Laptop/Acer

Some models have a peculiar Secure Boot implementation which requires the following workaround to boot successfully the installation medium:

1. To start on a clean slate, clear trusted boot loaders within the Secure Boot settings
2. Save, reboot, return to UEFI
3. Add the boot loader as a trusted UEFI file
   1. To add a file as a trusted boot loader, you may have to set a supervisor password: do not lose it
4. Save, reboot, return to UEFI
5. Disables Secure Boot
6. The boot loader should now appear in the list even if Secure Boot is disabled

You may have to repeat these steps every firmware update.

Commonly, once a new Linux entry has been added to the EFI partition, trying to access Acer UEFI instead results in being permanently stuck on the loading screen.

This is because the Acer BIOS requires all .efi files to be marked as trusted, even if Secure Boot is disabled. Therefore, you must first remove them from the bootable entries to regain access to the BIOS, then manually mark these files as being safe.

The exact process will depend on your installation. For example:

1. Start Arch from a bootable USB.
2. Use the efibootmgr command to remove the non-verified entries.
3. Reboot and try to access the BIOS (by pressing F2). It should now work.
4.  If available, enable the F12 Boot Menu option (to use as a fallback next time).
5.  Enable Secure Boot and set a Supervisor Password.
6.  Select and mark the .efi files as trusted for execution.
7.  Disable Secure Boot and remove the Supervisor Password.
8.  Reboot and re-enter the BIOS to set up again the appropriate boot priority order.

At that point, both the Linux boot loader and the Acer BIOS should be accessible without issues.

The firmware has a bug where you cannot see the internal SATA storage after first booting up. At boot, the boot loader can see the internal storage but the initial ramdisk is unable to see it due to this bug.

The only known solution to this is suspending and waking it up.

Add an early custom hook to put the laptop to sleep before the step to mount the filesystems:

/etc/initcpio/install/suspend-to-ram

#!/bin/bash
build() { 
        add_binary date
        add_runscript
}
help() {
        echo "Suspend to RAM before filesystems get mounted so the initial ramdisk can see the internal storage"
}

/etc/initcpio/hooks/suspend-to-ram

#!/bin/bash
run_hook() {
        FILE='/sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm'
        EPOCH_TIME="$(date '+%s')"
        if ! echo 0 > "$FILE"; then
                reboot -f
        elif ! echo "$((EPOCH_TIME + 2))" > "$FILE"; then
                reboot -f
        elif ! echo mem > /sys/power/state; then
                reboot -f
        fi
}

This custom hook will reset the RTC alarm clock and set an alarm 2 seconds into the future for device wake-up, so you do not have to manually wake-up the laptop.

Add it the mkinitcpio HOOKS:

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

...
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block filesystems suspend-to-ram fsck)
...

Finally regenerate the initramfs.

sleep 1s
hdparm --security-freeze /dev/disk/by-id/ata-name-of-disk

Linux does not support Optane with RAID NVMe mode which is default on some devices. The workaround is to swich NVMe mode to AHCI.

One can switch the mode on the Main tab of BIOS setup. This option is hidden by default and unavailable until Supervisor password set.

To set Supervisor password:

1. Enter BIOS setup by pressing F2 on boot-up.
2. Navigate to Security tab.
3. Select Set Supervisor Password option.
4. Enter the new password.
5. Exit BIOS setup saving changes.

To change NVMe mode (might not be possible until Supervisor password set):

1. Enter BIOS setup by pressing F2 on boot-up.
2. Enter Supervisor password.
3. Navigate to Main tab.
4. Hit Ctrl+s. Option SATA mode will appear.
5. Set SATA Mode to AHCI.
6. Exit BIOS setup saving settings.

If your laptop uses predator sense app v4 or newer on windows, but mode key and fan speed monitoring are not working on linux, try acer_wmi.predator_v4=1 kernel module parameter to enable these features. And you can change mode key's behavior (toggling turbo mode or rotating each mode) using acer_wmi.cycle_gaming_thermal_profile.