Hi All, first timer hear and brand new to Linux!

I have a unique 'booting' problem I haven't come across previously with installation of any OS.

I have installed MX-Linux on my old Toshiba Satellite laptop which previously ran Windows 7 since then the drive has been reformatted.

Initially MX Linux was installed then I tried Mint Cinnamon and back again to MX-18 , all from the 'Live' iso-USB using Rufus then Yumi.

The problem is I cannot get it to boot normally no matter what OS I use.
I have found a work around - booting into BIOS - enter setup – exit with/out saving changes – reboots - starts normally.

When I restart from a normal running it reboots normally.
The problem begins when I shutdown and start from fresh - this message appears on the screen.
“no booting device – insert boot disk and press any key”.

I have tried many online advice tips.
partitioning setup using Gparted.
Boot re installation and repair using MX Linux.
boot-repair-disk,... super_grub2,... rescatux,...grub customizer.
reinstalling both OS's multiple times

Laptop specs
Toshiba Satellite C665, x86_64, 8 GB RAM, 500GB HHD Seagate.

Partition configuration (also have tried several other options).
sda1 512MB boot, (bios,grub)
sda2 20GB /root
sda3 8GB swap
sda4 80GB /home

I suspect the problem is the bios but there are no updates available since this model has been discontinued a while ago.

Thank you in advance for your sage advice.

Not sure where you are making errors. But seems like install is possible. After that. I don't know.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...x-mint-892628/

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...istros-884144/

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...nstall-821785/

Just showing you it aint impossible.

Edit. Re-reading your post. Bios chip may need a reset. You might need pull the cmos battery and leave it out for a minute or 2. It will reset bios to defaults. Reset the time and boot options and see what happens. Is all I can figure.

2nd edit. Depending on age of cmos battery. It might need replacing also if settings don't stick.

Could be the hard drive is slow to spin up. Maybe check the SMART hard drive status.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.

i might be wrong, but...
this sounds like

• there is some USB stick permanently plugged in
• the bootloader was wrongly installed to that, instead of the internal hard drive

flatwhiteonesugar, can you confirm?
that is, unplug all USB storage, see if the behaviour changes?

Thanks for your replies.

Apart from the boot up everything is running perfectly fine.

I've considered the comments above and can discount a problem with the HDD (ran smart and passed ok).

No USB's connected nothing at all.

The links rokytnji posted suggested Toshiba laptop's have a history of problems (haven't finished reading all the posts yet).

Did a test myself. Took a snapshot of the updated MX-18 from the laptop, made a liveUSB disk and plugged into my workstation that is dual booted with windows 10 & windows 7.
Booted up without a hitch, everything worked instantly.

I use a Toshiba Satellite older than yours & it boots up quite happily, so I'm thinking, maybe you didn't install grub to the MBR(?).

Since you indicate that you have used the 'boot repair disk', what is preventing you from running it with the Create BootInfo Summary option and posting a link to the output here? That would give members a lot more informati0n to work with.

erm, sorry but no.
i think rokytnji posted these as encouragement, to show that many people run linux succesfully on this hardware.

you have to consider that people never post just to say that everything is fine.
they only ever post when they have a problem.
this might create a distorted view of how well the hardware is actually supported.

When I booted my Dell Touchscreen dual core XT2 for some beta testing .

It failed because the bios clock is off.
Reset time and date.
Booted up OK.

Looks like I will need to take my own advise on the cmos battery on that laptop. I bet if I put a VOM on the battery + & - contacts. I will be dis-appointed in voltages shown.

Because I bet if I let that Dell off the power brick for a few days. I wil have to reset the time again in bios.

Edit: errr.... forgot to mention. Dell gives you a keystroke to go ahead and reboot without fixing incorrect bios clock settings

I followed advice from rokytnji and pulled out the cmos battery and when I re-booted a warning message said the cmos battery firmware had failed.

Followed the prompts from bios setup menu and it booted into MX.

Problem solved!

Thank you all for your assistance.

1 members found this post helpful.

that's great news, and thanks for posting the solution!
Now please mark your thread SOLVED.

I'm sorry to report the issue is not yet resolved as I had so confidently predicted.
Lesson learnt, don't make predictions before posting!!
Even with the new cmos battery the same problem occurred.
I am still researching a fix - next I am going to try "efibootmgr" which conveniently is installed.