Dell XPS 8940 (No Legacy Mode available) / Hang up before the installer loads

Hello Qubes OS forum community,

I have bought a Dell XPS 8940 PC with i7-11700 CPU.
I prepared an USB stick with Rufus in Windows 10 with MBR and after that with GPT boot scheme.

I can:

  • Use UEFI (Dell Recovery check after boot from USB stick.
  • Deactivate UEFI (Boots but hang up after text loads before the actual installer).

I can’t:

  • activate the legacy mode (not possible anymore on newer UEFI/BIOS settings.

Error (UEFI deactivated / no legacy mode (not available) [MBR/GPT scheme nearly the same]:
GPT:
(XEN) ACPI: 32/64X FACS address mismatch in FACT - 8f18600/0000000000000000, using 32
(XEN) IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-119
(XEN) Enabling APIC mode: Phys. Using 1 I/0 APICs
(XEN) Switched to APIC drier x2apic_cluster.
(XEN) xstate: size: 0xa88 and states: 0x2ff
(XEN) Unrecognised CPU model 0xa7 - assuming not reptpoline safe
(XEN) Unrecognised CPU model 0xa7 - assuming vulnerable to LazyFPU
(XEN) Speculative mitigation facilities:
(XEN) Hardware features: IBRS/IBPB STIBP L1D_FLUSH SSBD MD_CLEAR IBRS_ALL RDCL_NO SKIP_L1DFL MDS_NO
(XEN) Compiled-in support: INDIRECT THUNK
(XEN) Xen settings: BTI-Thunk JMP, SPEC_CTRL: IBRS+ SSBD-, Other: IBPB
(XEN) Support for VMs: PV: MSR_SPEC_CTRL RSB EAGER_FPU MD_CLEAR, HVM: MSR_SPEC_CTRL RSB EAGER_FPU MD_CLEAR
(XEN) XPTI (64-bit PV only): Dom0 disabled, DomU disabled
(XEN) PV L1TF shadowing: Dom0 disabled, DomU disabled
(XEN) Using scheduler: SMP Credit Scheduler (credit)
(XEN) Platform timer is 23.999MHz HPET
(XEN) Detected 2496.266 MHz processor.
(XEN) Unknown cachability for MFNs 0xa0-0xff, assuming UC
(XEN) Unknown cachability for MFNs 0x95c00-0x97fff, assuming UC
(XEN) Unknown cachability for MFNs 0x9a000-0x9e3ff, assuming UC
(XEN) Unknown cachability for MFNs 0xfed20-0xfed7f, assuming UC
(XEN) Initing memory sharing.
(XEN) CPU0: No irq handler for vector 6c (IRQ -2147483648, LAPIC)
(XEN) Intel VT-d iommu 0 supported pages sizes: 4kB, 2MB, 1 GB.
(XEN) Intel VT-d iommu 1 supported pages sizes: 4kB, 2MB, 1 GB.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Snoop Control not enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Dom0 DMA Passthrough not enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Queued Invalidation enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Interrupt Remapping enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Posted Interrupt not enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Shared EPT tabled enabled.

=> After that I can’t do anything (hung up) except hard reset.
=> Is there a solution available where I don’t require the legacy mode anymore?
=> Any clues?

Hi @fp-supporter,

welcome to Qubes-OS.

First verify your BIOS settings, see System Requirements.

Then, check in the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) if you find a report with your hardware or near hardware.

I suggest you read the below guides and give us a feedback of your tests:

The GPU is also a common problem, what is your GPU? See the intel GPU and Nvidia troubleshootings.

Also you can try the 4.1 version, this is an alpha version, so not stable but useful if 4.0 version failed with all your tests.

I will try to use Linux ‘DD’ command instead of Rufus.
My PC has no additional graphics card. I’m using the on-board graphic Intel® UHD Graphics 750.

Thank you for the tip using the 4.1 version. I will try it afterwards if it is not working with ‘DD’ command.

  • I tested the stable Qubes OS version 4.0.4 with ‘DD’ command => Not working (Active UEFI / Deactivated UEFI / Deactivated UEFI and deactivated PTT).
  • I tested the alpha Qubes OS version 4.1 20210522 with ‘DD’ command => GRUB bootloader loads but black screen after click on “install” (Deactivated UEFI (No Legacy boot option available)).

When I boot from the alpha version 4.1 at least the bootloader (GRUB) will be displayed. The issue is that the screen stays black no matter if I click on Install or test live system or troobleshoot. Everytime the screen is black and freezed (slightly illuminated).
I don’t know how to open the terminal (CNTRL + ALT + F2 is not working) to edit the BOOTX64.cfg file.

# noexitboot=1
# mapbs=1

If you have experienced this issue please advice me step for step to resolve it.

Thank you in advance.

Hi @fp-supporter ,

I watched the HCL list and found the Dell XPS 13 9310 (i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake Integrated Graphics - Iris Xe) , with Qubes 4.0.4 see the comments from the user.

You must edit the file before the boot process, on another Linux OS with the USB key mounted, re-read the Troubleshooting UEFI related problems:

Change the xen configuration on a USB media

  1. Attach the usb disk, mount the EFI partition (second partition available on the disk)

You can also change the kernel options directly from GRUB (Edit mode with the ‘e’ key, if I remember well…)