Dear all,
I brought Dell XPS 13, Core i7 Laptop preinstalled with Ubuntu several years ago. Since there were soon some issues with the original Ubuntu OS, I had to reinstall the Ubuntu OS couple of times, which went pretty smooth. So basically I had/have experience booting an USB Drive and installing the Ubuntu/Linux OS.

The issue that I am writing this post is that I'm not able to install Ubuntu OS anymore and keep receiving error that ', thought the same USB Device manage to be seen by my friend's DELL Laptop.

I followed this recipe from DELL thoroughly [1], where they mention the BIOS settings needed to install Ubuntu, however no result.
The settings I choose based on this page is following:
One stupidity that I did with not-so-stable old Ubuntu OS was to delete the partition completely. Since its been a while that I did it, can not recall clearly, but in principle there is no OS on this DELL laptop and not able to install one.

Any insight to fix this issue is highly appreciated.




[1] https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...cy-mode?lwp=rt

I would be shocked if Ubuntu current had not the capability to automatically create the EFI partition and format it, but that is possible. I would look up the expected partitioning and recreate that.


And next time take a drive image or backup before making major changes.

@ wpeckham
I feel the OP is saying they cannot boot the USB device to do the installation.
Are you implying you booted the USB device in your buddy's Dell?
Or it appears when plugged in while the operating system is running?

My XPS Gen5 is from the year 2005, I have to hit the F12 key when the Dell logo appears to get a boot menu, then select the USB option to boot a USB device.

I'm assuming you are trying to install the original Ubuntu version that came with the laptop?
If so, I would try the latest Ubuntu 22.04, it should work just as well, just a suggestion, not a fix.

Is your buddies Dell using the same settings as yours?
I am eager to see how you answer the question from Brains. There is a vast difference between detecting storage and detecting a bootable device, especially if some settings prevent access. (Or the USB port is flaky.)


How did you prep that USB device? I always use Ventoy set up to support both EFI and legacy boot rather than the vendors documentation.

poojasaxena,

Pressing F12 should bring up the Boot Menu.

Using SanDisk as an example of a USB flash drive with Ubuntu 22.04:

You must select UEFI-SanDisk, not just SanDisk.

If this does not work, I suggest that you use GParted to format the drive as GPT and then create a 500MB ESP partition, flagged as boot and esp, plus 3 other partitions for root, swap and home.

Then boot from the Ubuntu USB flash drive on the pre-formatted hard drive.

Alternatively, use Legacy (non-UEFI) boot with 3 partitions.

Hallo there,
I didn't fresh try and made a little progress

USB preparation
It could see the USB and as it began to install ubtunu, the first message came following:
Laptop preparation:
Afterwards it got stuck at Partition section and asked me to create root Partition, however screen got stuck and not responding. It shows only/dev/sda of 16 GB, does it has to do with the configuration being not synconozyed? or did I did something really bad in past? why it does not see the hard drive storage?


Doess it give you any clue of fixing the issue??

My apologies for bad formatting, writing it from new tablet (

Thisi did and it took me few ateps ahead

Yes, installing Ubuntu 22.04LTS

For sure

The screenshots please

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poojasaxena,

On a Windows PC download the Ubuntu 22.04 iso image:
https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Also download Rufus:
https://rufus.ie/en/

Then follow these instructions to create a bootable Ubuntu USB stick with Rufus on Windows:
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-...ows#1-overview

On your Dell XPS 13, follow the solution given here:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...cy-mode?lwp=rt

1. From a power off state, power on the system and Press F2 at the Dell logo to boot into the BIOS setup menu.
2. Choose Boot sequence and change the option from Legacy to UEFI then click Apply.
3. Choose Advanced Boot Options and disable Enable Legacy Option ROMs then click Apply.
4. Verify the Secure Boot -> Secure Boot Enable option is Disabled in the BIOS.
5. Choose SATA Operation -> SATA Operation and change to AHCI mode.
6. Insert your bootable Ubuntu USB drive.
7. Click Exit in the lower right corner and keep tapping F12 as the system reboots.
8. Select UEFI-USB HDD.

If this does not work, I recommend inserting a Gparted USB drive at number 6 and partitioning the hard drive as GPT with 4 partitions, including a 500MB FAT32 Efi partition flagged as esp/boot.
The other 3 partitions are for for root, swap and home.

Then boot from the Ubuntu drive and complete the installation.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you for your reply, I did everything as quoted by you, however I did not see any "uefi usb hdd " option at 8.
I chose to go for "try and install Ubuntu " and the same message about having only single 14 GB /deb/sda partition and being non responsive from there onwards.

Regarding *Gparted* and creating partition, you meant to imply that this should be done on the USB stick while burning image? Since GParted on my machine does not see any partition

Why my hard-drive is not visible? Shall I drop the idea of fixing it

poojasaxena,

What is the size of your laptop's drive?

What is the size of the USB drive?

Can you boot the GParted drive by tapping F12 repeatedly and selecting USB/HDD?

Can you select each drive separately in GParted (use the Down arrow in top right corner of GParted)?

1. Sorry, but I can't say for sure, definitely atleast 150 GB, I don't know how to fins out when I can't get into my laptop, and only could access 14GB trial Ubuntu.

2. 16 GB

3. When I press F12 repeatedly, I don't see any such option on my end. Please check the screenshots attached
4. No,when I choose to go for 'try Ubuntu', gparted sees only seems 14 GB /dev/sda and don't show any other partitions ( yes, im talking about top right Down menu

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poojasaxena,

In post #7 you said:

In post #12 you say:

I am confused by this Dell's behaviour. It only appears to see the 16GB Ubuntu installation drive and not the main hard drive.