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Adam Goldman
Asked: 2017-03-13 23:31:34 +0800 CST

Ubuntu flash disk not booting on Acer Aspire

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I just bought two sandisk usb sticks, 16gb and 32gb, and used startup disk creator to install 16.04.02 from official site in both of them.

When I reboot my laptop with the any of the usbs inside, it just boots my current ubuntu installation. Nothing new.

This is my second time installing ubuntu on this machine from a flash drive, so I know it "should" work.

I've verified the installation file:

$ md5sum ubuntu-16.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso
1400884cec8e40a1a876b2678f81494b  ubuntu-16.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso

Matches the official hash

I've set the BIOS to boot first from USBs:

enter image description here

Following some threads on ask ubuntu and SO, here's what I've already tried and (hopefully) some relevant info:

info

Laptop: Acer Aspire V13 V3-372-57M8

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb1
Disk /dev/sdb1: 1.5 GiB, 1554186240 bytes, 3035520 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x15e2543d

Device      Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1p1 *        0 3035519 3035520  1.5G  0 Empty
/dev/sdb1p2      14432   19295    4864  2.4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

$ lsof /dev/sdb1 # this yields no output

$ sudo file -s /dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb1: DOS/MBR boot sector ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data (DOS/MBR boot sector) 'Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS amd64' (bootable); partition 2 : ID=0xef, start-CHS (0x3ff,254,63), end-CHS (0x3ff,254,63), startsector 14432, 4864 sectors

Things tried

Booting with secured boot disabled

$ sudo umount /dev/sdb1
$ sudo mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdb1
mkfs.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)

and then using startup disk creator again, and rebooting. no luck.

Also tried wiping the usb with gparted, and creating a new NTFS partition and then using startup creator, no luck.

boot

1 Answers

  1. If you have a windows machine available I just used the Rufus app to make a bootable image.

    http://rufus.akeo.ie/

    https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

    Not avail in Linux though. Only Windows.

    NOTE: Also Like someone above said, depending on your USB Flash drive brand, there is a possibility for it to brick after making it bootable. I bricked mine after successfully installing 16.04 LTS. Theres a particular way to reverse the process if you want a normal drive back, which I didn't pay heed to, I just formatted it as normal and it bricked. I can't recall the link or method, DISKPART in windows to restore the MBR is one way. Otherwise it's probably safer to keep the USB bootable image as is.

    Sorry if this is a vague answer, it was a "quick and nasty" way for me to install Lubuntu and my USB flash drive was an old cheapo disposable one. May or may not be suitable for your requirements.

    Also in my BIOS, I used Legacy HDD IDE mode (No AHCI), No Secure Boot and No UEFI for it to install successfully after a couple times trying with other settings.

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