Can't get laptop to recognise bootable USB stick
 

I've been installing Linux on PCs since 2007, but this is the first time I've had so much hassle just getting one particular laptop to even recognise the USB is present when I try to boot it up for the first time, prior to installation.

Although, this is the first time I've tried to install a 64-bit Linux onto a 64-bit laptop. I don't know whether that's a relevant factor.

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L450. It has 2GB RAM. The laptop I use presently is a 32-bit HP with 1GB RAM, running Mint 18.1, so it's time for an upgrade. I originally tried Mint 21.2 MATE, and the new laptop recognised the stick and booted as normal. However, when trying it out I loaded Firefox and one webpage and it was already using 1.9GB of the 2GB, so I thought I'd better try a lighter version than MATE.

I downloaded the ISO for Mint 21.2 XFCE instead, checked the MD5sum and all that, but the Toshiba refused to recognise the USB stick on booting. I inserted it before switching on the laptop, selected Setup, but the USB was not present in the boot order. I tried multiple times. I do not have any other 64-bit machines on which to try it.

I then downloaded the ISO for Mint LMDE. This was recognised on bootup but I gave up this distro before installing as it's so radically different from what I'm used to and it kept hanging.

I then downloaded XUbuntu 22.04 ISO, unpacked it to the stick using DD in a terminal (I had been using the Mint "USB image writer" before that), but the Toshiba still doesn't want to recognise it. So I've had two successes (with booting, but I didn't like the distros) and two failures. The failures are the lightweight distros I would probably get on with. Except the USB stick isn't being recognised as bootable.

I notice with a GParted analysis of the stick, the Boot flag is not present on sdb1 but on sdb2. Should it be? Are there any other setup Boot options I should be trying?

This is the first time I've even had this much trouble getting a distro to live boot for the first time. Thank you for any assistance you can give.

It isn't because it's a 64 bit machine, so you can discount that. ;)

Looking at the specs, I can't see any problems.

Did you check the MD5/SHA sums to see that you got good downloads(?).

Two distros booted OK, so it isn't the computer. :)

Are you pressing the key for setup or for the boot menu? Maybe pressing the f12 or F key at power up will get to the boot menu.
Is fast-boot and secure-boot disabled in the bios? Is fast-boot diabled in windows power settings?

I tried both. The messages on Bootup (before it allows me to press F2) say:

Fixed Disk 0: WDC WD2500... etc
ATAPI CD-ROM (etc)
USB 2.0: USB DISK 2.0 (I notice it's recognising the USB drive here)
Mouse initialized
Error
0271: Check date and time settings
Warning
0251: System CMOS checksum bad - Default configuration used

Press F1 to resume, F2 to Setup

I assume this is because the backup clock battery has conked out. But that shouldn't affect the booting should it? And it only does that the first time I switch on. Subsequent boots on the same day don't give those error messages.

I can find no reference to such options in the bios options.

I found a manual here. The machine seems to have a traditional BIOS boot, so probably no fast-boot or secure-boot options to cancel. You can get a boot menu by pressing F12 and it should show your usb stick.

As to the boot flag, I suspect your stick is a hybrid with sdb1 as the ESP for UEFI boots and sdb2 as the flagged partition for BIOS boots.

Thank you for your advice. I have somewhat got around the problem by unpacking the ISO to a DVD instead of a USB stick, since the laptop always recognises a bootable DVD. However, upon trying to install to the HDD I now have another situation that I have not encountered before. I wanted to install Linux and keep the existing Windows 10. Normally the Mint/Ubuntu installer is quite good at recognising competing operating systems, and guiding me through a dual boot install. However this time it gives me either "install Linux across the whole hard drive and wipe out everything else" or "Something else". It's the "something else" I have questions on.

As you can see from the attachment I hope has uploaded, the HDD has 4 partitions and I hoped to install Linux Mint 21.2 xfce onto partition sda4, which is currently ntfs. Does this mean I have to click on that partition in the list and choose "change", as that is where I get confused. Do I need to change it to ext4, select "format the partition" and give it a Mount Point of "/"? Or is that wrong and will mess everything up?

I tried looking at the Mint installation guide but this seems to do everything in a terminal and doesn't use the installer at all!

I have installed multiple dual-boots before and can't remember having to do any of this previously. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Steve

Disable fastboot and/or hibernation in windows advance power settings under "what the power button does"

Thank you, but this will not address the install problems I describe in my post above. Even if I had managed to boot from the stick, these install questions would remain.

The Something Else option is a manual install where you select the partition or unallocated space on which to install and format the partition and select the mount point.

Which windows do you have? Is it a Legacy install? Is there any mention of EFI/UEFI in your BIOS? If your windows is a Legacy install, then you must install Linux in Legacy mode. If there is no reference to EFI/UEFI in your BIOS it will be a Legacy install. If you are using a newer windows (8-11) you need to follow the steps in post 7.

You need to format the partition on which you want to install Linux. It won't work on an ntfs filesystem. Formatting a partition will delete any data so if you have any on that partition, you need to back it up.

Yes, you need to click Change and use the steps you mention in your post.

Thank you. The laptop originally came with Windows 7 and as Hazel said above, it would appear to be a BIOS system not EFI. Does this mean then, that when I initially Live Boot from the DVD prior to installation, I have to choose the "Compatibility mode" from the boot options and not the default? I did get an installer error message before about "No EFI partition found".

And when it asks me for the device upon which to install the GRUB bootloader, do I choose sda or sda1? I presume it won't be sda4 upon which I am installing Linux Mint...

If that message comes from the installer, then you are probably interpreting it correctly. The installer does not know at this stage what kind of machine it is being run on. It probably expects a UEFI machine by default and may be checking for the presence of an ESP on your hard drive. Compatibility mode is UEFI-speak for a traditional BIOS boot.
For mbr boots, GRUB must be installed to the drive, not to a partition. Only a stub goes into the mbr; there needs to be a gap between the mbr and the first partition for the main part of GRUB to go into, but you probably already have that. If you were installing GRUB on a UEFI machine, you would install it to the EFI system partition, probably sda1 (although on my machine it's sda2).

Well, I tried what you suggested and it seemed to work. It has installed to the hard drive okay. I ignored the error message when installing, telling me that no EFI partition could be found and the system might not boot up. It booted fine anyway, the GRUB menu is in place and Windows still works if ever I need it.

Thank you to everyone on this thread for your valuable assistance in this matter.

Steve