Something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed

[Lonni J Friedman]

I'm attempting to install Fedora 30 on an old Macbook Air (7.1), and
as soon as it tries to boot from the USB stick, it fails, printing the
following errors:
######
Failed to start MokManager: Not Found
Something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed
######

after which the laptop powers off on its own.  This is before any sort
of GRUB menu or anything interactive appears.  Its literally this bug:
https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=15522

But I'm puzzled how the Fedora 30 grub bits could be broken in this fashion?

[stan]

On Sat, 24 Aug 2019 14:06:50 -0700
Lonni J Friedman  wrote:
> I'm attempting to install Fedora 30 on an old Macbook Air (7.1), and
> as soon as it tries to boot from the USB stick, it fails, printing the
> following errors:
> ######
> Failed to start MokManager: Not Found
> Something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed
> ######
>
> after which the laptop powers off on its own.  This is before any sort
> of GRUB menu or anything interactive appears.  Its literally this bug:
> https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=15522
>
> But I'm puzzled how the Fedora 30 grub bits could be broken in this
> fashion?

I don't know, but my fabricated explanation.  That was a centos bug.
If the patch didn't make it upstream, then it wouldn't be in Fedora.
So, you should open a Fedora bugzilla for the issue, and include the
link to the centos bug, and the fact that it is fixed there.  That is,
the Fedora install media probably includes the unpatched version that
caused the bug in centos because it wasn't reported in Fedora, so no
one was aware there was a bug.

Did any of the workarounds suggested in that centos bug, before the
patch was built, work for you?  You could mention that in the Fedora
bugzilla also, so anyone searching for the issue finds your bug and
knows there is a workaround.

[Lonni J Friedman]

OK, i filed a bug:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1745355

All of the work arounds in the Centos bug are for people who have
already installed the OS, but can no longer boot it.  I can't even
install Fedora.  I'd have to somehow edit the install image, and
rebuild it to attempt those work arounds.  That's significantly more
effort than I'm willing to put forth to install an OS.  I'll just
install a different Linux distro, and move on with my life.

On Sun, Aug 25, 2019 at 6:38 AM stan via users
 wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Aug 2019 14:06:50 -0700
> Lonni J Friedman  wrote:
> > I'm attempting to install Fedora 30 on an old Macbook Air (7.1), and
> > as soon as it tries to boot from the USB stick, it fails, printing the
> > following errors:
> > ######
> > Failed to start MokManager: Not Found
> > Something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed
> > ######
> >
> > after which the laptop powers off on its own.  This is before any sort
> > of GRUB menu or anything interactive appears.  Its literally this bug:
> > https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=15522
> >
> > But I'm puzzled how the Fedora 30 grub bits could be broken in this
> > fashion?
>
> I don't know, but my fabricated explanation.  That was a centos bug.
> If the patch didn't make it upstream, then it wouldn't be in Fedora.
> So, you should open a Fedora bugzilla for the issue, and include the
> link to the centos bug, and the fact that it is fixed there.  That is,
> the Fedora install media probably includes the unpatched version that
> caused the bug in centos because it wasn't reported in Fedora, so no
> one was aware there was a bug.
>
> Did any of the workarounds suggested in that centos bug, before the
> patch was built, work for you?  You could mention that in the Fedora
> bugzilla also, so anyone searching for the issue finds your bug and
> knows there is a workaround.
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[stan]

On Sun, 25 Aug 2019 09:32:22 -0700
Lonni J Friedman  wrote:
> OK, i filed a bug:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1745355
>
> All of the work arounds in the Centos bug are for people who have
> already installed the OS, but can no longer boot it.  I can't even
> install Fedora.  I'd have to somehow edit the install image, and
> rebuild it to attempt those work arounds.  That's significantly more
> effort than I'm willing to put forth to install an OS.  I'll just
> install a different Linux distro, and move on with my life.

A caveat.  Other distros will work if they have either the patched new
version (unlikely, if not CentOS), or the old version.  The good news
is that if it is using the old version, if / when they update to the
latest version, you will know what to do when your system no longer
boots.

What I got from the workaround thread is that old macs can't use uefi.
So, if you get the fedora netinstall image, and choose legacy boot (MBR)
during the install, it should install and boot just fine.  The same
should be true for any other distro.  Then this problem won't happen in
the future, regardless of what the distro does with uefi.

I am not familiar enough with macs to know if they have a bios setting
that tells the system to boot in non-uefi mode.  If they do, you should
be able to boot the F30 image as non-uefi, and have no issues, because
it isn't possible to install a uefi system from a non-uefi boot.  The
images default to uefi because that is best for new systems.  When I
booted the netinstall image, I hit the Del or F2 key, got to the
firmware boot menu screen, and was able to explicitly select legacy
boot for the image.  You could try that before going to the trouble of
downloading a new image.

[Lonni J Friedman]

There is no BIOS to enter on Macs.  All I can do is select the boot device.

There's also no way to choose legacy boot during the OS installation,
as this failure happens long before the installer runs.  Its blowing
up somewhere in the boot loader phase.

Also, performing a legacy (MBR) installation on a Mac causes lots of
other things fail to work correctly.

On Mon, Aug 26, 2019 at 10:53 AM stan via users
 wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Aug 2019 09:32:22 -0700
> Lonni J Friedman  wrote:
> > OK, i filed a bug:
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1745355
> >
> > All of the work arounds in the Centos bug are for people who have
> > already installed the OS, but can no longer boot it.  I can't even
> > install Fedora.  I'd have to somehow edit the install image, and
> > rebuild it to attempt those work arounds.  That's significantly more
> > effort than I'm willing to put forth to install an OS.  I'll just
> > install a different Linux distro, and move on with my life.
>
> A caveat.  Other distros will work if they have either the patched new
> version (unlikely, if not CentOS), or the old version.  The good news
> is that if it is using the old version, if / when they update to the
> latest version, you will know what to do when your system no longer
> boots.
>
> What I got from the workaround thread is that old macs can't use uefi.
> So, if you get the fedora netinstall image, and choose legacy boot (MBR)
> during the install, it should install and boot just fine.  The same
> should be true for any other distro.  Then this problem won't happen in
> the future, regardless of what the distro does with uefi.
>
> I am not familiar enough with macs to know if they have a bios setting
> that tells the system to boot in non-uefi mode.  If they do, you should
> be able to boot the F30 image as non-uefi, and have no issues, because
> it isn't possible to install a uefi system from a non-uefi boot.  The
> images default to uefi because that is best for new systems.  When I
> booted the netinstall image, I hit the Del or F2 key, got to the
> firmware boot menu screen, and was able to explicitly select legacy
> boot for the image.  You could try that before going to the trouble of
> downloading a new image.
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]

[Samuel Sieb]

On 8/26/19 10:52 AM, stan via users wrote:
> it isn't possible to install a uefi system from a non-uefi boot.  The
> images default to uefi because that is best for new systems.  When I

There is no default in the images themselves.  The default is that if a 
computer supports UEFI, then it will try that option first if it is 
supported by the media being booted.