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Dario Figliuzzi
Asked: 2018-04-05 01:00:23 +0800 CST

Auto select "Try Ubuntu 16.04" in uefi mode

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I need to install Ubuntu 16.04 in uefi mode without keyboard, so I need to auto select Try ubuntu but if I edit isolinux.cfg and syslinux.cfg this has effect only if I boot the usb drive in legacy mode. Is there a solution?

system-installation uefi 16.04 syslinux isolinux

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Answering your question about auto-selecting 'Try Ubuntu'

    The Ubuntu live system boots via grub in UEFI mode. So you should edit the the grub configuration file(s). This file may be in different locations depending on how you created the boot drive.

    • If created by an extracting tool (for example Rufus), there is probably one partition with a FAT32 file system in the USB pendrive, and the file is located at

      boot/grub/grub.cfg

      in this FAT32 file system.

      If it is a live-only system, you must probably boot from another drive to edit the file, because the file system is mounted read-only, but if it is a persistent live system, you should be able to edit the file, also when booted from the system itself.

    • If a persistent live system created by mkusb, you should edit the file grub.cfg, that you find in the third partition labeled 'usbboot' in the USB pendrive.

      sudo lsblk -f
sudo lsblk -m

      Identify the device letter x and mount the partition,

      sudo mount /dev/sdx3 /mnt

      for example b

      sudo mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt

      list the file

      ls -l /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg

      and edit the file

      nano /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg

    • If it is a cloned system, made by for example the Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator, Disks, mkusb, dd, there will be a read-only ISO 9660 file system, and it is read-only. So you cannot edit the file.

    But the installer expects a dialogue

    But there is a dialogue in the installer Ubiquity, and I think it is difficult to run it without interaction.

    Clone an installed system

    So maybe you should clone an installed system, that can boot both in UEFI and BIOS mode, and afterwards, when booted into it, install the desktop environment, that you want, ubuntu-desktop to get standard Ubuntu with Unity.

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