NitroPad V56 - Nitrokey malfunctioned after I tried switching language of Qubes OS during booting

Just received my NitroPad V56 with pre-installed Qubes OS. Upon starting it – btw, the Nitrokey (3A NFC) worked just fine initially – I realized that they had mistakenly installed the German language version of the Qubes OS (a language I don’t understand).

I got to the ERSTEINRICHTUNG page but couldn’t proceed further due to my inability to follow instructions in German. Tried right-clicking on a tiny keyboard icon on the upper right corner of the said page with “de” next to it, in the hope of switching to English, but the option didn’t exist – all I got was the following sentence in German: “Aktuelle Belegung: “de”. Mehr Belegungen hinzfüngen, um wechseln zu können.” The “Hilfel” button right next to it would open the useless “Anaconda built-in help,” when I right clicked on it.

Frustrated, I powered off the computer abruptly intending to try all over again. When I did, the Nitrokey no longer functioned properly. I now get the red background with a gray box in the middle of the screen, with the following text in it:

“ERROR: Nitrokey couldn’t generate the TOTP code.” with the 4 different options to select from below it:

  1. Generate new HOTP/TOTP secret
  2. Ignore error and continue to main menue
  3. Reset the TPM
  4. Exit to recovery shell

Now, I would highly appreciate any instructions that would lead to my restoring the proper functioning of the Nitrokey, if that is possible at this point.

Also, is there a way I can access a step-by-step instructions to switching from German to English or do I have to fresh install the English version of the Qubes OS?

Hello, I would recommend you to completely re-install QubesOS, you can use the latest image from here:

The installer will be in English.

Make sure to choose to encrypt your drive.

And once you have successfully installed QubesOS you will need to perform a “OEM factory reset" in Heads:

You can also follow this guide for QubesOS installation and Heads setup: