM file that is supplied by a few of the major distro providers. Not all of them do it though.
The downside of having Secure Boot on is this:
If you perform a module installation that attaches itself to the Kernel image, chances are it will not function properly as they do not have the portion of the signature code required by Microsoft. Yes, Secure Boot is a Microsoft construct, so if you find Open Source drivers (aka kernel modules) for your hardware, they won’t have M$ approval. Hence, you will encounter issues.
There are many ways to secure your system that does not need that M$ stuff. With Linux, you have three options. The normal user, which is enough, the server user (which is very secure) and the whistleblower user, which is the paranoid version. All three are possible only with Linux.
And the normal user mode is far more private and secure than the most “secure” version of Windows.
So, it’s safe to disable Secure Boot for use with Linux.
It’s just that I’m only now getting time to reply.
I restarted 5 times but it just did a black screen after logging in and playing the Mint start-up sound. On the 6th restart I wasn’t sure what else to do, so I pressed F12 and turned Secure Boot back on. The new login app came up, I signed in, and then Mint loaded just fine.
