Writing ISO to Usb no boot

WetGeek

Chezzy That's why I like Fedora. Open source, rock solid, more up to date than Debian but not as bleeding edge as Arch.

I like Fedora, too. Also some of its derivatives, like Ultramarine. The one fault they all have in common, though, is that they're just not Solus.

Chezzy Yes your way will probably work.

My way will definitely work. But so will the default, where you let the installer do it all. Although I don't use that method, I have used it, as have thousands of others. The Solus 4.4 installer creates a 512 MB EFI boot partition, and I don't remember if it creates a swap partition or not.

In any event, I prefer a 1.0 GiB boot partition (safer for dual EFI boot), and I set the swap size depending on the RAM size in the computer. In other words, I have control over the process. And it takes me about a minute with a partition editor to get that. control. And neither GPartEd nor KDE Partitiion Manager requires rocket science to operate it.

You certainly have the skill to prepare the disk. If you don't have the experience yet, there's an easy way to get it.

[deleted]

If you are able to boot into the live USB, then the issue is not how it's written. My wild guess is secure boot. Make sure you've turned it off

WetGeek

[deleted] My wild guess is secure boot. Make sure you've turned it off

Actually, Solus 4.4 supports Secure Boot, but it adds an extra step when you boot up for the first time. Unless you have a good reason to use it, it's less confusing to turn it off, as you said.

Ahhh ... you're talking about booting the ISO. I was thinking of booting the OS. You're probably right about that.

Chezzy

With me Secure boot was already off, and again the only way I can boot the live USB is in legacy mode. Any other distro I have tried was quite happy to boot with UEFI only, so to me that says there is something different with this ISO. I'm not saying that there is a problem with Solus, it is probably something to do with the way the USB drive is portioned that is incompatible with my system or BIOS, but that info is included in the ISO.

Now I can quite easily setup my drive with gparted and run from there, but to be honest I'm not sure I want to. While I liked Solus when I used it before, and I like the idea of Solus, if run in to issues simply trying to install it, its not filling me with confidence that there aren't going to more issues, and as I said earlier I'm looking for a stable system, so the more I think about it, Solus probably isn't the Distro for me.

[deleted]

Chezzy I gathered you can boot the live system, but not boot into the installed OS. If that is not the case and you can't boot even the live USB, then it might be your Lenovo motherboard has 32-bit EFI. Only 64-bit UEFI is supported by Solus, so your only option is to use legacy mode.

Chezzy

[deleted]

I think a lot of distros have dropped support for 32-bit now. I have an old Intel Atom, Windows 8.1, Toshiba Satellite Click Mini. That is a 64bit processor with a 32 bit boot loader. Last time I tried to install an operating system on it, the only live usb I could only get to boot was fedora, but it was so laggy due to lack of ram, that it's not worth using. My lenovo B50-30 installs every other distro so I don't think that's the issue.

My Bios is a 2015 version and there is an update for 2016 which might fix the problem, I just need to summon up the courage to install windows, as the bios update is a .exe file.

I'm logged into this forum on my Lenovo, which is running Solus Gnome, but with legacy mode turned on in the BIOS. I just can't run my current install or boot the live USB in UEFI mode.

Axios

Chezzy Fedora would boot because they have both 32bit and 64bit efi that was awhile
back if they still have.

Run this command on another installed linux on that machine and it will tell you 32 or 64 bit efi
(cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size) it will reply 32 or 64.

But I would kill 2 birds with one stone install winders again update firmaware and install rufus
and burn another Solus watching what (target system is selected).
And test it.
If you got secure boot turned off it should boot to efi. (Rufus is always the goto)

Note if you select target system bios/efi sometimes it can be slow detecting and seems like it
is not booting (I would recommend using bios or efi individaul)

Chezzy

I just burnt a live install USB of PopOS using Gnome Disks. Rebooted this machine turned off CSM so that it is in UEFI only mode, then re-disabled Secure Boot. Pop Os Booted no problem. Opened a terminal when it loaded and typed in 'cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size' and got the reply 64

I just hate installing windows, it seems to take forever, then normally more or less locks up untill it has downloaded a gazillion updates, and then just for good measure wants to install updates for the updates.

Axios

Chezzy Well can rule that out then its using 64bit efi
Got be some issue between bios or solus or making of usb (not sure which)
I have an lenovo ideapad and thinkpad both boot ok in efi. (thinkpad older machine,idepad newer)
But I burn all my stuff with rufus and havent tried ventoy.
Are you just waiting for it to boot or pressing f12 and selecting?

Chezzy

The last install I had before installing Solus was Makulu. I press F12 to get boot options, select the UEFI Boot disk, and it just fell straight back to loading Makulu. Now having installed Solus in legacy mode, If I try and load the UEFI USB I get

Invalid Image
Failed to read header: Unsupported
Failed To Load image: Unsupported
start_image () returned Unsupported

I always use Gnome Disks as its part of the Gnome Environment, which is my preferred desktop environment, and I've never had an issue with it. Because of recommendations on here I tried Rufus, as an AppImage on Fedora, which produces the same result as Gnome Disks. I then tried Ventoy which throws out all sorts of BIOS and Firmware errors, see my above (Post 24 I think it is) which is why I looked to see if there was an update for my BIOS.

If it is a BIOS issue it would be interesting to know what requirement that the Solus USB stick needs which is different to every other Linux distro I've tried.

If I can summon up the enthusiasm, I'll install windows and update the BIOS at some point today.

Axios

Chezzy The rufus I am talking about is windows only app for creating usb
https://rufus.ie/en/ Not famliar with a linux one or anything like it.

Well we know people have used ventoy for solus and we know the efi is usable or it would have been
a major issue.
(Now having installed Solus in legacy mode, If I try and load the UEFI USB I get)
Unless your bios gives you an option to boot both you cant boot efi in legacy maybe the other distros
are auto detecting different. (Just thinking)

In anycase if efi is set solus should boot.

What is your Motherboard?

Thank you for the detailed and professional post.

Chezzy

Axios

Sorry it was etcher I used as an App Image, I'm getting myself confused now. People always say to use their favourite ISO writer. I personally haven't had any issues with Gnome Disks up to now, and I still don't think that's the issue. It's more likely to be an issue with my hardware.

my PC is this one https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/desktops-and-all-in-ones/lenovo-b-series-all-in-ones/lenovo-b50-30-all-in-one

My Bios has CSM setting, if disabled (as it normally is) then the machine is in UEFI mode. I then can't boot Solus. At the moment CSM is enabled and set to Auto - UEFI first, which allows the Live USB to Boot. I tried uploading a photo but I keep getting an error message.

Chezzy

I just uploaded images to ImgBB

https://ibb.co/FKqPdcC

https://ibb.co/ZJbCbfk

tflovik

There might be something that needs to be changed in the security tab.

Axios

You can use this command to check live iso to see what mode its in when booted from it.
[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "EFI boot on HDD" || echo "Legacy boot on HDD"
then you would know for sure what its booting with efi or legacy

« Previous Page