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Fresh install of Ubuntu 20.04 won't boot (UEFI issue?)

co flag

I just installed Ubuntu 20.04 on an old-ish computer, an MSI A88X-G45 motherboard, no dual-boot, and a clean new SSD. The motherboard/RAM/CPU have been running Windows 7 and 10 for years, and work fine.

The 250GB SSD is set up with two partitions:

  • /dev/sda1: efi (650 MB)
  • /dev/sda2: ext4, root (everthing else)

Booting from the USB installer worked perfectly; the installation seemed fine, and the grub menu appears with no issue. If I boot the system into recovery mode, it runs just fine, and I can see the OS and software is installed, operational, and stable.

However, if I try to boot normally, it immediately reboots the system and spirals into a boot loop. Scans indicate no hardware failures, so it most likely has to do with the UEFI boot.

Steps I've taken thus far:

  • Set BIOS to use UEFI exclusively (options were UEFI or UEFI+legacy)
  • Disabled all "Windows 8 boot" and fast boot options
  • Disabled "Secure Boot"
  • Set "ubuntu" as the primary boot option (option list is "ubuntu", "ubuntu", and the generic, catch-all "UEFI OS")

What else should I try?

ar flag
Do you have any discrete GPU? When it works in the recovery mode but not in the normal mode, it can be the graphics card (or some other) driver. Search for **boot loop** in this site, for similar questions and answers.
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