"Live" USBs not working
 

I have been trying to use a live USB without success. My latest Live USB has Lubuntu. Nothing happens, even when I tried earlier USBs of other Ubuntu versions. I did the SHA256 test and the downloaded version is fine. I used Startup Disk Creator. Is there something I am doing wrong or not doing?

Thanks for any advice!
Ren

Have you ever booted to a usb device to boot this machine?
Any errors to report.

"secure boot" "fast boot" disabled in bios. "fast boot" disabled in windows advance power settings.
The key to press for bios boot menu is different from the key for bios settings. Try esc or f8 key

Hi there.
On my ASUS VivoBook E203NA Both "secure boot" and "fast boot" were disabled. And I used the esc key and F8. The Boot menu [F8] only shows Ubuntu on "Scandisk" and "Enter Setup." Scandisk is a hangover from much earlier attempts and I thought it was interfering with my current Kingston USB with Lubuntu. There weree no signs of Kingston USB with Lubuntu except within the bios menu. In fact it was the only Distribution displayed.

When I type "ls" in Grubrescue I discovered that Lubuntu was the distributiom and not Xubuntu on the Scandisk. However, I couldn't go further.I think this is where Jefro's question comes in. I have not booted from my Lubuntu USB.

Here are some of the lines from "ls":
I was looking for the boot path[?]
I thought Lubunt was a stripped down "smaller" version but it is about the same size: 2.2 gigs!

RenH,

ASUS VivoBook E203NA:
11-inch (1366 x 768) screen
32GB eMMC storage
Intel Celeron N3350 processor

With 32GB eMMC storage and an Intel Celeron N3350 processor, you need to ask yourself, “Is this really worth the effort”?

You could try booting GParted and delete all partitions on your eMMC. Then create one single, primary FAT32 partition for use as a data partition.
Armed with a small USB drive, you could then install antiX as Live USB with persistence.

https://antixlinux.com/the-most-exte...on-the-planet/

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/to...h-persistence/

Personally I would not waste any further time or effort on this ASUS E302NA.

Instead, I would recommend getting something like this inexpensive but reliable Lenovo ThinkPad T440s i5-4300U with 8GB RAM:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115608579...Bk9SR5CGzI_CYQ

You will find life is much simpler and easier with this alternative option, since you can install any Linux distro you wish.

Try a different distro - I use Devuan, installed from their 'live' version, works on both MBR & UEFI systems, has an XFCE desktop & all the usual desktop user programs.

I had it running perfectly well on an old Toshiba Satellite, 1.3GHz single core with just 2GB ram, admittedly a little slow on the internet, but perfectly fine otherwise.

Most of my present thin clients, (used as desktops), only have 16GB internal drives, these are fine for putting the O/S onto, takes up about 3.5GB, the rest is free, & I use external drives for my music & videos, etc.

Do you have the latest BIOS installed on your E203NA? (The ASUS support pages give comprehensive instruction).

PS - I just ran into this on a Dell Inspiron 15-5565 when attempting to boot the Windows 10 installer from a USB flash drive. Every try failed until I did a BIOS update.

which BIOS?
 

Hi Allend, there is BIOS for Windows and BIOS EZ Flash. Which do I use? As I want nothing to do with Windows I will try EZ Flash version.

Beachboy 2: I bought this Notebook so I could watch football matches on the go, and if I am travelling, for emails. Nothing more. I have a 32-bit Lenovo laptop that weighs a ton. It needs work: right now Mozilla Thunderbird and Firefox only display the frame -- no content. I tried updating but it hasn't helped. And then finally, the DVD does not shut. The saving grace was that I could use chromium to access this forum.

Although I have no experience with Startup Disk Creator, usually I burn the Linux Live ISO to usb with Rufus.
With a notebook like this (or pad), which is likely 64 bit capable and can run a 64 bit OS, usually the EFI end of things is 32 bit.
After creating the USB Linux Live with Rufus using default ISO image copy or similar, "not dd image", I would copy a file called "bootia32.efi" into the boot folder of the USB where the bootx64.efi file resides, this will allow booting the USB on this type of hardware which likely has 32 bit UEFI.

This site might help.

EDIT: In your profile, you might want to remove U of Manitoba as the distribution, Ubuntu is likely the name of the distribution you are using (when you get it booted).

How did you create the live USB stick? have you made sure it's booting from the USB stick? Have you tried booting another machine using this USB stick?

Hi GPGAgent,
Used Startup Disk Creator to create my USB.

I was in the middle of trying to test my US Bwhen I made a mistake and my computer would not reboot. So I haven't tried again. The advice to update the BIOS on the netbook and to use Rufus seems the way to go. I found an article on booting with Rufus for Newbies, which is just my speed, but although the author cites Rufus he is not sufficiently clear for me to follow as he uses another programme.

I am hitting the brick wall of my ignorance. I tried three different ways to load Lubuntu.

1. I followed the instructions in the article to repair Grub on the Notebook.

I could not. However, I did learn about the command and , and I discovered my boot directory: []. I followed instructions and loaded the Normal boot mode and then tried to load the Linux kernel.

The example given in the article was: .

I tried without success so I assumed I was meant to use the name of my copy of Lubuntu. I tried all permutations of "2.04-lubuntu45" [as displayed in Grub] in the above equation but no success.

2. The next two tries dealt with loading a 32-bit bootloader into a 64bit machine using Rufus. Here I was working on my PC not on the Notebook.

I followed the article: .

It looked promising as it was written for newbies. [I can't code but I spent the last half year reading up on Linux; Of course, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".] The first step for me was to download Rufus to create a bootable disk. After much hesitation and trepidation I clicked on Rufus and a window stated that Rufus stopped recognising my version of Windows. I think version 2.16 was the last one. The irony is that I don't have Windows on my computer, at least not Microsoft Windows. So back to square one.

3. In my third attempt I followed the article . So I downloaded MiniTool Partition Wizard.

It all looked straightforward. When I clicked on the appropriate button it stated that it does not recognise my Windows.

I also tried to reformat a USB to Fat32. It was a "live" USB but I couldn't change anything on it! I did not unmount it because I assume if I did the PC would not be able to talk to it.

what is "prefix=" and "root=" from the grub set command? Do you have a grub> or grubrescue> prompt?

I used "Grub" prompt and "Set" to get:
GRUB


Strange, but I remember seeing grubrescue in one of my earlier efforts.

use ls to see if there is another partition with a grub directory something like this:
drives count from 0, partitions from 1 at the grub prompt.
After finding the grub directory do the following at the grub prompt:
or if there is a boot partition:

This should give you the grub menu for the system.
The "?" will be the drive and partition numbers of where the grub directory is located.

Another thought, post the output of If there is a grub.cfg located there.