Your Linux problem isn't going as planned. You need some assistance.
Your Linux problem isn't going as planned. You need some assistance.
Hey everyone, I'm a long-time Windows user with over two decades of experience, having worked with every major release since Windows 3.11. I build PCs for friends and family, and I've always managed installations and configurations smoothly—countless times, even if I can't recall them all. That's why I thought switching to Linux, specifically Ubuntu, would be a breeze. But after two days, I couldn't even boot into my desktop environment, let alone install the OS properly.
My goal is to move my home PC with SMB, Plex, and a gaming PC to Linux. The gaming side will run in a virtual machine with full GPU support for optimal performance and compatibility. I want to customize everything without worrying about updates disrupting my preferred look and feel.
I've tried Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, 21.10, and popOS before. With Windows 11, I just wanted to test it on a spare drive—it looked terrible, clashed with my style, had no folder previews, and raised privacy concerns. Now I'm determined to make this work.
I've used Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 21.10, plus popOS. I installed it on an SD card using Rufus in UEFI mode, disabled Secure Boot, and enabled SGX in BIOS. Still nothing. In Ubuntu, I reached the motherboard splash screen or driver init screen, but after a few seconds, the screen would freeze and my peripherals would shut down.
I've tried Linux before with similar issues, but this time it's more urgent. My daily driver is Windows 11, and I'm not ready to risk losing that. If you have any tips or suggestions, please share them—I appreciate your help!
Thanks in advance.
You're experiencing issues with your video card setup on Ubuntu. It seems secure boot is active, which affects driver loading and kernel updates. Booting into compatibility mode resolves the problem, allowing you to install drivers or update the kernel. If you don't use compatibility mode, you won't have a graphical interface.
Sorry, forgot to mention it. I have a 1080ti but clearly switched to an i5 9600k iGPU for setup since I’m aware of driver problems. I also tried popOS on my 1080ti and got the same issue. I’ve used Ubuntu sometimes and installed it without trouble on both laptops and custom builds, which leaves me a bit confused. Could a non-expert encounter similar difficulties? No wonder there’s such poor adoption of Linux if even well-known distros can be so tricky to install. If someone can’t get started, how can they expect others to learn? Installation of Windows 11 was terrible too—it wasn’t a big deal for me.
You might consider starting with a BIOS/MBR boot instead of UEFI/GPT for Ubuntu or Pop_OS. I’ve heard UEFI can be finicky sometimes, even though I’ve installed Arch and Debian in both BIOS/MBR and UEFI/GPT without major problems. However, I haven’t used an SD card for Linux installations before, so you could try a different SD card or a USB flash drive just to be sure.
I've turned on CSM, turned off Secure Boot, created a new drive (Corsair Survivor USB 3.0 64GB) and used rufus to format Ubuntu 20.10 with MBR/Legacy Boot. When trying to boot live, I received an error: Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found. I tried passing the init= option in the kernel, but I'm not familiar with that command.
A few years ago, someone shared a similar experience: they chose NTFS for the file system over FAT32 when making a bootable USB in Rufus. That seems to be the most relevant advice I found. If it doesn’t work, consider using another flasher like Ventoy or Etcher and updating the BIOS.