Can’t boot Nitropad (Qubes)

Nitrokeys
1

I have a new Nitropad running Qubes, which I use with a Nitrokey 3C NFC.

A Qube would not shut down, so I rebooted. Now I am unable to boot.

If I skip “Please insert your HOTP USB Security dongle”, I end up in the Nitrokey Boot Menu, and I do not know what to do from here. I tried “Refresh TOTP/HOTP” but that didn’t fix anything.

If I insert the Nitrokey, I get this message:

gpg: verify signatures failed: Unknown system error

!!! ERROR: Invalid signature on kexec boot params !!!

!!! Failed default boot

!!! Staring recovery shell

bash-5.1#

I don’t know what to do at this point, I am unable to boot my machine.

I would prefer not to reinstall Qubes, avoiding that is the main reason I paid for a machine with it already installed.

What are my options here?

2

Hello what is your Nitrokey firmware version ?

The error you are getting is about Heads so it’s possible that your QubesOS system is fine.

In meantime if you want to check this you should be able to boot on it by doing a “unsafe boot” from the boot option.

3

Thank you, I’ll try that!

4

I was able to boot, thank you! I had just updated dom0 before the reboot, if that matters. Anyway, I’ll look into the Nitrokey firmware version and see if I can update it.

5

Okay this is good news.

I think if you update your Nitrokey and do a factory reset in Heads to setup your key it should then be working.