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Alain Reve
Asked: 2021-02-22 05:45:21 +0800 CST

How to boot lubuntu from a live usb on an EeeBook?

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Hitting "escape" at power-on gives the choice between windows boot manager or other, and "other" opens the BIOS. Hitting F2 repeatedly at power-on also brings up the BIOS.

With of without "secure boot" disabled, THERE IS NO USB OPTION.

I'm supposed to change boot options from within windows 10. In "parameters" I search for "boot", click on the result, and I can see "re-initialise" or "advanced startup". There I see "UEFI Removable Device". I select it and it boots into windows.

Another option in "boot" is "troubleshoot"/"Advanced". There I can select "Shell". I see a blue background with a message saying "select your account". There is only one and no way to select it - or to do anything except powering off the EeeBook.

Another option in "toubleshoot/advanced" is "change UEFI microprogram parameters". It says "restart to change them". I click "restart", it reboots and goes into the BIOS where there is no "boot from USB" option.

I found a new version of the bios here: https://www.asus.com/supportonly/X205TA/HelpDesk_BIOS/ (if you need one for a different model, don't use their search, replace X250TA by your model number in the link).

I opened it with the WinFlash program and it told me it was updating the BIOS. When I went back there the BIOS looked exactly the same.

I found a discussion here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UEFI/SecureBoot/KeyManagement/ImageSigning Then I went to canonical's site. There's stuff about Ubuntu running on a cloud. I don't understand all this. Do I need a special - signed - iso file to bypass the problem? Are they doing this deliberatly to prevent people from installing Ubuntu?

Any ideas, please?

boot

2 Answers

  1. Installing an operating system on these older EeeBooks has always been a right pain because nothing is allowed to be "simple" anymore. That said, just because something's difficult doesn't mean it's impossible.

    These are the steps you'll need to follow:

    1 — Configure Your BIOS

    1. Make sure the netbook is off
    2. Plug in the bootable USB stick with the version of Ubuntu (perhaps Xubuntu, or MATE given the hardware limitations of the device) you wish to use
    3. Start the netbook and hold the F2 button down to get into BIOS
    4. Under the "Advanced" tab:
      • Select "USB Configuration"
      • Select "USB Controller Select"
      • Set this to EHCI ⇠ Otherwise your mouse and keyboard will never work
    5. Under the "Security" tab:
      • Select "Secure Boot"
      • Select "Secure Boot Control"
      • Set to Disabled ⇠ Otherwise you will receive a lovely SECURE BOOT VIOLATION message on boot. This is because the factory security keys do not recognise Ubuntu's EFI bootloader.
    6. Under the "Save & Exit" tab
      • Select "Save Changes" and hit Enter ⇠ DO NOT CHOOSE "Save Changes and Exit"
      • Select "Boot Override"
      • Choose the USB flash drive

    2 — Install Ubuntu

    Install Ubuntu normally, HOWEVER, if you elect to encrypt the installation, you will be required to enter a password every time you boot. Unfortunately, the keyboard on the EeeBook will not work until after Ubuntu has started to boot. Therefore, encrypting the entire drive is "a bad idea" unless you always have an external keyboard nearby.

    3 — Caveats

    There are some hardware issues that you will need to be aware of. I have not used an EeeBook in 5+ years so do not know if any of the items below are still problems or not. If they are, be prepared to do some post-installation investigation.

    • the Bluetooth radio is uses the Broadcom BCM43341B0 chipset. This was not part of the default Ubuntu installation when I last installed it on an EeeBook in 2014
    • the audio device has a 50/50 chance of working
    • the Fn keys for brightness may not work consistently, going from full brightness to off with a single tap
    • the keyboard will not work until the login screen — or unless you are in BIOS mode — so have an external USB keyboard nearby if you ever have to do recovery work on the device
    • keep your expectations low
      ⇢ This particular netbook shipped with a quad-core Atom Z3735F processor which was sluggish at the best of times. Do not expect a great deal of performance when working with modern websites, watching videos with resolutions higher than 720p, or doing anything that requires a good degree of I/O work
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  2. Format the USB stick as FAT

    Right Click Ubuntu ISO Image and select "Open With Disk Image Mounter"

    ISO image will be mounted

    Copy the files in the mounted image to the USB stick, some files cannot be copied, skip them. They are in a linked directory.

    Add bootia32.efi to /EFI/BOOT/ folder in the stick

    Unmount the USB and use it to boot your Eeebook

    You can use this bootia32.efi : https://www60.zippyshare.com/v/PCuPE9hL/file.html

    This is not for bounty, just to make a child happy :)

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