My computer will not boot off USB.

qk4-li3

Disclaimer: This happened over a year ago, so I'm in no hurry. This just bothers me still, so I decided to throw it @solusland.
Here it goes:
I bought a Maxell 64 GB USB 3 memory stick in hopes that I could use it to test or try out random Linux distros and/or "maintenance"- software etc.
Well, it didn't work out. More specifically: I cannot get my computer* boot from it.

So it raises the question: Why (my computer won't boot from it)?
Perhaps you have The Knowledge And Wisdom, or just want to take an educated guess, I'd be very interested. Suggestions about how to troubleshoot would be nice too, please.

From 2007, DIY, Motherboard Asus P5B-E, CPU Intel® Core™2 Quad Q6600, Chipset LGA 775, USB 2.0 EHCI, BIOS is up to date ...whatever the last published one was, OS Solus 4.6.

qk4-li3

brent or are you saying you can't mount it and double click on it?
"I cannot get My Computer* boot from it."

My Computer won't boot anything, it will open a mounted drive.
If this is just an issue of Solus not seeing drive, see if you can see it on Gparted or gnome-disks and format it to FAT.

We might be having a terminology problem. or I shouldn't work 10 hours in a row..
if this is a mount issue then it has to be approached another way

Oh no, I can see now where's the confusion: Capital letters in "My Computer". But I tried to reference "My Computer" with a star(*) to this hardware description, but the star symbol isn't there anymore at the beginning of the hardware list. Symbol is a ball or dot now, not a star as I intended.

qk4-li3 From 2007, DIY, Motherboard Asus P5B-E, CPU Intel® Core™2 Quad Q6600, Chipset LGA 775, USB 2.0 EHCI, BIOS is up to date ...whatever the last published one was, OS Solus 4.6.

My word processing skills: text editor/WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)

brent

-the bays (the thing you stick the mem stick in) might have a max the can handle per single bay

-did you try all the bays?

-it could be seated wrongbut look right. this happened to me recenlty. bios would tell you that

-might be the max the board can handle (64GB is my max on an old lenovo). what are the other bays filled with? 8s? 4? etc.

-product incompatible with board

there's a lot of reasons it won't boot off this mem stick and even more factors why it wouldn't boot at all.
but this is off the top of a very work-taxed brain. you should edit title

qk4-li3

brent ok thanks.title too much? Hey how do I edit the title, I cant figure
it out.

qk4-li3

brent I think I'll need time to think about all the points you made, there could be something, thanks.

qk4-li3

brent -the bays (the thing you stick the mem stick in) might have a max the can handle per single bay

Ok, one by one...
Do you mean that this presumed "maximum per bay" apply only in boot situation, so it would be only related to BIOS- software/firmware? I mean when Solus is up and running, this flash drive is working as it should as removable media, in it's full capacity 64 GB.
Also, I must add, no offence if you're busy/tired, maybe answer later, or someone else could chime in. I think this can take some time to figure out or take time and NOT figure out. That said responses are appreciated indeed.
Oh, one more thing comes to mind: Why "Bay", why not "Port", aren't they interchangeable?

SOLUSfiddler

qk4-li3
Only admins can change titles, as far as I know.

Harvey

My previous PC was a i7 930 based system and it could never boot from USB due to a bug in the BIOS that was never fixed, so I had to keep a DVD drive connected for reinstalls and boot rescue situations. Which is to say, it could be any number of reasons.

qk4-li3

Harvey fernkaufmann Yes, I've found various internet postings that suggest this sort of thing could be BIOS related. In my particular case here though, I've had no problems before with 8 GB Kingston stick (USB 2.0) and SanDisk 8 GB SD Card w/ USB 2.0 Stick"adapter" (you know the ones which are like usb stick, but there is a slot for sd card). So can I rule out something with that information?

fernkaufmann

I had this issue for many years. Turned out to be a Bios related bug.

At some point I updated the Bios, activated secure boot, deactivated secure boot and suddenly the USB drive was recognized.

qk4-li3

fernkaufmann Should have added to my previous post, that also I have such an old mobo it doesn't have secure boot and/or UEFI.

brent

qk4-li3
others should chime in. I wonder how many other factors there are as well that a PC can't boot from a particular stick

qk4-li3

brent others should chime in

Absolutely, the more the merrier or how is the saying.

brent

I shouldn't try to help when working it adds to my fatigue and stupid answers.
I read memory stick. those words. title was changed to usb stick..

You installed Ventoy on it and have live iso's on it? Is this what you mean here?":
"I bought a Maxell 64 GB USB 3 memory stick in hopes that I could use it to test or try out random Linux distros and/or "maintenance"- software etc."

If there's a live ISO in Ventoy spam F11 til you see a boot menu. If there is a live iso burned (via balena ro something) again, spam F11 when you are booting and get boot menu and boot into stick.

or are you saying you can't mount it and double click on it?
"I cannot get My Computer* boot from it."

My Computer won't boot anything, it will open a mounted drive.
If this is just an issue of Solus not seeing drive, see if you can see it on Gparted or gnome-disks and format it to FAT.

We might be having a terminology problem. or I shouldn't work 10 hours in a row..
if this is a mount issue then it has to be approached another way

qk4-li3

brent You installed Ventoy on it and have live iso's on it? Is this what you mean here?":

At the time yes, that was exactly what I was trying to do. Didn't remember the name ventoy until you mentioned it.

qk4-li3

Also I think I'm surely not the only person in the planet or even in solus forum wondering about this.
So if there's people who have experienced this I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Citfta

I also have an older Asus desktop machine. If I want to boot from a USB memory stick or in other words thumb drive I have to keep hitting the "del" key while the Asus logo is showing on the screen at boot up time. That allows me to get into my bios where I can then select what I want the bios to boot from. I have to tell it each time if I want to get it to boot from a USB stick. Even if I change the boot order it still boots from the SSD if I don't follow the above procedure to get it to boot into the USB stick.

Have you tried to get into the boot menu in bios to select the USB stick? By the way I also use Ventoy and it works great.

qk4-li3

Citfta For testing purposes, I had to recreate and revisit the problem that I was having then.
Here's the situation now:
Ventoy is installed on thumb drive (same problematic Maxell USB3 "memory stick") with three bootable ISO images which are gparted, cachyOS and clonezilla. Those ISOs are there now just for the sake of this test.
I hit del- key while powering up, to get in BIOS- settings. I go to "Removable Media" and set thumb drive to be first on the list. If I don't do this, thumb drive will not show up at "Boot Order"- list. Floppy remains in second place on Removable Media- list.
I set thumb drive as first boot device. I save changes and exit (F10). Next, regardless if I go via F8 ("Please select the boot device") or not, I end up to "Welcome to the GRUB". After that there's only GRUB- menu with Solus entries to choose.
My computer will not boot off USB.

qk4-li3

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