Permanently booting from sd card with a locked NvRam

[vidtek99]

Ubuntu Support Template

Ubuntu Version:any

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
any

Problem Description:
There are some motherboards especially the Asus Strix z270 boards that due to a design flaw, will suffer from a permanent lockout of the NavRam chip. This means any new o/s installation will not boot and only the o/s’s that have previously been written into the NavRam chip will boot. The only way to overcome this is by physically unsoldering the NavRam chip and replacing it.

Relevant System Information:Mainly Asus but in order of most to less affected are Gigabyte, MSI, and Asrock.

In modern systems (UEFI-era, last ~15 years):

• The NVRAM that gets “locked” is on the motherboard**, not on the boot media**

• It is part of the system firmware (UEFI), typically stored in:

  • SPI flash alongside the UEFI firmware image

An SSD, M.2 device, USB stick, etc. does not contain UEFI NVRAM.

What “NVRAM” actually means here

When repair tools say “Locked NVRAM”, they are referring to:

UEFI variable storage, not generic non-volatile memory on the drive

This storage holds:

• Boot entries (Boot0000, BootOrder)

• Secure Boot state

• Vendor firmware variables

• Recovery / diagnostics flags

It persists across power loss → hence “NVRAM”.

Physical location (this is the key point)

On UEFI systems (PCs, Macs, servers):

• Stored in:

  • SPI NOR flash chip on the motherboard

• Same chip (or region) as:

  • UEFI firmware

  • Firmware capsules

• Protected by:

  • Firmware write-protect logic

  • Sometimes hardware strap / ME / PSP policies

It is never stored on the boot device.

Removable media are not subject to this restriction, so I want to boot the kernel from an SD card and then have it hand off to the main system.

All my attempts to achieve this have come to nothing.

Can anyone assist with this handoff?

Cheers Tony

Before Posting:
Please check if similar issues have already been reported and resolved.

[nio-wiklund]

• I understand from your original post that you can boot a live session or installed system from an SD card (and a guess also from a USB drive).
• Would it be enough to boot grub from the SD card and then let grub start the linux kernel etc from the internal drive? Or must also the kernel be booted from the SD card?
• Is it the same problem both in UEFI mode and BIOS mode (alias CSM alias legacy mode)? I ask because I have an old Asus, where it is easier to make it boot Ubuntu in BIOS mode (but using refind made it possible to boot Ubuntu also in UEFI mode.
• Would it be an alternative to run the whole Ubuntu system from an SSD connected via USB? That can be quite fast and reliable, and there are rather small SSD-USB boxes nowadays.

[vidtek99]

@nio-wiklund

Thanks for your response. I understand from your original post that you can boot a live session - yes no problem - or installed system { no - that’s what I wish to achieve} from an SD card (and a guess also from a USB drive).

Would it be enough to boot grub from the SD card and then let grub start the linux kernel etc from the internal drive? Or must also the kernel be booted from the SD card? I have no idea - that’s where my knowledge ends and what I want to find out! This would be ideal.

I have not tried in bios mode, that would be a very last resort.

@nio-wiklund

USB? That can be quite fast and reliable, and there are rather small SSD-USB boxes nowadays. That is what I’ve been doing but it is painfully slow; I adjust the grub menu to include the usb drive o/s

[graymech]

Please forgive us if we make suggestions that you have already tried.

From what I have read it should be possible to boot from an SD card. Is it possible for you to install a minimal Ubuntu on the SD card? That will create a Grub boot menu that should give you the option to boot Ubuntu on the NVME (Non-Volatile Memory Express) drive.

A minimal Ubuntu install has the basic utilities + Firefox & Terminal. Nothing else. I think it might be difficult to put Grub on the SD card and at the same time referencing its Grub configuration files in the /boot folder on the Ubuntu drive.

Unless we were starting with first installing Ubuntu. When directing the installer to install Ubuntu on the NVME drive we direct it to install the bootloader (Grub) on to the SD card. That might work.

You will need to create a boot partition that is Fat32. I have read that Ext4 being a journaling filesystem will reduce the life of a SD card. But if all that you have on it is the Grub loader in the FAT32 partition that might not matter.

Of course, you could use the rest of the space on the SD card as storage. Provided it is FAT32 or NTFS. Ubuntu can read and write to both those formats but not be installed on to them.

I am interested in this topic. My OEM laptop has a slot for a Micro SD card. I do not have a camera with Micro SD card storage. So, I am wondering how else to make use of this slot.

Regards

[vidtek99]

@graymech

@greymech Thanks for your ideas. Unless we were starting with first installing Ubuntu. When directing the installer to install Ubuntu on the NVME drive we direct it to install the bootloader (Grub) on to the SD card. That might work.

This is the first thing I tried. Unfortunately it didn’t find the kernel or whatever it looks for after starting to boot. Ended up with the grub terminal.

From what I have read it should be possible to boot from an SD card. Is it possible for you to install a minimal Ubuntu on the SD card? That will create a Grub boot menu that should give you the option to boot Ubuntu on the NVME (Non-Volatile Memory Express) drive.

Now that’s something that hadn’t occurred to me, I’ll try it and report back. Thanks for the suggestion.

Cheers, report back soon, Tony

[tea-for-one]

@vidtek99

Removable media are not subject to this restriction, so I want to boot the kernel from an SD card and then have it hand off to the main system

I’m assuming that your PC has Ubuntu (or family member) already installed but it does not boot
i.e. nothing happens and no sign of a Grub menu
I also assume that there is an ESP with the relevant grubx64.efi within /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu

• Install rEFInd to a SD/USB
  Choose to boot the kernel or the efi file
  More info here

• Install Grub to SD/USB
  The PC will boot to a grub prompt grub> and you can then boot a kernel
  It’s a bit fiddly and I can post instructions if you wish to try it.

• Make a bootable EFI Shell (if your PC does not display its own internal EFI shell)
  https://www.baeldung.com/linux/efi-shell-bootable-flash

rEFInd is the best option because, once it launches, 3 boot options are available

[nio-wiklund]

If booting and running from USB works, but is slow, there could be different causes of that problem

• It is USB 2, you should use USB 3 both in the computer and the USB memory device.
• Even if it is USB 3, the memory hardware is slow, so that it cannot take advantage of the USB 3 speed.

-o-

There are many tips from several helpers now. I am sure that you can find a method that works well for you, when you test what we suggest

[vidtek99]

Thanks to all who have given me solid advice.

@graymech I tried to install tinycore but it was too minimalist for practical purposes. I then installed a minimum install of linux mint on a 32gb micro-sd card and after some initial hiccups I have found that solution works.

After running update-grub within this small o/s it found all the different installs scattered across multiple drives. I will mark this as solved, thanks again.

@tea-for-one Thanks for the suggestion, refind would have been my next try, but that will involve some more learning and my head is already full of grub….err that came out weird! Anyway you know what I mean.

@nio-wiklund Yes you are right, lots of great advice and suggestions here. With regard to boot speed, using just the efi boot bit of the sd card and having grub point to the other systems, the difference in boot speed is barely noticeable.

Happy camper even with a locked NvRam!