USB bootable BIOS UEFI Secure Boot

[Jerry]

Topic split. CaperAsh thread regards UEFI/Secure boot.

[Jerry]

@torreydale, you only need to unmount if something else is going to be written to it, logically, that's only going to happen for example if you dd a disk from a server, that's still being used/written to.

[CaperAsh]

I am installing 3.4 on brand new computer, an HP laptop. I managed to get it to boot from DVD. It is not seeing Windows 10 and offering only to erase the disk or I have to manually organise the partitions which am not yet prepared to do. So ideally the Help Menu should address that situation. That said, I will go back into this new machine's BIOS to return it to default settings which I had changed and maybe that will allow the installation routine to 'see' the existing OS and not overwrite it. (I would like to experiment with the supplied Win 10 because there are a couple of programs I might want to use that Linux doesn't have..)

[CaperAsh]

Torreydale: yes, before reading your post I noticed it as it flashed up on this one and went and then could finally boot up on the DVD. Great. Thank you. I came back on here to report that.
Next post is Help Menu suggestion involving the next issue during installation....

[torreydale]

Make sure legacy boot is running and UEFI/Secure boot is not.

Instead of changing your boot order in the BIOS, some machines have a key you can hit during POST to get to a Boot Menu.  You can select DVD from there...assuming your PC has that option.  My HP desktop does, and it's 10 years old.

[firenice03]

If NEW - it may be booting to UEFI vs. BIOS... This will be the case for any "new" laptop.. Whether booting from Disk or USB..

There are many threads and the manual that call out to install in legacy mode..
https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/start.html#uefi

Some systems are more difficult but definitely look through the forums and the manual to familiarize the process and ask any questions 

[CaperAsh]

THanks, I did all that stuff. I think the problem is that the new laptop ( I took it back) had too many arcane routines needed to alter the BIOS to boot from a USB. There were quite a few forums with people tearing their hair out. That said, I still really don't know if I made a proper USB boot disk or not from the instructions given. I have two, though, one using the instructions in this Help Menu, and one using another program that came up in a search and seems to have worked okay. I now have a second laptop. This one has a built-in DVD drive. But I still can't get it to boot from it, even though I reset the BIOS to do so! So still unable to install Linux Lite on a new computer. And HP says 'it doesn't support Linux' so doesn't help people with BIOS-jiggering issues. I'll get there now I have a dvd drive. It's jsut much, much harder than it used to be.....

[torreydale]

@CaperAsh,

I was new to Linux when I read the Linux Lite Help Manual, and as I've documented elsewhere in this forum, it was one of the things that made the distro appealing to me.  I've only been computing (with PCs that could actually connect to the Internet) since the mid 1990s.

The Help Manual mentions using Win32DiskImager to create a bootable USB, if you're currently using MS Windows.  Here is a one minute video on how to use that product:


The manual recommends using the dd command in a terminal if you're coming from another Linux distro or from a MacIntosh computer.  Here's a video on how to use that command:


If neither of these methods is appealing, you can consider Etcher at https://etcher.io.  It is available for all platforms:  Windows, Mac, Linux.

@Jerry,
In Matthew Moore's video, he unmounts the USB drive before running the dd command.  Is that detail something that should be added to the Help Manual?

[CaperAsh]

I just bought a new laptop (HP Elite) and have had NO luck, after 3 hours, of creating a bootable USB, which have never done before (this one has no DVD drive, first time for me). I cannot understand AT ALL your instructions in the Help Menu, nor other pages googled. After 3 hours have made zero progress. Have been computing since early 1980's. The problem is that not one page, including your manual, takes the time to explain what you are trying to do and why. Just extremely brief, minimalist instructions. If you read your Help Guide with a 'fresh beginner mind' you will see that the language is almost meaningless. I am sure I am not the only person who is doing it for the first time and could use more simple, step by step instructions. Anyway, I love teh distro and if cannot make the USB bootup happen will simply get a different laptop rather than have to go through this every time.