Fixing NVIDIA MOK Password Error

Fixing NVIDIA MOK Password Error | Generated by AI

Home 2026.07

Here’s the full picture:

Current state:

nvidia-driver-580 installed, DKMS modules built ✓
Secure Boot enabled — blocks loading the unsigned module
MOK key exists at /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der but not enrolled
You went into MokManager (blue screen), got asked for a password, typed something, got an error

The password thing explained

When you installed nvidia-driver-580 via apt, Ubuntu’s DKMS prompted you to create a MOK enrollment password (not your login password). That’s the one MokManager is asking for. Two common failures:

You forgot what you typed — it’s a one-time password, easy to forget
Keyboard layout mismatch — MokManager uses US QWERTY layout. If you set the password thinking you were on a different layout, you’d type the wrong characters

Option A: Recreate the MOK key + password (so you know it)

Run this on the workstation:

sudo mokutil --reset  # remove old enrollment request
sudo rm /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.*
sudo dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-dkms-580

It will prompt for a new MOK password — pick something simple you’ll remember (e.g. 1234). Then reboot:

sudo reboot

At the blue MokManager screen:

“Enroll MOK from disk”
Navigate to the key → Continue
Type the password you just set
Yes/Confirm
Boot continues → nvidia-smi works

Option B: Disable Secure Boot (simpler, no passwords)

From the black POST screen, press F2 (or Del/F10 depending on your motherboard) to enter BIOS/UEFI settings.

Then find:

Security → Secure Boot → Disabled
Or Boot → Secure Boot → Disabled
Or Authentication → Secure Boot → Disabled

Save and exit (usually F10), boot normally. Done — no passwords, no MOK, nvidia-smi works immediately.

My recommendation: Option B. It’s one setting, one reboot, zero passwords to remember. Unless you specifically need Secure Boot for security compliance, there’s no practical benefit to keeping it on for a dev workstation.

What do you want to do — A (recreate MOK) or B (disable Secure Boot)? If B, I can’t navigate the BIOS menu remotely — you’ll need to hit F2 during boot and find the setting. But tell me if you get stuck and which motherboard you have, I can look up the exact menu path.

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