Linux Mint 22.3 USB boot hangs on black screen / Secure Boot issue on AMD desktop

Hello All, New user to the community and wantabe Linux user.
I am trying to install Linux Mint onto a dual boot Windows 11 AMD desktop.
I have disabled Secure Boot.
I have used Rufus to create a bootable USB of Linux Mint 22.3.
I put the USB in, restart the system and it blows right by and starts Win 11.

I shutdown and hit the ESC key, going into the startup menu.
I hit F9 (Boot Menu).
From there I pick the USB and hit enter.
After about 10 sec the GNU GRUB menu pops up.

GNU GRUB
– Start Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon 64-Bit
– Start Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon 64-Bit (Compaitability mode)
– OEM install
– Boot from next vol
– UEFI Firmware settings

Hit line 1 , screen goes black and then nothing.
Hit line 2, screen goes black for about 5 sec then I get the following:
EFI Stub: Loaded initrd from Linux
EFI Stub: Measured initrd data into PCR 9
EFI Stub: UEFI Secure Boot is enabled.

Then it sits there till I shut down.

I have checked and secure Boot is disabled prior to starting this.

Any thoughts?

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1 Like

Welcome to the community! This is a pretty common issue with AMD systems and Linux Mint. A few things to check:

Secure Boot isn’t actually disabled. That “UEFI Secure Boot is enabled” message from the EFI stub is telling you the firmware still has Secure Boot on, regardless of what you think you set.

Some AMD boards have multiple Secure Boot settings (same quirk opposite direction) or require you to save and reboot before the change actually takes effect.

Go back into your BIOS/UEFI settings and double-check, look for it under both the Security tab and the Boot tab, as some boards have the toggle in unexpected places.

After disabling it, make sure you save and exit (not just exit). Some boards also need you to delete the Secure Boot keys (switch to “Setup Mode”) for it to truly be off.

If Secure Boot really is disabled and it still reports enabled, try re-flashing the USB with Rufus using the “DD” write mode instead of the default ISO mode. Sometimes the ISO mode doesn’t write the bootloader correctly.

A few other things worth trying:

in BIOS, make sure CSM/Legacy boot is disabled since you want pure UEFI mode and Mint 22.3 handles that fine, try a different USB port (preferably a USB 2.0 port if you tried 3.0 first)

If you have an NVIDIA GPU, try adding nomodeset to the boot parameters by pressing e on the first GRUB option, finding the line starting with linux, adding nomodeset before quiet splash, then pressing F10 to boot. I also found these discussions:

But honestly, start with the Secure Boot issue since the kernel is explicitly telling you it’s still on. That’s likely the main problem.