Whenever I have a USB Type A device (keyboard - in my case DasKeyboard) or a mouse (Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro) plugged in *before* the machine boots up, Ubuntu never reaches the login screen - it just enters a never ending boot loop. If I unplug both type A devices, it boots fine. This does not happen with the USB-C / Thunderbolt port. I can boot just fine whenever it is connected.

I went ahead and entered the bios and changed the boot order, so it boots: Ubuntu, then Linux update Firmware then NVM. I disabled any other options (including all the USB ones). Still did not work.

If I unplug the USB Type A devices, let it boot, and the connect them back, everything works fine. I have tried with a different USB keyboard and mouse, same problem. Those devices do work fine with other OSes.

System: X1 Carbon 10th Gen (Type 21CB, 21CC) Laptop (ThinkPad) - Type 21CB

❯ cat /etc/lsb-release                                                                                                    ─╯
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=22.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jammy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS"

❯ uname -a                                                                                                                ─╯
Linux perunix 5.14.0-1059-oem #67-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 13 14:22:10 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Hi,

That's really peculiar - where does the loop get to? Is it getting as far as grub and booting the linux kernel or before that?

If getting beyond grub - if you fail boot, remove the devices, successfully boot does journalctl -b -1 show anything useful?

When you say other OS's - is that other Linux distro's or Windows on the same HW or on different HW?

Just booted up my X1C10 with a USB mouse (HP...ho hum) and keyboard (Lenovo) in the two type A ports with no issues. On Jammy with the 5.17.0-1032-oem kernel (I need to do an update...)

Mark

where does the loop get to? Is it getting as far as grub and booting the linux kernel or before that?

That is an excellent question. I was trying to figure this out myself, so I changed the grub to GRUB_TERMINAL=console and removed the "quiet splash" setting. After that, during normal boot, I see the console log flash (it goes super fast). When it gets into the reboot loop, it just reboots after showing the BIOS Lenovo logo, then it goes black and repeats the BIOS Lenovo logo, then black, then the Lenovo BIOS logo, repeat, etc.

If getting beyond grub - if you fail boot, remove the devices, successfully boot does journalctl -b -1 show anything useful?

I did this, but my journalctl --list-boots does not seem to get updated.

 journalctl --list-boots                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       ─╯
-3 ef1a191a8d064f20914212f2f382586b Fri 2023-03-24 11:42:23 PDT—Fri 2023-03-24 11:46:40 PDT
-2 96e274d3510b41da9a61162ce64a7c67 Fri 2023-03-24 11:47:04 PDT—Fri 2023-03-24 12:12:44 PDT
-1 eeec7f7f27bc443b80dde2fe3d89402a Fri 2023-03-24 12:13:35 PDT—Fri 2023-03-24 12:38:28 PDT
 0 be9c05a1df7f4e969a4ddb5942a4bf2a Fri 2023-03-24 12:38:51 PDT—Fri 2023-03-24 17:22:42 PDT

Those are old dates and I have had several boots since then. Perhaps that is a different problem.
Anyway, I did take a look at /var/log/syslog and nothing stands out.

I am beginning to think it never reaches Grub. I also looked at a log in the boot screen of the BIOS. Nothing helpful :-(

Any ideas?

OK, I deleted the old journalctl entries using:

sudo journalctl --rotate
sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=1s

and now the boots show fine in journalctl. Now it is clear to me that it never reaches GRUB because I can only see the reboot command and the current succesful boot (after I removed the two USB devices), but I cannot see any of the 3 reboots that happened in between those when the devices were plugged in. This must be something with the BIOS :-(

This is the BIOS version I have (which seems to be the latest)

sudo dmidecode -s bios-version
N3AET72W (1.37 )

Nobody? No way to update the BIOS? :-(

Sorry for the lack of reply - I took a couple of days of PTO and then it was a long weekend in Canada.

Nothing to apologize for! We all need vacations :-)

If it's not getting to GRUB then I agree this is likely a FW problem.

It was!

 - Have you tried resetting the BIOS settings from the BIOS setup menu (F1 during early boot). Reset them to the OS optimised settings (and then reboot and disable Secure boot or enable the 3rd party cert depending on your secure boot preference)

This did the trick. I reset the BIOS to the defaults... and it worked! Now I can have devices in the Thunderbolt port as well as the standard USBs and it will not reboot. Everything is working fine now. This is bizarre to be honest, because I checked every single setting, but I must have missed something. Either way, now it is back to normal!

Just to clarify, I did buy the laptop with the default Ubuntu install, but then I proceeded to upgrade to the latest LTS and after a month that is when the problems started showing. I have upgraded to the latest Ubuntu release (past the latest LTS) and with the BIOS reset I am back to normal. Everything that I need seems to be working. Thank you for the help!

Really glad it recovered... but bit disconcerting that we don't know what happened :( Let me know if it happens again and we can go through some of the settings and check.

And big thank you for buying the Ubuntu preloaded system - the Linux team appreciate it ;)

Mark