{"id":16105,"date":"2026-10-18T16:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T14:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/?p=16105"},"modified":"2026-10-18T16:01:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T14:01:45","slug":"an-happy-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monodes.com\/predaelli\/2026\/10\/18\/an-happy-end\/","title":{"rendered":"An happy end"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today I was installing Debian on the old laptop of my sister-in-law. We bought it in first place in 2016 for my daughter, with Windows 10, “because of compatibility”, because at school they “required” the proprietary OS. Then we discovered that it wasn’t required that much so I installed Ubuntu in multi-boot with Windows, and I had to resolve using too many UEFI enchantments I couldn’t remember today to enable multi-boot. Then it ended up being used by my sister-in-law as she actually required Windows to work during the lockdowns and we got a better laptop for my daughter in 2021. These days she told us that it tooks minutes just to open a browser windows and it was slow as hell. Of course. it got 4GB of RAM and the CPU is a Core Duo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I just tell you that it takes almost 30 seconds to start booting. Not booting. Just to load GRUB. Using it with Windows is a real pain. It was really unbearable slow. So Windows had to go since she luckily don’t require Windows anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I backed up her data, mainly videos and photos related to her Ju-Jitsu courses and erased everything. I wanted something lighter than Ubuntu. Debian with XFCE, coupled with ZRam<\/a>, the compressed RAM-based block devices which is a boon for memory starved machines such as this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I downloaed the Debian installer – the version I have on an USB stick was two released old and I discovered that I shall have tweaked that machine a little too much, or that my knowledge of the infamous UEFI is lacking as I hit the “MokManager mmx64.efi Not Found” error. I shall thank Nav<\/a> for his solution<\/a> that basically is renaming “boot\/grubx64.efi” into “boot\/mmx64.efi” in the EFI partition on the USB stick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the infaustus case that Nav blog goes offline, here’s a copy of that precious page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Solving the MokManager mmx64.efi Not Found errors and the missing Mok menu problem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Until I used Ubuntu 16.04, I didn’t have much of a problem with UEFI. Just the first time it was confusing and took a while to find the solution<\/a>, but everything else, like third party drivers and VirtualBox worked without problems.

But when trying to install Ubuntu 16.04.6, the system wouldn’t even start. It showed the below message and shutdown.

Unable to find mmx64.efi file:<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Failed to open \\EFI\\BOOT\\mmx64.efi – Not Found.<\/em>
Something has gone seriously wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It sounded like Russel Peter’s Dad saying “Somebody’s gonna get hurt real bad<\/em>“.

For a long time, searching the internet didn’t yield a solution, but some posts mentioned renaming grubx64.efi<\/em><\/strong> to mmx64.efi<\/em><\/strong>. The trouble with that is, that if you try to rename the file in Ubuntu, it won’t work. Ubuntu shows you a totally different filesystem. You have to go to Windows (or try the “Update” suggested by Stephen Samuel which I’ve mentioned below<\/em>). In Windows, you won’t be able to see all the files in the pen drive. It just shows you one folder into which you have to navigate into, find the grubx64.efi<\/em><\/strong> file and rename it to mmx64.efi<\/em><\/strong>.
Viola! You’ll now be able to boot from the pen drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Funny thing is, after installing Ubuntu, you have to rename that file on the pen drive back to grubx64.efi<\/em><\/strong> (and you have to do it in Windows, or perhaps just mount the correct partition in Ubuntu as mentioned in the update below and do the renaming), or else you won’t be able to boot from the pen drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update:<\/strong> There may not be a need to go to Windows to do this renaming. In the comments below, Stephen Samuel mentions that it might only be a matter of mounting the second partition on the pen drive. I have not tried it yet, but it seems plausible. The pen drive may have `sdb1<\/em>` and `sdb2<\/em>`. The `sdb1<\/em>` partition may have been mounted on Ubuntu by default. So type `sudo fdisk -l<\/strong><\/em>` to view your partitions, and assuming your pen drive’s second partition is `\/dev\/sdb2<\/em>`, it might just be a matter of mounting it like this:
mount \/dev\/sdb2 \/mnt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and renaming it like this:
mv \/mnt\/EFI\/boot\/grubx64.efi \/mnt\/EFI\/boot\/mmx64.efi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and then unmounting it like this:
umount \/mnt <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Need to set the Mok state after reboot but the screen never shows up:<\/strong>

When installing VirtualBox or the third party drivers in Ubuntu, the screen says that on reboot, you’ll have to type a password to enroll mok.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You’ll notice VirtualBox generating a private key for Mok<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, when you reboot, you are never presented with any such mok screen.
What you are supposed to do to be able to see the mok screen is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n