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BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2025 10:43 am
by xtac
Hello. I have a problem with my 2014 Acer E5-571 laptop. It only started about a month ago. Until then I've never had an issue with MX Linux. I don't tinker at all with the system or CLI. Only default updates which shows in the green box on the panel are done.
I had to switch my BIOS to Legacy in order to install and boot MX Linux. This was not an issue at all until my BIOS started resetting back to UEFI for an unknown reason. Even though I save the settings every time in the BIOS and I do not have any other OS installed on here. Like I said, everything has been working well for quite a while now until almost a month ago when this started happening.
Can anyone please offer any help?
Kind regards.
I was wondering if it was the Boot Options update but I don't see any settings there which look like it could be the culprit.
Code: Select all
System:
Kernel: 6.1.0-37-amd64 [6.1.140-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-37-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_x64 Libretto April 13 2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
(bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire E5-571 v: V1.09 serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Acer model: EA50_HB v: V1.09 serial: <superuser required> UEFI-[Legacy]: Insyde v: 1.09
date: 07/11/2014
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 12.4 Wh (22.3%) condition: 55.5/55.5 Wh (100.0%) volts: 11.0 min: 11.1
model: SANYO 0032334134314C41 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: charging
Device-1: hid-15:03:fe:00:01:a7-battery model: BT 5.1 keyboard-1503 serial: N/A charge: N/A
status: discharging
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i3-4005U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell gen: core 4 level: v3
note: check built: 2013-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x45 (69) stepping: 1
microcode: 0x26
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB
desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 948 high: 998 min/max: 800/1700 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
governor: ondemand cores: 1: 998 2: 998 3: 800 4: 998 bogomips: 13568
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities:
Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: retbleed status: Not affected
Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915
v: kernel arch: Gen-7.5 process: Intel 22nm built: 2013 ports: active: HDMI-A-2 off: eDP-1
empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a16 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Chicony HD WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-7:5 chip-ID: 04f2:b452
class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26") s-diag: 584mm (22.99")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-2 mapped: HDMI-2 pos: primary model: Asus ML248 serial: <filter> built: 2011
res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 92 gamma: 1.2 size: 531x299mm (20.91x11.77") diag: 609mm (24")
ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
Monitor-2: eDP-1 note: disabled model: BOE Display 0x0672 built: 2015 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 101
gamma: 1.2 size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2)
direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a0c class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 8 driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9c20 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-37-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 01:00.1
chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Foxconn
driver: ath9k v: kernel modules: wl pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0
chip-ID: 168c:0036 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Foxconn / Hon Hai type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 2-5:8 chip-ID: 0489:e078
class-ID: e001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 4 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.1 sub-v: 1
hci-v: 4.1 rev: 3101
Info: acl-mtu: 1022:8 sco-mtu: 183:5 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff
link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio,
telephony
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 447.13 GiB used: 20.13 GiB (4.5%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT480BX500SSD1 size: 447.13 GiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: R022 scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 447.13 GiB size: 439.04 GiB (98.19%) used: 20.13 GiB (4.6%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2154 libs: 1071 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
1: deb https://ftp.saix.net/pub/linux/distributions/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extrepo_librewolf.sources
1: deb [arch=amd64 arm64] https://repo.librewolf.net librewolf main
Info:
Processes: 212 Uptime: 17m wakeups: 5 Memory: 15.55 GiB used: 2.19 GiB (14.1%) Init: SysVinit
v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2025 10:57 am
by chrispop99
I wonder if the CMOS battery has died, resetting BIOS/UEFI back to default?
Chris
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2025 11:12 am
by RedGreen925
chrispop99 wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2025 10:57 am
I wonder if the CMOS battery has died, resetting BIOS/UEFI back to default?
Chris
I was going to say the same as it was the first thing that came into my head reading the description of the problem. With any luck the machine will have the socket type CMOS not one of them damn soldered on ones I had to buy and replace once. It is easy to change the socket type.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI [Solved]
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2025 12:48 pm
by j2mcgreg
Here's a how to on CMOS battery replacement for an Aspire V5 - 571. The V5-571 and E5-571 are just different versions of the same laptop so the instructions hold true. Acer in their wisdom put the CMOS battery on the reverse side of the motherboard, so this procedure might be daunting for a beginner (could be worth a visit to a computer shop).
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Acer+Aspir ... ment/36745
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2025 2:04 pm
by chrispop99
j2mcgreg wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2025 12:48 pm
Here's a how to on CMOS battery replacement for an Aspire V5 - 571.
That's why I love Dell machines. Full service manuals going back 20 years, and generally
much easier to work on.
Chris
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2025 3:49 pm
by FullScale4Me
My HP that I use for UEFI testing had a thing a while back of showing a 1960s style light show for ~20 seconds on boot every time Secure Boot was enabled.
Changing the battery eliminated it. A part of this old guy missed the Joshua/Owsley style light show.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2025 12:24 am
by m_pav
What's the harm in using EFI boot? Most machines nowadays are.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2025 1:31 am
by RedGreen925
m_pav wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2025 12:24 am
What's the harm in using EFI boot? Most machines nowadays are.
He says in the original posting he needed to go with legacy in order to install and use the MX on the machine.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2025 5:19 am
by xtac
Hey everyone. Thank you for all the suggestions and links! Much appreciated! I'll ask a computer technician if the CMOS battery can be replaced. One change almost 11 years later isn't too bad :) Cheers.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2025 7:07 am
by m_pav
RedGreen925 wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2025 1:31 am
He says in the original posting he needed to go with legacy in order to install and use the MX on the machine.
Yep and that's why I asked.
With the train wreck that was Windows Vista in 2008 coming with EFI boot support then very shortly afterwards the Windows 8 being well into it's alpha/beta testing during 2010-2011, I would be very surprised if his Acer did
not have EFI boot capabilities.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2025 12:26 pm
by fredbisard
m_pav wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2025 12:24 am
What's the harm in using EFI boot? Most machines nowadays are.
i was going to ask the same thing as OP now has the system installed and doesn't say it's causing any issues?
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2025 7:05 am
by xtac
It does have UEFI, however, it wouldn't boot from the Live USB unless I change to Legacy. Thus I installed it on Legacy and saved BIOS settings because I tested it multiple times and the only time I could boot the Live was when BIOS was in Legacy. Mine must be different because there was also no way to switch of Secure Boot either in UEFI or Legacy. I thought at first that could be the reason why I wasn't able to boot the Live. Live USBs were created with Rufus and another one with Ventoy. Same issue with both.
m_pav wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2025 7:07 am
Yep and that's why I asked.
With the train wreck that was Windows Vista in 2008 coming with EFI boot support then very shortly afterwards the Windows 8 being well into it's alpha/beta testing during 2010-2011, I would be very surprised if his Acer did
not have EFI boot capabilities.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2025 7:08 am
by xtac
My system gives No Bootable Device found error if not on Legacy.
fredbisard wrote: Mon Aug 18, 2025 12:26 pm
m_pav wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2025 12:24 am
What's the harm in using EFI boot? Most machines nowadays are.
i was going to ask the same thing as OP now has the system installed and doesn't say it's causing any issues?
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2025 7:22 am
by j2mcgreg
@xtac wrote:
My system gives No Bootable Device found error if not on Legacy.
I find that odd because my Acer Aspire V5 which predates your machine by two years, installs into UEFI fine from a USB drive. To my knowledge there has never been a bios update performed on the V5. The question going forward is: Have you replaced the CMOS battery yet?
Edited to add QSI:
Code: Select all
System:
Kernel: 6.9.12-2-liquorix-amd64 [6.9-12~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 parameters: audit=0
intel_pstate=disable BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.9.12-2-liquorix-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro
quiet splash
Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_x64 Libretto April 13 2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
(bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire V5-571 v: V1.12 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Acer model: Aspire V5-571 v: V1.12 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Phoenix v: 1.12
date: 06/12/2012
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 20.0/37.0 Wh (54.1%) volts: 17.1 min: 14.8
model: SANYO AL12A32 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: full
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i3-2367M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge gen: core 2 level: v2
built: 2010-12 process: Intel 32nm family: 6 model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB
desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1307 high: 1397 min/max: 800/1400 scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq
governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1397 2: 1277 3: 1317 4: 1240 bogomips: 11174
Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities:
Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
Type: retbleed status: Not affected
Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 code: Sandybridge
process: Intel 32nm built: 2011 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,VGA-1
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0116 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Chicony HD WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-4:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b336
class-ID: 0e02
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 362x204mm (14.25x8.03") s-diag: 416mm (16.36")
Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: LG Display 0x030a built: 2010 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 101 gamma: 1.2
size: 345x194mm (13.58x7.64") diag: 396mm (15.6") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 25.0.7-2~mx23ahs renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB GT2)
direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 7
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1e20 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.9.12-2-liquorix-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Acer Incorporated
ALI RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 2000
bus-ID: 02:00.2 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Lite-On driver: ath9k
v: kernel modules: wl pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0034
class-ID: 0280
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 473.26 GiB used: 16.73 GiB (3.5%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS500G2B0A-00SM50 size: 465.76 GiB
block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 20WD
scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB model: General UDisk size: 7.5 GiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 5.00 scheme: MBR
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 465.51 GiB size: 457.13 GiB (98.20%) used: 16.73 GiB (3.7%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2184 libs: 1078 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
1: deb http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
2: deb http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Info:
Processes: 308 Uptime: 1m wakeups: 2 Memory: 7.56 GiB used: 1.22 GiB (16.1%) Init: SysVinit
v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2025 10:55 pm
by m_pav
xtac wrote: Sat Aug 30, 2025 7:05 am
It does have UEFI, however, it wouldn't boot from the Live USB unless I change to Legacy.
-- clipped--
there was also no way to switch of Secure Boot
Nothing out of the ordinary for Acer BIOS's. My wifes and my sons Acer machines have a stupid way to disable SecureBoot and both machines are wildly different. It's highly possible yours is like theirs where the path to disable SecureBoot starts by disabling CSM in the BIOS first, saving and rebooting back into the BIOS. Then and only then will the option to disable SecureBoot be displayed.
Keep in mind I am only going by memory, though I've had to do it a few time with my sons Travelmate Laptop because he is the typical 18yo still at school with no comprehension of his laptops value. Too many bumps and slap-shuts as if it's a cheap and nasty piece of junk school chromebook eventually leads to a single bump that induces a momentary battery disconnect causing his BIOS to reset, then I get a call to come into school to fix his laptop. Happened 3 times this year already - hrrrmph!
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:27 am
by xtac
Yes me too. The fact that none of the Live Bootables would work unless it's in Legacy. Would you perhaps be able to suggest from personal experience another way/tool I could use to make a bootable? Then I'd gladly try it since my BIOS defaults to UEFI quite frequently now. And no, I opened the laptop yesterday actually, but found that the CMOS is a very small battery and it is somewhat enclosed in some sort of rubber and soldered onto the motherboard at the top and bottom. It's not even the standard CR2032 large size battery. I made a short video clip of it on my phone if you want to have a look and add a suggestion that'd be great!. I'll add the link here:
https://icedrive.net/s/VBBwG72wvwfDRfW4ubVDf6yXxbgg
j2mcgreg wrote: Sat Aug 30, 2025 7:22 am
I find that odd because my Acer Aspire V5 which predates your machine by two years, installs into UEFI fine from a USB drive. To my knowledge there has never been a bios update performed on the V5. The question going forward is: Have you replaced the CMOS battery yet?
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:39 am
by RedGreen925
xtac wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:27 am
Would you perhaps be able to suggest from personal experience another way/tool I could use to make a bootable? Then I'd gladly try it since my BIOS defaults to UEFI quite frequently now. And no, I opened the laptop yesterday actually, but found that the CMOS is a very small battery and it is somewhat enclosed in some sort of rubber and soldered onto the motherboard at the top and bottom. It's not even the standard CR2032 large size battery.
That is what I had been thinking when I mentioned that garbage method of doing it early in the thread some vendors do as sadly you have discovered in your machine. One way can be using a second machine that is an EFI one install to an external drive then take this drive boot it in the EFI mode on this machine. If it works then clone it to the internal drive partitioned as a GPT drive with the ESP/EFI partition on it and use it that way.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:43 am
by xtac
Awesome, thank you for that tip! Had no idea what CSM means but I copied your comment into an AI and it explained it to me. I'd gladly try it, but my question is this: Now that it seems that the CMOS is very low and keeps resetting my BIOS to default, would that also enable the CSM and disable the SecureBoot each time? I'm asking because I am now at the point of SERIOUSLY considering to wipe this drive completely, make new Bootable ISOs and reinstall MX again. But if I change those settings just to install Linux on UEFI and my BIOS resets again (as it frequently does now) would I be left again with the No Bootable Device screen. However, instead of switching to Legacy, and booting, it sounds like I might now have to complete an extra step each time (if I understand you correctly) by first disabling CSM, save&exit, enter BIOS, disable SecureBoot, and only then boot into the OS? I would actually love it if I can just boot the Live OS directly with my default BIOS settings and never have to even know that the CMOS is problematic as I can just boot it with default settings each time. What a dream :)
Good luck with your son, sounds like that Travelmate is having the time of it's life hehe :) Start to charge him a technician's fee on his allowance everytime you get a callout to the school. First time he sees the deduction he might just change his attitude a bit :)hehe. All in good spirit.
m_pav wrote: Sat Aug 30, 2025 10:55 pm
Nothing out of the ordinary for Acer BIOS's. My wifes and my sons Acer machines have a stupid way to disable SecureBoot and both machines are wildly different. It's highly possible yours is like theirs where the path to disable SecureBoot starts by disabling CSM in the BIOS first, saving and rebooting back into the BIOS. Then and only then will the option to disable SecureBoot be displayed.
Keep in mind I am only going by memory, though I've had to do it a few time with my sons Travelmate Laptop because he is the typical 18yo still at school with no comprehension of his laptops value. Too many bumps and slap-shuts as if it's a cheap and nasty piece of junk school chromebook eventually leads to a single bump that induces a momentary battery disconnect causing his BIOS to reset, then I get a call to come into school to fix his laptop. Happened 3 times this year already - hrrrmph!
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Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:50 am
by xtac
That sounds like it could work very well indeed! Thank you for the suggestion! To be honest, it sounds a bit over my head but I'm sure if I research those steps carefully I should be able to get it done. Thanks for the problem-solving attitude, I appreciate the suggestion.
RedGreen925 wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:39 am
That is what I had been thinking when I mentioned that garbage method of doing it early in the thread some vendors do as sadly you have discovered in your machine. One way can be using a second machine that is an EFI one install to an external drive then take this drive boot it in the EFI mode on this machine. If it works then clone it to the internal drive partitioned as a GPT drive with the ESP/EFI partition on it and use it that way.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 8:43 am
by j2mcgreg
@xtac
What utility / method do you use to create you USB install drives?
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 1:02 pm
by RedGreen925
xtac wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:50 am
That sounds like it could work very well indeed! Thank you for the suggestion! To be honest, it sounds a bit over my head but I'm sure if I research those steps carefully I should be able to get it done. Thanks for the problem-solving attitude, I appreciate the suggestion.
It is actually fairly simple to do once you know how to do it. Firstly you need the external drive install confirmed working on the machine you will install onto. When you have that done you use the gdisk program in terminal window to partition the drive inside the machine with the tiny ESP/EFI partition at the start for the /boot/efi that is used by such a machine, this is set as type ef00 (EFI System Partition) when creating and formatted vfat. A second normal partition for the install on the machine set type 8300 linux and formatted with your file system of choice, I use ext4 for ages now it works well.
Then you can use the rsync to copy the running external drive system to the partition you have made for root on the internal drive and copy the external drive ESP/EFI partition to the internal one as well. Then you need to edit three files on an EFI system for it to boot, the grub.cfg that is in the /EFI/debian/ in the ESP/EFI partition to change the UUID in it to use the internal drive UUID. There is second grub.cfg file in the internal drive /boot/grub/ that has to be changed to the new internal UUID to be used. Lastly the internal drive /etc/fstab needs to have both the new / UUID of the previous two changes put into it and the new /boot/efi internal UUID so it will know where to mount the file systems once the external is removed and not used anymore.
I have done this so many times I have lost count it works every time without fail as long as I remember to change the UUIDs when doing it manually and every time when using my script I have written to do it to any of the fourteen different combinations of drives and machines I use that for. When you have working external drive booting in EFI mode on your machine let me know and I will provide step by step commands to get it done for you.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 1:04 pm
by xtac
@j2mcgreg I used Rufus first but couldn't boot from UEFI, then Ventoy and had the same issues. No extra changes to settings when creating the Bootable USBs if that's what you meant. Do you recommend another tool?
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 1:15 pm
by xtac
@RedGreen925 . Wow, that sounds kinda interesting and daunting, but you've got me curious and you seem to explain things clearly. It also sounds like less work than wiping my SDD and starting everything again, but that's the only method I know
I'm wondering for your first step if I can do a fresh install to USB or memory card and clone from there as my only other laptops have Windows on them? Perhaps we can start a new thread for this discussion or maybe if you one day feel like writing a tip/guide post about it in case anyone else ever has the same problem as me? I'll be breaking the forum rules to continue bumping this current topic when our discussion is unrelated to my title.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 1:41 pm
by RedGreen925
xtac wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 1:15 pm
I'm wondering for your first step if I can do a fresh install to USB or memory card and clone from there as my only other laptops have Windows on them?
Yes anything will work as long as you can boot on it and install in EFI mode to the drive you want to use. They you take the new install boot on problem machine in EFI mode use it to confirm it works. Once working then this is the time you wipe the problem machine internal drive to clone onto.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2025 8:57 am
by j2mcgreg
@xtac wrote:
I used Rufus first but couldn't boot from UEFI, then Ventoy and had the same issues. No extra changes to settings when creating the Bootable USBs if that's what you meant. Do you recommend another tool?
I just tested this with my Aspire V5, In order to get the Aspire V5 to boot with UEFI active, I had to configure Rufus to use GPT partitioning, If I instead just accepted the default Rufus settings, the Aspire balked.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2025 9:46 am
by xtac
@j2mcgreg Wooow!
Thank you soooo much! I just always used default settings as 90% of the time I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm definitely going to try your solution.
Re: BIOS continually resetting to UEFI
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2025 3:58 pm
by FullScale4Me
j2mcgreg wrote: Mon Sep 01, 2025 8:57 am
@xtac wrote:
I used Rufus first but couldn't boot from UEFI, then Ventoy and had the same issues. No extra changes to settings when creating the Bootable USBs if that's what you meant. Do you recommend another tool?
I just tested this with my Aspire V5, In order to get the Aspire V5 to boot with UEFI active, I had to configure Rufus to use GPT partitioning, If I instead just accepted the default Rufus settings, the Aspire balked.
Rufus, as many users assume, picks a likely option. Not always does it pick the correct one for the intended use. See Rufus section of
MX Linux Quick-Start Guide PDF, 399 Kb, illustrated, last updated: August 10, 2025. I am the author.
Newer PCs should have no Legacy/CSM support as an option. This was raised as a security issue some time ago by the UEFI standards group (Intel, Microsoft and all th big PC makers). IIRC it was pre-2020 timewise. For some reason, I can't find an exact date or standard .x revision level.