Score:0

Ubuntu

USB Ubuntu Server 22.04 install not booting

ubuntu_user

10/26/23, 11:10 AM

I wanted to install Ubuntu server 22.04 on a USB device. I chose ubuntu server to have a minimal setup. I downloaded the server iso and etched it on to an USB drive.

Then I boot from this etched USB drive and installed the server on to an another USB drive. It worked the first time. I could boot. Then I removed the USB drive and boot into my default windows drive.

So after that I again tried to boot from USB medium, the system just reboots or it boots into windows. In total I used 2 USB drives

For Installing
To install upon

I checked the efi partition, it has FAT32 filesystem. Can anyone help?

Update: The keeps rebooting in loop with the message "Reset System"

Update: When I turn on my laptop and go to boot menu(from pressing F11 not the bios) at first I see to options

Windows SSD
UEFI: USB partition 1

When I take option 2 sytem shows "Reset System" message and reboots. After then I again goto boot menu I see 3 options

windows ssd
ubuntu
UEFI: USB partition 1

when I take 2nd option it works. But if I remove the usb drive and reattach it, the ubuntu option goes away and again I have to choose UEFI: USB partition 1 option

Please help.

Also I have noticed that the system time reseting to UTC time after I detach my USB drive.

398

1 + 2

partitioning

boot

grub2

usb

oldfred

10/26/23, 1:31 PM

You have to choose in UEFI boot menu to boot the UEFI:XXXX setting for the flash drive. The XXX may be PMAP or label/brand of flash drive. If Windows is UEFI, you must boot flash drive in UEFI boot mode, to install in UEFI mode.

ubuntu_user

10/27/23, 7:15 AM

Thank you for your comment but I believe I am booting into flash drive in UEFI mode. I have updated the question if might want to see.

Score:0

Ubuntu

Wang

10/27/23, 11:53 AM

I believe this behaviour is by design and correct according to UEFI specs. Some UEFI firmwares act differently regarding removable media and removed HDD. This is totally ok, because this is not defined in specs.

In short, you can try to enter your BIOS setting to see if you can manually create an entry with partition uuid. But the fireware can still decide to remove boot-entries reside on missing disks (I can confirm some dell firmware do this)

When boot into ubuntu use efibootmgr -v to check the EFI boot entries. You should see something like:

Boot0004* ubuntu        HD(1,GPT,uuid,0xnnnn,0xmmmmm)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)

Check if the uuid is the partition where the efi application located. Sometime the uuid can be something else, then it is wrong.

In long:

The removable devices should have /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi, and when the firmware see no boot-entry for that disk, it will take the /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi
The /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi then call the fallback efi application: fbx64.efi
the fallback application then generate a boot entry according to BOOTX64.CSV and make it default and reset the machine. This is the ubuntu entry you saw.
Then the next boot will directly boot into ubuntu

Things will go south when you unplug the USB disk. The next boot the firmware will try to boot from the default option ubuntu, then the disk is missing. The firmware decide to remove the ubuntu entry or remove the default flag. This depends on how your firmware provider decide to do this.

Thus you can try to manually create ubuntu boot entry in bios or efimanager and do NOT mark it default. Then the entry may stay. Still depends on the firmware implementation, it is pretty ok if they decide to remove entries pointed to missing disk.

+ 4

ubuntu_user

10/27/23, 1:25 PM

What I understand from your answer is all this is by design, and if I have to boot into my ubuntu installation I have to follow the same things. Can you please confirm that this way/process will not damage my machine hardware? Also I can post the output of efibootmgr if might say. Thanks for the answer.

ubuntu_user

10/27/23, 1:28 PM

the output of efibootmgr has multiple entries.

Wang

10/28/23, 5:09 PM

it is normal as you can see my example is labelled as boot0004. The only thing you need to do is too check if you can create an entry by yourself. Then the fbx64 won't be inaction. Then it won't set ubuntu as default boot entry. In this way you **might** be able to keep an entry pointing to non-existing disk.

ubuntu_user

10/31/23, 1:44 PM

I tried things you told nothing is working. I give up. Thank you for help although.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: USB Ubuntu Server 22.04 install not booting

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