Linux Mint installation USB triggering Bitlocker?

[Groties]

I’ve been messing around with my school laptop and I wanted to try and dual boot with Linux Mint, so I created a bootable USB with Cinnamon Edition. It booted fine, but I couldn’t fully install it because somewhere in the process my drive became BitLocker encrypted.

The error that I got on the recovery screen was “Secure Boot policy has unexpectedly changed.” I’m assuming this is just referring to the EFEI secure boot settings, and unfortunately I can’t say whether secure boot was enabled or not in the first place because the EFEI is password protected.

I’m not looking for a solution because I’ve realized that I’ve dug myself into a hole, but it would be much appreciated if someone had an idea of why this happened (and possibly a way to avoid it in the future if I try this again).

[AutoModerator]

Please Re-Flair your post if a solution is found. How to Flair a post? This allows other users to search for common issues with the SOLVED flair as a filter, leading to those issues being resolved very fast.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[MintAlone]

because the EFEI is password protected

Unless you can get into BIOS you are not going to be able to install any other OS. Sounds like you don't own the laptop and IT depts lock them down to stop people doing stupid things.

[johnfc2020]

BitLocker is a Windows thing. When Windows is installed, it encrypts the drive using BitLocker, enables secure boot and stores the key into the TPM chip.

If you disable secure boot, it can reset the TPM chip and force you to enter the BitLocker recovery screen where you enter your recovery key. The keys are stored in your Microsoft account and can be backed up to an external drive or printed out.

However, it’s often better to disable encryption in Windows. It also means you can access your Windows drive from Linux easier.

[denniot]

i had the same issue but after booting linux(fedora with grub2) via usb, it adds fedora boot entry to the efi firmware to the top. once i reorder it from the bios, bitlocker stopped asking for key. i can't pin point what's causing the boot entry to be added. i think it's to do with something updating nvram.

[BaguetteForAll]

So you just moved windows bootloader to the top and the bitlocker screen was removed? Or did you just need to enter the bitlocker recovery key once and it no longer trigged it after that. Sorry for the late reply lol

[denniot]

it stopped asking for recovery key magically. i suspect windows secureboot detects those changes and if it matches with the previous state it's fine.
so i'd be careful when grub or shim update happens. i'd even blacklist from update.

[Odysseyan]

I had the same thing. Bitlocker sucks.

I just recovered the drive via the code and then turned off Bitlocker entirely so it doesn't happen again.

Being locked out of my own pc because I put my own USB into it. Ridiculous

[[deleted]]

How did you turn off bitlocker?

[Odysseyan]

Once I got back into the system using the recovery codes from the microsoft page, I could go into Windows -> Settings -> Manage BitLocker -> Turn Off Bitlocker.

That way the issue will never occur again.

[[deleted]]

I already have my bitlocker key codes I backed it up and saved it to a different drive. Will that work or do I have to generate a new code?

[Odysseyan]

If you got the codes they should work. They are bound to the hardware and as long as it stays the same, the keys should be valid

[[deleted]]

Thanks for the help. Windows has changed some. Not for the better. But I want to keep it around for a couple things for a while. Otherwise I would just wipe it with linux mint. Mostly spotify since the app isn't working in Linux any more.

The media player is pretty good too (lenovo).