Do I need to turn off "Secure Boot" in my BIOS to be able to boot up into a USB Linux Mint distro?

[TheBigFatClown]

Hi all. I am running Windows 11 23H2 on my Samsung SSD and I want to be able to boot up into Linux Mint off an old USB 2.0 flash drive. I have selected this in the BIOS but it fails to boot up off the flash drive into Linux Mint (actually a GRUB boot menu I made with YUMI). I'm pretty sure the flash drive is still bootable but I'm just guessing it doesn't work because I have "Secure Boot" enabled in my BIOS. If I disable the "Secure Boot" in my BIOS will that get the old USB 2.0 flash drive to show me the multiboot menu for my Linux distros?
And maybe, more importantly, are my "Secure Boot" keys in danger of being lost if I do this? I had the option in my BIOS to export all my "Secure Boot" keys to a device so I did this and see that I have 4 keys saved to flash now. So, I feel much better about that....even though I have no idea what I'm doing to be honest....but backups are inherently good...so...

***EDIT***: I just disabled "Secure Boot" in my BIOS and rebooted my Windows 11 23H2 system and it booted up without issues and there was not even a warning about booting up into Windows 11 without "Secure Boot" enabled in the BIOS. How is this possible?

 

[Mark Fuller]

Did you save the changes?

 

[Gabriel Pike]

Hi all. I am running Windows 11 23H2 on my Samsung SSD and I want to be able to boot up into Linux Mint off an old USB 2.0 flash drive. I have selected this in the BIOS but it fails to boot up off the flash drive into Linux Mint (actually a GRUB boot menu I made with YUMI). I'm pretty sure the flash drive is still bootable but I'm just guessing it doesn't work because I have "Secure Boot" enabled in my BIOS. If I disable the "Secure Boot" in my BIOS will that get the old USB 2.0 flash drive to show me the multiboot menu for my Linux distros?
And maybe, more importantly, are my "Secure Boot" keys in danger of being lost if I do this? I had the option in my BIOS to export all my "Secure Boot" keys to a device so I did this and see that I have 4 keys saved to flash now. So, I feel much better about that....even though I have no idea what I'm doing to be honest....but backups are inherently good...so...

***EDIT***: I just disabled "Secure Boot" in my BIOS and rebooted my Windows 11 23H2 system and it booted up without issues and there was not even a warning about booting up into Windows 11 without "Secure Boot" enabled in the BIOS. How is this possible?

It only requires secure boot to install. You can disable it later and it will boot like normal on "most" systems.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

It only requires secure boot to install. You can disable it later and it will boot like normal on "most" systems.

That's very interesting to learn. Microsoft seems a bit wishy-washy on how badly they want to enforce certain security measures. So, you MUST use it to install our OS but after that....eh...whateva! That'st just hilarious to me.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Did you save the changes?

I'm pretty sure I did and from the other post it seems this isn't an issue so, it is possible to disable "Secure Boot" in the BIOS and still successfully boot up into a Windows OS. I'm just surprised at that but it appears to be so. Go figure!

 

[Mark Fuller]

I think it will boot up either way, Secure Boot is an important security feature designed to prevent malicious software from loading when your PC starts up (boots).

 

[Brickwizard]

HI I am a bit late to the show but for future reference, many but not all Linux distributions are secure boot compatible, those that are work fine with it,
WHAT CAUSES THE MAIN PROBLEM IS WINDOWS QUICK-START/FAST BOOT
Disable quick-start in the BIOS/UEFI, do a full hard shut down [do not use the windows shut down] and re-boot