Hello together,
since my upgrade to 22.04 I get an error message during boot up: something like "Error communicating with tpm chip".
My machine is a thinkpad t420. No error in 20.04.
I'm not using dual-boot.
Can anybody give me hint what to do? Do I have to edit something in the bios?
I have the same model laptop (Thinkpad T420) with UM22.04 running.
I don't have that error.
I have in the BIOS:
Security -> Security Chip -> Security Chip [Disabled]
There are 3 states:
[Active]
Security chip is functional
[Inactive]
Security chip is visible, but not functional
[Disabled]
Security chip is hidden and is not functional
I guess on your computer, since MATE sees the TPM chip but can not communicate, it is set on [Inactive]
Try to switch to either [Active] or [Disabled]
Hey there,
yes it was set to "inactive". Changed this setting and the error msg is gone. Great, thank you very much!
Btw, I don't know exactly what this thing (tpm) does. I've now disabled it, are there any drawbacks? And what are the benefits of switching this to "active"?
I believe that the chip is "The Trusted Platform Module" It is needed to do things like watching Netflix, Hulu, etc. (on some computers) See What Is a TPM | How to Check and Enable TPM 2.0 Windows 11. Does it need to be activated? It depends on what you are doing. On my Thinkpad T550, I have it disabled and it doesn't seem to cause any problem(s) and I can still watch Hulu and Amazon prime videos.
Thanks for the info! I'll leave it disabled 
I have the same error message.
But I'm using an HP 8300 SFF.
The bios is quite basic and I haven't found any setting relating to the solution mentioned above for that Lenovo machine.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I'm running 20.04 LTS. Occurred after a recent software update.
Kinda sounds like another MS spy device. I remember being on Windows and getting the "your hardware has changed" warnings. I don't think I have ever had a Linux installation that has had the chip enabled and it has never given me a problem.
You might need the HP BIOS config utility.
There is a good explanation how to set the TPM chip on their users forum:
I recommend to upgrade the BIOS, carefully!! Sometimes, it fixes important hardware issues. But you must be CAREFUL!! I have upgraded like hundreds of BIOS and never run into trouble, anyways. This errors are sometimes caused by BIOS bugs. You should check the vendor's page and take a look at the BIOSes there, to see what do they fix. If you're not careful, you can brick your computer.
You can use:
sudo dmidecode -t system
sudo dmidecode -t bios
to check your exact computer model and the current BIOS version.