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I have a dual boot system with Microsoft Windows 10 and Ubuntu 21.10 . Recently, Windows has been asking me to upgrade to Windows 11. However, it says that my computer doesn't meet system requirements. The only problem that has been identified by Microsoft's PC Health Check software is this:

TPM 2.0 must be supported and enabled on this PC

Clicking on the link takes me to this page. Since it asks me to make changes within the BIOS, I'm a bit worried if this will affect my Ubuntu system. For example, would it make my Ubuntu system unbootable or inaccessible. And if I did this change in BIOS, would it be irreversible.

If so, then I might choose to stay on Windows 10.

(Note: I'm not asking if Ubuntu is compatible with TPM 2.0 . It seems it is. I'm just wondering if I have an Ubuntu system that is happily working with TPM 2.0 disabled, would enabling it affect my Ubuntu system in any way.)

Thank you!

Ray
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  • First you need to be sure about the TPM version your hardware is (and your firmware supports). If really TPM 2.0 then you can enable it. Worse case scenario you'll see a brief error message when booting Ubuntu. N.B.: This is my experience, your mileage may vary. – ChanganAuto Mar 10 '22 at 16:57
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    Make a good backup of anything important and try it. – David Mar 10 '22 at 17:34
  • Yeah, just make a backup and reinstall Ubuntu if you have to. Like others have said, experience may vary but I successfully installed Ubuntu on a TPM system running Windows 11. Everything just worked (except I did have to enable os-prober in my grub settings after installing 22.04 and then I had to run `sudo update-grub` to detect Windows). – mchid Mar 11 '22 at 00:18
  • This is a good question though as it would save a lot of trouble knowing if it will mess things up or not. – mchid Mar 11 '22 at 00:21
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    @mchid Thank you for the comment, especially the last one. Before I posting, I did think this might be a "dumb" question and hesitated but I then realised it could have made my system unbootable so I thought I'd ask and risk being ridiculed. I did go ahead and it worked fine! All the warnings by you and others above you were very helpful. Thank you! – Ray Mar 14 '22 at 16:56

1 Answers1

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Comments to my original question were helpful. In the end, I decided to give it a try. What it is called in my BIOS was not clearly indicated. As it turns out, I changed "Discrete TPM" to "Firmware TPM" within my BIOS.

I then booted into Microsoft Windows 10 and applied the tests mentioned here. Unlike before, it now confirmed that TPM 2.0 had been activated.

I then booted into Ubuntu and everything worked without any changes (i.e., including grub). So, everything was fine.

I then restarted back in Windows 10 and proceeded to upgrade to Windows 11, which is working.

(For what it's worth and for completeness, I came across official information from Microsoft that says the TPM 2.0 check can be bypassed, but it is not recommended. It is mentioned here and might be something to consider as an alternative to doing what I did, which is just try and hope it worked...)

Ray
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