USB sticks don't boot (and other stuff) (Solved)
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- Posts: 12
- Joined: Mon 19 Aug 2019, 10:19
USB sticks don't boot (and other stuff) (Solved)
Hi folks.
First of all, the user Puppy Mark it's me, but the convalidating mail didn't arrive to my Gmail so I used my Yahoo mailbox to register. Please cancel it.
For me 2019 will be the year in which I began to hate not only Windows as I never did before, but also HP laptops, because their BIOS setups are enemies of free source OSs users. For the first time I found out that there are two way to install a OS (Legacy and UEFI). This ignorance led me to have many problems when I tried to install Ubuntu 18.04 at the beginning of this year because old 14.04 was going to be obsolete. During the last months I faced many problems also with the other laptop (another f...g HP) trying to have in dual boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu. Sadly, the hard disk had some failure and I had to change it. Meanwhile, the other computer had its own hard disk problems. I passed days and days cursing but obviously it was useless.
Now I have a laptop with two OSs, but with not dual boot.
This laptop also boots only the LIve USB with Ubuntu, but not the ones with Bionicpup and Slacko. Also the USB stick with Manjaro XFCE has the same problem. In the BIOS setup both Legacy and UEFI have the USB option in the first place. So I thought the problem was in the EFI partition and/or in the Grub options.
To enter in Ubuntu I must everytime press the Esc button then select F9 then enter in Ubuntu partition. Many times laptop is faster than me and shows only the HP booting screenshot.
The other laptop, a former freeDOS bought in 2015, has hard disk problems but boots peacefully Puppy sticks. I couldn't mind about the fact the other newer doesn't, but the old HP 255 has severe problems in the graphic card (and probably not only in it) and it's a suffering for my eyes to use it (dark colors turing into green, red turning into yellow...). Only sometimes, for some mysterious case, suddenly the screen fixes itself alone, but after few days it comes back to the old wrong setting.
Please help me to turn the newer laptop into a multiboot one .
Love,
Marco
First of all, the user Puppy Mark it's me, but the convalidating mail didn't arrive to my Gmail so I used my Yahoo mailbox to register. Please cancel it.
For me 2019 will be the year in which I began to hate not only Windows as I never did before, but also HP laptops, because their BIOS setups are enemies of free source OSs users. For the first time I found out that there are two way to install a OS (Legacy and UEFI). This ignorance led me to have many problems when I tried to install Ubuntu 18.04 at the beginning of this year because old 14.04 was going to be obsolete. During the last months I faced many problems also with the other laptop (another f...g HP) trying to have in dual boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu. Sadly, the hard disk had some failure and I had to change it. Meanwhile, the other computer had its own hard disk problems. I passed days and days cursing but obviously it was useless.
Now I have a laptop with two OSs, but with not dual boot.
This laptop also boots only the LIve USB with Ubuntu, but not the ones with Bionicpup and Slacko. Also the USB stick with Manjaro XFCE has the same problem. In the BIOS setup both Legacy and UEFI have the USB option in the first place. So I thought the problem was in the EFI partition and/or in the Grub options.
To enter in Ubuntu I must everytime press the Esc button then select F9 then enter in Ubuntu partition. Many times laptop is faster than me and shows only the HP booting screenshot.
The other laptop, a former freeDOS bought in 2015, has hard disk problems but boots peacefully Puppy sticks. I couldn't mind about the fact the other newer doesn't, but the old HP 255 has severe problems in the graphic card (and probably not only in it) and it's a suffering for my eyes to use it (dark colors turing into green, red turning into yellow...). Only sometimes, for some mysterious case, suddenly the screen fixes itself alone, but after few days it comes back to the old wrong setting.
Please help me to turn the newer laptop into a multiboot one .
Love,
Marco
Last edited by Puppy_Nurak on Mon 19 Aug 2019, 17:52, edited 2 times in total.
Hello Marco
Welcome to Puppyland!
You confuse me because you talk about 2 laptops.
I try to summarize.
The older laptop is from 2015 - that is not old at all!!
The HD fails, but it boots up Puppy from pendrive.
The second laptop had a failing HD as well, but that has been replaced.
From pendrive it boots Ubuntu Live, but not Puppy or Manjaro.
You want dual/multiboot on this laptop, with windows I suppose.
The way Puppy and Manjaro have been put onto the pendrive may be not approprate to boot.
Let's leave that aside at the moment.
Let's concentrate on the second Laptop and the HD.
We need some information.
What is on the new HD? What have you installed? What did you try to install?
Can you boot something from HD?
When in Ubuntu Live, can you open Gparted for the HD and make a screenshot what partitions it detects?
.
Welcome to Puppyland!
Of course it is useless, as well as praying lolI passed days and days cursing but obviously it was useless.
You confuse me because you talk about 2 laptops.
I try to summarize.
The older laptop is from 2015 - that is not old at all!!
The HD fails, but it boots up Puppy from pendrive.
The second laptop had a failing HD as well, but that has been replaced.
From pendrive it boots Ubuntu Live, but not Puppy or Manjaro.
You want dual/multiboot on this laptop, with windows I suppose.
The way Puppy and Manjaro have been put onto the pendrive may be not approprate to boot.
Let's leave that aside at the moment.
Let's concentrate on the second Laptop and the HD.
We need some information.
What is on the new HD? What have you installed? What did you try to install?
Can you boot something from HD?
When in Ubuntu Live, can you open Gparted for the HD and make a screenshot what partitions it detects?
.
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- Posts: 12
- Joined: Mon 19 Aug 2019, 10:19
Since Tinypic is closing its business and the attachment doesn't work (cursing, cursing, cursing), I'll show you, instead of the Gparted image, what the command 'sudo fdisk -l' says in the terminal:
Yes, I can boot Windows and Ubuntu, but without dual boot window. I need to enter into the BIOS to use Ubuntu. Otherwise Windows boots directly.
Code: Select all
Disk /dev/sda: 465,8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: A51EF571-8211-487B-8240-44F8BB953A04
Dispositivo Start Fine Settori Size Tipo
/dev/sda1 2048 1085439 1083392 529M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2 1085440 1290239 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sda3 500256768 976771071 476514304 227,2G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4 1323008 491522047 490199040 233,8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5 491522048 500256767 8734720 4,2G Linux swap
Partition table entries are not in disk order.
All correct.The older laptop is from 2015 - that is not old at all!!
The HD fails, but it boots up Puppy from pendrive.
The second laptop had a failing HD as well, but that has been replaced.
From pendrive it boots Ubuntu Live, but not Puppy or Manjaro.
You want dual/multiboot on this laptop, with windows I suppose.
In the new HD there are Windows and Ubuntu.Let's concentrate on the second Laptop and the HD.
We need some information.
What is on the new HD? What have you installed? What did you try to install?
Can you boot something from HD?
Yes, I can boot Windows and Ubuntu, but without dual boot window. I need to enter into the BIOS to use Ubuntu. Otherwise Windows boots directly.
Thank you for your answers. This makes your situation clearer to me.
I am a bit surprised about the simplicity of your partitions.
I have a lot more 'Basic data partitions' from windows, small indeed. But that doesn't matter.
I see you have windows on sda4 and Ubuntu on sda3. Both full installs.
sda2 has the EFI boot installation.
When you installed Ubuntu, did you let it install its bootloader?
Probably yes, because your efi BIOS detects it.
But then it is strange Ubuntu did not manage to be the first boot option.
Maybe something was wrong during installation.
https://itsfoss.com/install-ubuntu-1404 ... 8-81-uefi/
Also read the note at the end.
If this does not help:
Could you take a note of the possible efi boots offered in BIOS?
Also what is in sda2/EFI would be interesting.
I expect the directories BOOT, Microsoft and Ubuntu in there. Anything else?
Is there a directory Boot next to EFI (not inside EFI)? What is in it?
I also expect a file grub.cfg somewhere in sda2. The content of this might be intresting also.
Last question for now:
Have you tried to install something else besides windows and Ubuntu on this HD?
Maybe Puppy?
I am a bit surprised about the simplicity of your partitions.
I have a lot more 'Basic data partitions' from windows, small indeed. But that doesn't matter.
I see you have windows on sda4 and Ubuntu on sda3. Both full installs.
sda2 has the EFI boot installation.
When you installed Ubuntu, did you let it install its bootloader?
Probably yes, because your efi BIOS detects it.
But then it is strange Ubuntu did not manage to be the first boot option.
Maybe something was wrong during installation.
https://itsfoss.com/install-ubuntu-1404 ... 8-81-uefi/
Also read the note at the end.
If this does not help:
I don't know this sequence <esc><F9>. Is this how you get into BIOS?To enter in Ubuntu I must everytime press the Esc button then select F9 then enter in Ubuntu partition.
Can you set Ubuntu on the first place for uefi boot and save that leaving the BIOS?In the new HD there are Windows and Ubuntu.
Yes, I can boot Windows and Ubuntu, but without dual boot window. I need to enter into the BIOS to use Ubuntu. Otherwise Windows boots directly.
Could you take a note of the possible efi boots offered in BIOS?
Also what is in sda2/EFI would be interesting.
I expect the directories BOOT, Microsoft and Ubuntu in there. Anything else?
Is there a directory Boot next to EFI (not inside EFI)? What is in it?
I also expect a file grub.cfg somewhere in sda2. The content of this might be intresting also.
Last question for now:
Have you tried to install something else besides windows and Ubuntu on this HD?
Maybe Puppy?
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- Posts: 12
- Joined: Mon 19 Aug 2019, 10:19
Hi.
The file grub.cfg exists, but I don't remeber how to see the content.
Now I'm on Puppy, using Palemoon.
When I switch on the laptop, to enter in the Bios I must press Esc button. Then I select F9 and a window appears with the various booting option (OS Manager, Ubuntu, USB stick with Puppy -I found out it's possible using Puppy in this way-, hard drive etc.). To modify BIOS setting I must enter F10.I don't know this sequence <esc><F9>. Is this how you get into BIOS?
I tried, unsuccessfully.Can you set Ubuntu on the first place for uefi boot and save that leaving the BIOS?
Trying to solve the problem I made some shell work and now there's another folder called Linux, but it was useless and nothing changed. It's very long to explain what I did, surely it was wrong.Also what is in sda2/EFI would be interesting.
I expect the directories BOOT, Microsoft and Ubuntu in there. Anything else?
The directory could be in the root of Ubuntu. Am I wrong?Is there a directory Boot next to EFI (not inside EFI)? What is in it?
I also expect a file grub.cfg somewhere in sda2. The content of this might be intresting also.
The file grub.cfg exists, but I don't remeber how to see the content.
Only Windows and Ubuntu.Last question for now:
Have you tried to install something else besides windows and Ubuntu on this HD?
Maybe Puppy?
Now I'm on Puppy, using Palemoon.
Hello again
Have you tried this in windows?It is from the link to itsfoss in my previous post.
But it gives me a new idea: You should try to refresh the grub install from Ubuntu.
If grub.cfg exists in sda2, can you say where, what is the path?
You can open it in a text editor (like geany or leafpad).
Can you not find the Ubuntu boot in the BIOS? (What boots are listed in BIOS?)
Can you not place it first?
Can you not save the change?
Is the change not permanently? Maybe it changes when you remove/insert a pendrive.
This means you can boot Puppy from usb with the F9 on the new laptop now? (and Manjaro?)
.
Have you tried this in windows?
Code: Select all
bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
Yes it will be in the root of Ubuntu, but that is not what intrests me. Is it in the root of sda2?Is there a directory Boot next to EFI (not inside EFI)? What is in it?
I also expect a file grub.cfg somewhere in sda2. The content of this might be intresting also.
The directory could be in the root of Ubuntu. Am I wrong?
The file grub.cfg exists, but I don't remember how to see the content.
But it gives me a new idea: You should try to refresh the grub install from Ubuntu.
Code: Select all
sudo update-grub
You can open it in a text editor (like geany or leafpad).
Can you explain what does not work?When I switch on the laptop, to enter in the Bios I must press Esc button. Then I select F9 and a window appears with the various booting option (OS Manager, Ubuntu, USB stick with Puppy -I found out it's possible using Puppy in this way-, hard drive etc.). To modify BIOS setting I must enter F10.
Can you set Ubuntu on the first place for uefi boot and save that leaving the BIOS?
I tried, unsuccessfully.
Can you not find the Ubuntu boot in the BIOS? (What boots are listed in BIOS?)
Can you not place it first?
Can you not save the change?
Is the change not permanently? Maybe it changes when you remove/insert a pendrive.
This means you can boot Puppy from usb with the F9 on the new laptop now? (and Manjaro?)
.
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- Posts: 12
- Joined: Mon 19 Aug 2019, 10:19
I tried but there is a block.foxpup wrote:Hello again
Have you tried this in windows?It is from the link to itsfoss in my previous post.Code: Select all
bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
Yes.Yes it will be in the root of Ubuntu, but that is not what intrests me. Is it in the root of sda2?
I've just tried, then I will see if this works.But it gives me a new idea: You should try to refresh the grub install from Ubuntu.Code: Select all
sudo update-grub
This is what is written in the grub.cfg file:If grub.cfg exists in sda2, can you say where, what is the path?
You can open it in a text editor (like geany or leafpad).
Code: Select all
search.fs_uuid e7d73156-f93f-426d-8bfd-0e617402b921 root hd0,gpt3
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg
I dind't understand. I must enter F9 in the BIOS to have all the booting options.Can you not find the Ubuntu boot in the BIOS? (What boots are listed in BIOS?)
No, but if it's related to the other questione I must say "I don't know".Can you not place it first?
As above.Can you not save the change?
Is the change not permanently? Maybe it changes when you remove/insert a pendrive.
Puppy yes, Manjaro USB pendrive is not recognized as a bootable device, only as a pendrive.This means you can boot Puppy from usb with the F9 on the new laptop now? (and Manjaro?)
.
Hello Marco
Have you tried the bcdedit command as administrator? You should open the command prompt in windows as administrator.
Let me know if the grub-update in ubuntu does any good.
I hope it does.
The grub.cfg you have edited refers to another one .
You should find it in /sda2/boot/grub/
One of them should be "boot" or something like that.
You talk about a BIOS setup. Is that not like that?
To enter it you have to hit to hotkey a few times as soon as you switch on the laptop.
What the hotkey is, may depend: F2, F10, del, ...
On some computer it is on the flashscreen, on the bottom, but you have to be quick to read it.
Also you could try to enter the BIOS from windows.
Something like this: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/acce ... windows-10
You should try to restore the boot that Ubuntu installed.
It is EFI and with grub2.
So, if you get into BIOS, set uefi boot first,
and in the list of UEFI boots set the Ubuntu first.
The names in the list may not be obvious, so try all of them in turn.
Let me now how that goes.
If you have dual boot with ubuntu and windows from grub2 (from ubuntu), you can add Puppy to that if you want.
I will explain then.
Have you tried the bcdedit command as administrator? You should open the command prompt in windows as administrator.
Let me know if the grub-update in ubuntu does any good.
I hope it does.
The grub.cfg you have edited refers to another one .
You should find it in /sda2/boot/grub/
You should get into an interface with multiple tabs, not only a list of bootable options.I dind't understand. I must enter F9 in the BIOS to have all the booting options.
One of them should be "boot" or something like that.
You talk about a BIOS setup. Is that not like that?
To enter it you have to hit to hotkey a few times as soon as you switch on the laptop.
What the hotkey is, may depend: F2, F10, del, ...
On some computer it is on the flashscreen, on the bottom, but you have to be quick to read it.
Also you could try to enter the BIOS from windows.
Something like this: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/acce ... windows-10
You should try to restore the boot that Ubuntu installed.
It is EFI and with grub2.
So, if you get into BIOS, set uefi boot first,
and in the list of UEFI boots set the Ubuntu first.
The names in the list may not be obvious, so try all of them in turn.
Let me now how that goes.
If you have dual boot with ubuntu and windows from grub2 (from ubuntu), you can add Puppy to that if you want.
I will explain then.
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- Joined: Mon 19 Aug 2019, 10:19
I want to show photos of my BIOS, but with Tinypic closing its business and other platforms requiring to register to upload images it's impossible to me to do so. However, I fond out in these months that it's not only me to have problems with HP BIOS.
I didn't know this thing. Or better, I didn't remember. I use Windows so rarely ...Have you tried the bcdedit command as administrator? You should open the command prompt in windows as administrator.
No, it doesn't.Let me know if the grub-update in ubuntu does any good.
I hope it does.
No, it's not present.You should find it in /sda2/boot/grub/
Last edited by Puppy_Nurak on Fri 23 Aug 2019, 15:21, edited 1 time in total.
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- Posts: 12
- Joined: Mon 19 Aug 2019, 10:19
Puppy_Nurak wrote:I GOT IT! I gave the command as administrator and now I've got the dual boot!Have you tried the bcdedit command as administrator? You should open the command prompt in windows as administrator.
YES! RESOLVED!
It would be interesting to check this:
If the grub.cfg you edited before is still the same, I still think that there must be another one /sda2/boot/grub/grub.cfg. Can you check?Let me know if the grub-update in ubuntu does any good.
I hope it does.
No, it doesn't.
You should find it in /sda2/boot/grub/
No, it's not present.
Probably "sudo grub-update" has produced it.
So my idea is you actually needed both, bcdedit and grub-update.
Marco
Your photos are interesting, especially the last one, Bios Setup Options.
On my lenovo ideapad i510-15isk I don't get the second (startup menu) and third one (Boot manager, Boot option menu).
I think I can get some of it through windows.
I can get to Bios Setup Options with F2 immediately when booting.
Btw, in the grub.cfg you can add this line to go into Bios Setup from grub2:
The Boot tab in the Bios Setup is a little different from mine.
I additionnaly can choose Legacy or UEFI first.
It strikes me that on yours that the lists for UEFi and Legacy Boot Order are almost identical.
I wonder if every entry actually boots.
My uefi always creates a Legacy entry for the harddisc, but it does not boot, because there is no MBR/Legacy boot on the harddisc.
And it puts it first whenever something changes, like removing/inserting a pendrive.
It's annoying.
Your photos are interesting, especially the last one, Bios Setup Options.
On my lenovo ideapad i510-15isk I don't get the second (startup menu) and third one (Boot manager, Boot option menu).
I think I can get some of it through windows.
I can get to Bios Setup Options with F2 immediately when booting.
Btw, in the grub.cfg you can add this line to go into Bios Setup from grub2:
Code: Select all
menuentry "EFI Firmware configuration interface (BIOS)" { fwsetup; }
I additionnaly can choose Legacy or UEFI first.
It strikes me that on yours that the lists for UEFi and Legacy Boot Order are almost identical.
I wonder if every entry actually boots.
My uefi always creates a Legacy entry for the harddisc, but it does not boot, because there is no MBR/Legacy boot on the harddisc.
And it puts it first whenever something changes, like removing/inserting a pendrive.
It's annoying.
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- Joined: Mon 19 Aug 2019, 10:19
Hi, Foxpup, later or tomorrow I will answer to your question and I will try reupdating the grub.
Off topic: since you've got a Lenovo laptop, and having now me too a new one of that brand I will ask you also how to fix the problem I and many other have with the Realtek driver for wifi (not detected by Ubuntu) and maybe the other one, Manjaro live USB freezes at boot (problem with USB stick?).
See you,
Marco
Off topic: since you've got a Lenovo laptop, and having now me too a new one of that brand I will ask you also how to fix the problem I and many other have with the Realtek driver for wifi (not detected by Ubuntu) and maybe the other one, Manjaro live USB freezes at boot (problem with USB stick?).
See you,
Marco