2015-12-10 Mint 17.2 Updates Break Secure Boot

[Elim Garak]

Mint 17.2, 2015-12-10 updates to EFI broke matters. HP Desktop, Intel® Core™ i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz × 4, MATE 1.10.2 (not that that matters), Kernel 3.16.0-38-generic x86_64

The OS installation is no longer recognized as secure. To get back to the Grub menu, much less into Mint, secure boot had to be disabled. Here are the log entries for the updates:

Start-Date: 2015-12-10 15:57:01
Commandline: apt-get dist-upgrade
Upgrade: grub-efi-amd64-bin:amd64 (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.4, 2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.5), grub-efi-amd64:amd64 (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.4, 2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.5), coreutils:amd64 (8.21-1ubuntu5.1, 8.21-1ubuntu5.3), python-apt:amd64 (0.9.3.5ubuntu1, 0.9.3.5ubuntu2), grub-common:amd64 (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.4, 2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.5), grub2-common:amd64 (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.4, 2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.5), ntp:amd64 (4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.5, 4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.6), python3-apt:amd64 (0.9.3.5ubuntu1, 0.9.3.5ubuntu2), gnome-desktop3-data:amd64 (3.8.4-0ubuntu3.1, 3.8.4-0ubuntu3.2), ntp-doc:amd64 (4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.5, 4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.6), python-apt-common:amd64 (0.9.3.5ubuntu1, 0.9.3.5ubuntu2), unattended-upgrades:amd64 (0.82.1ubuntu2.3, 0.82.1ubuntu2.4), ntpdate:amd64 (4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.5, 4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.6)
Remove: grub-efi-amd64-signed:amd64 (1.34.5+2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.4)
End-Date: 2015-12-10 15:57:39

I'm not sure why grub-efi-amd64-signed is deprecated altogether.

It's absolutely ridiculous that this is moving backwards. There have been comments already that 17.3 doesn't play nicely with secure boot. So, why foist this nonsense upon 17.2 users? How difficult is this? Mint should be usable by someone who is an extreme novice. There is zero reason for someone to need the ability to go into BIOS and disable secure boot and then rummage through update logs to get their system functional and report on the issue.

[Dave Stroud (bigdavesr)]

I had the same thing happen on my HP. It worked fine untill HP updated the bios.I can go into bios and it gives me the choice to boot windows or linux boot loader.I have not had to turn off secure boot.

[Elim Garak (nightflyer-71)]

Dave, there was no HP BIOS update installed. It happened immediately after the updates outlined above.

[Dave Stroud (bigdavesr)]

ok just thought it may help.
On 12/11/2015 10:28 AM, Elim Garak wrote:
> Dave, there was no HP BIOS update installed. It happened immediately
> after the updates outlined above.
>

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[Vlad Orlov (monsta)]

Secure boot isn't officially supported by Linux Mint (and Release Notes tell you to turn it off).

[Elim Garak (nightflyer-71)]

Perhaps that needs to be addressed. It should be officially supported, considering Mint is great for new users, who haven't a clue how to turn off Secure Boot in the first place. As I said, this is moving backwards, rather than forwards. There are few things more foolish than alienating new users by making installation difficult or impossible for them. This is particularly problematic when it worked at one time and then stopped.