Want to boot from USB, but cannot change BIOS settings.

robrichards
robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
edited November 2023 in 2020 Archives
I have an Acer Aspire 5 ( A515-55-52J9) and in BIOS->Boot I only have "Windows Boot Manager" under "Boot priority order".
The "Boot Mode" shows UEFI - but I cannot change it - it is greyed out. Some answers show to select "Legacy" - but "Boot Mode" is greyed out.
I made a Ubuntu disk using 
Universal USB Installer (windows 10) and placed it on an USB stick.
Just want to have a Ubuntu machine - w/o windows.
«1

Answers

  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    edited July 2020
    Whenever I want to create live USBs of Linux distributions I use Rufus, because it takes care of the configuration so that it boots in the mode you choose.

    Some laptops are unable to be boot in legacy mode and UEFI has some requirements (a FAT32 boot partition for example for USB sticks an a similar EFI one for installed systems.

    Give it a try, it's pretty easy and it populates most if not of all of the options for you automatically:



    Let us know if you want to access the internal hard drive from within Linux, because you may need to change to AHCI if you have it in RST+Optane configuration (but I think you'd lose Optane acceleration in Linux, it can be configured to be used in one or the other but not both I think).
  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    I downloaded rufus in win10 and settings I copied from your image.
    I ran it - and it now it has a "Linpus lite" ahead of "Windows Boot Manager". (via f12 at boot)
    It drops me into grub! Not sure how to proceed from there. Any ideas?
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    edited July 2020
    That's alright, "Linpus Lite" would be the entry for the USB stick (I wish it just said Ubunbu in this case, but that's it).

    Are you able to Boot if you press Enter in GRUB? I'm going to replicate it here as well to guide you better (make sure Secure Boot is disabled in BIOS for good measure just in case). I'll be using the Xubuntu image, but they all behave the same.

    These are the settings I see for now:


  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    I have secure boot disabled, and a supervisor password set. I get a grub prompt, press enter and get another "grub>" prompt.
    This is what I tried, - I did check quick format & create extend...otherwise the same as your example.


  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Those settings look good to me, give me some minutes because the USB I'm using is one for testing and it's almost dying, at this point it's slow as hell haha

    I'll let you know what I see.
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    I get to GRUB, but it does show with options for me when I choose to boot from "Linpus lite":



    I'm going to try with the previous LTS, the one you're using next in case there's some incompatibility. I have a different machine than yours, an A515-54G, but the procedure should be analogous. Right now my BIOS settings have Secure Boot disabled, UEFI mode (I can't choose anything else), and no password protection whatsoever.
  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    I can try Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but its not supported for what I want. Maybe I should try an earlier version of Ubuntu & upgrade once installed.
    Thanks for your efforts, I check in again tomorrow to see what you found.
    cheers,
    rob

  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    There seems to be something wrong with how you're creating the bootable USB, I was able to create and boot from the 18.04.4 Ubuntu release just as well:



    I had to instruct Rufus to download some Syslinux code when it asked, because it was an older release and it doesn't have boot code for all of them. I wrote the image in ISO mode (you could try DD too if that doesn't work).

    So far so good :/
  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    I also downloaded those syslinux code. I'll try another usb. I'll try dd, and a few others things. Knowing that it is possible. Will report back in a day or so. Thanks.
  • aphanic said:
    Whenever I want to create live USBs of Linux distributions I use Rufus, because it takes care of the configuration so that it boots in the mode you choose.

    Some laptops are unable to be boot in legacy mode and UEFI has some requirements (a FAT32 boot partition for example for USB sticks an a similar EFI one for installed systems.

    Give it a try, it's pretty easy and it populates most if not of all of the options for you automatically:



    Let us know if you want to access the internal hard drive from within Linux, because you may need to change to AHCI if you have it in RST+Optane configuration (but I think you'd lose Optane acceleration in Linux, it can be configured to be used in one or the other but not both I think).

    There is another option, which would be to configure the usb stick by the power shell as an administrator:

    In addition, you must change sata mode to ahci in the bios by pressing ctrl + s on the main tab.
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  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    aphanic said:
    There seems to be something wrong with how you're creating the bootable USB, I was able to create and boot from the 18.04.4 Ubuntu release just as well:



    I had to instruct Rufus to download some Syslinux code when it asked, because it was an older release and it doesn't have boot code for all of them. I wrote the image in ISO mode (you could try DD too if that doesn't work).

    So far so good :/
    I tried both regular and DD image, I tried MBR & GPT partitions. I tried portable Rufus (vs desktop rufus) , I tried another encoder UU Installer, all bring me to the same grub prompt. :(  Frigging hours or tinkering.

    I then tried Ubuntu 16 LTE using rufus. Was able to get to the above screen - but the install didn't get far - mouse didn't work and could not select installation type - no listings there and it crashed there. Twice. 
    There has to be something that will work.
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Okay, there's another (crude-ish) way to make it work (hopefully).

    You just want to have Ubuntu installed don't you? Because I could do a basic installation here, for an UEFI machine, of the Ubuntu you like, then create a dd-able image of the whole disk for you to use over there.

    I'd need to know the hard drive space you have and the kind of partition you want to have (like a separate /home for example), but I've done something like that before with success. The download size would be something like 5-7 GB probably, but I could cut it in chunks if you prefer.

    It's just too odd that you can't boot into Linux even to get started when I had no trouble over here. SATA in AHCI, UEFI with Secure Boot disabled and all good.
  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    Deleted all prior stuff.


    egydiocoelho - This sets up the USB disk?  I will try this, but maybe a bit of info what it is doing?
    I assume disk 0 is the hard drive.
    Disk 1 is the usb.
    Once that is done, then do I use rufus to load the ISO there?
    In my bios, there is no sata mode that I can change. It does say Optane without RAID in "Information"

    thanks


  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    I assume disk 0 is the hard drive.
    Disk 1 is the usb.
    Once that is done, then do I use rufus to load the ISO there?
    In my bios, there is no sata mode that I can change. It does say Optane without RAID in "Information"

    Never assume! You can end up with a formatted drive by mistake. In DiskPart, the command "det" can show you more info on what you have selected, for example "det disk" on the selected disk, "det part" on the selected partition. And "sel" selects things (disks begin in 0, partitions in 1), think of DiskPart as parted, or fdisk.

     

    Rufus, as far as I know, clears all kinds of configuration you may have done to the partition table in the chosen disk. Everything gets deleted. What @egydiocoelho suggested is the manual way of creating partitions for a bootable USB.

    By the way, in some BIOSes the SATA operation mode can be changed by pressing Ctrl+S in the Main tab, a setting appears for it (but if you want to boot into Windows you must restore it to what it was, or do some changes in Windows first).
  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    aphanic said:
    Okay, there's another (crude-ish) way to make it work (hopefully).

    You just want to have Ubuntu installed don't you? Because I could do a basic installation here, for an UEFI machine, of the Ubuntu you like, then create a dd-able image of the whole disk for you to use over there.

    I'd need to know the hard drive space you have and the kind of partition you want to have (like a separate /home for example), but I've done something like that before with success. The download size would be something like 5-7 GB probably, but I could cut it in chunks if you prefer.

    It's just too odd that you can't boot into Linux even to get started when I had no trouble over here. SATA in AHCI, UEFI with Secure Boot disabled and all good.
    I have "Standard" as my Secure Boot Mode setting. I cannot change that.
    Yes, just ubuntu, i am not familiar with windows. 
    My drive is 476.94 GB
    I figure 40 GB swap, root 25 GB, var 5gb and the rest in home.

    I would be interested in how would I get that onto the acer Hard drive.

    thanks for your help!

  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    To change some of the things related to security in Acer BIOSes you need to have set up a supervisor password first. Try to set something up and see if you can disable Secure Boot mode afterwards, that's probably what's preventing you from accessing the boot disks.

    Did you see the SATA operation mode? Is there such an option in your BIOS?
  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    aphanic said:
    To change some of the things related to security in Acer BIOSes you need to have set up a supervisor password first. Try to set something up and see if you can disable Secure Boot mode afterwards, that's probably what's preventing you from accessing the boot disks.

    Did you see the SATA operation mode? Is there such an option in your BIOS?
    For sata - it says on the Information screen: "SATA Mode:  Optane without RAID"
    Secure boot is disabled, I do and have used a supervisor password. 
    Boot mode is UEFI - greyed out, so cannot change.
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Hi! I haven't forgotten about this issue, but I was caught up with different things and couldn't get back at you until now.

    I made an installation of Ubuntu 18.04.4, very basic, for now it's kind of a live environment except it is installed properly with an ESP partition and all. I uploaded the file here: https://mega.nz/file/gddg0Srb#qBBKTdU5BRwAn_MNlBY-ukkRGzYVvCivi1CFEhN4zCE

    After decompressing the RAR archive you'll get a 7.5 GB file which is to be dd-ed into a flash drive. It was made with the smallest flash drive possible in mind, an 8GB one, so you can use anything bigger than that without any problem (gparted should be able to adjust the partition table after the fact too if you wanted to extend the partition).

    As it was a test, it is all installed in a single partition, meaning the layout is just the ESP (EFI) partition and the rest is an ext4 one.

    I used ImageUSB from OSForensics to create the image, but I believe it is compatible with dd as well. Otherwise, this is the settings you should use in ImageUSB:



    Remember to choose the right disk or things could end up badly... in any case you'll be warned again once you click Write:



    That's it, at the end you should have an installation of Ubuntu 18.04.4 ready to be boot up in an UEFI machine with Secure Boot disabled. It should appear as "ubuntu" in the boot menu. If you're able to boot it, and you're able to access the internal hard drive, we have a chance of installing things into there.

    If you're able to boot it, but you can't see your internal hard drive, it may mean that the Optane setting is keeping things as a software RAID (although it reads without RAID, who knows). In that case I'll try to guide you later on.

    Give it a try and please report back! ;)
  • robrichards
    robrichards Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    aphanic said:
    Hi! I haven't forgotten about this issue, but I was caught up with different things and couldn't get back at you until now.
    ...<deleted...>
    Give it a try and please report back! ;)
    Well now, "ubuntu" did show up and I launched it. There is a logon screen, that I assume is your name, but I don't know the password. Yes, I tried "test" and got in! 
    I can see I've taken 1.5GB and have 7.3GB free.
    "lsblk" only shows the USB - that is one disk & 2 partitions. Will need help to install.
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    robrichards said:
    There is a logon screen, that I assume is your name, but I don't know the password. Yes, I tried "test" and got in! 

    😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳 HOW COULD I FORGET TO TELL YOU THE PASSWORD!!! My god, at least you got in, my apologies man, I had so many things in my head I completely forgot.

    But! Good news is that you can use Linux in that machine! :)

    As for the disks, it may be as a thought, the internal disk must be wired through RST and that behaves like a software RAID in Linux, needing to mount it with mdadm and all ~> A pain.

    We may be able to change it, Acer has recently changed the SATA operation mode in the BIOS setting. To access it you have to be in the Main tab and press Ctrl+S, but it only applies to the majority of machines. Some others don't get that shortcut for some reason (mistake maybe?) and they should wait for another firmware upgrade.

    See if you can access the setting, and switch to AHCI instead (if you had Windows installed still it may not boot after the fact, it requires reconfiguration). If you don't have that option, I'd try updating the firmware to the latest revision which is 1.08 for your machine per the support page and checking again: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/8192?b=1

    And if you still can't access the SATA operation mode, I think your only bet for now would be to mount the internal system as a software RAID, but that complicates things as to what I can send you for you to make a proper installation.

    Just like I did this time, I could do the same with the partitioning scheme (and filesystem settings you want, in case you prefer btrfs, or xfs, etc) only to be dd-ed to the internal disk instead. (I can also provide a live environment of Windows for you to boot up from that would see the disk no problem, and you could use ImageUSB from there)

    All in all it's great news, we got to the point where you can boot an installed Linux, now we just need to figure out how to make it so for the internal drive.

    PS. There was an old Intel whitepaper on RST in Linux, the the procedure may seem convoluted whereas in AHCI things work out of the box, and there's no performance detriments I could see in some tests I performed some month back: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/white-papers/rst-linux-paper.pdf

    In any case, your preferred initial partition setup was:
     - ESP (partition needed for UEFI)
     - 40 GB swap (darn... haha)
     - 25 GB /
     - 5 GB /var
     - Rest for /home

    I may need to use another smaller USB stick like this time to ease the operation, but you'll be able to grow /home to the full once GParted (or equivalent) fixes the GPT table. With compression and all I would expect a similar download size.