usb flash for ubuntu 22.04 wont boot and cant access the bios in hp laptop
 

the hp laptop i just bought had windows 11. my intention was to erase that and install ubuntu 22.04, which i did.

however, now i find i cant get the system to boot from the flash drive, the same one that i used to install ubuntu in the first place. i think it is probably not the boot sequence because i dont remember having to change that when i installed it, i thought the creation of the usb flash included it and any partitions that were necessary. it did install so i really dont think there is anything wrong with the flash.

however, even though i dont think the boot sequence is the problem, i cant be sure and it is appalling to think that i cant get to the boot sequence.

out of the probably twenty times i tried it, only twice did i succeed in reaching the following-
f9 takes me to a screen where i am given three options:
OS Boot Manager- UEFI
OS Boot Manager- UEFI Windows Manager
Boot from EFI file

not sure which i need to see, i selected the first one and pressed enter as directed, and there was a line on the bottom of the screen after ‘enter’ that mentioned ‘press f10 for Boot Options. maybe i dont understand, i thought i was to press f10 after pressing enter, but nothing happened at all, and it ended up booting into ubuntu 22.04 again. i didnt have the flash drive connected because i have been trying to just get to the boot options first.

using f6, f9, f11, f12, esc doesnt do anything either. i have been trying for a long long time and getting nowhere. i know it is not only me, and i found lots of people who found lots of answers, but none of them worked for my particular problem, whatever that is. changing the boot sequence from command line doesnt help, no matter which sequence i try. but even if that isnt the issue i feel i should know how to get into the bios!

the only other thing i can think of to try at this moment which might be blocking the usb flash from booting would be the quickstart (fast boot) option that would have been in windows, and i would think i should still be able to see it in the hp bios to disable it, but i cant get there to find out. i believe i already tried disabling secureboot by command line but the flash still wouldnt boot.

consider me a newbie even though i have been on linux for almost fifteen years now, because i havent any real computer knowledge and am not a techie, just a user who likes to participate in the process whenever possible if i can. if more information is necessary please let me know specifically what you need and i will get it.

With the flash drive plugged in select "boot from file" This should give you at least two drive options to choose from the Internal drive will probably have a EFI/Microsoft, EFI/Boot and EFI/Ubuntu directory, Whereas the usb will have EFI/Boot directory in the EFI/Boot directory selecting either grubx64.efi or bootx64.efi file should allow the usb to boot. Selecting one of the .efi files in EFI/ubuntu on the internal drive should allow ubuntu on the internal drive to boot.

thank you for replying so fast. i would love to try that, but it will take me time because i only have seen that lousy screen twice so far in over a month. i will keep trying, though...knowing i saw it twice means i know i can do it, and fortunately i have infinite patience.

but the problem is, once i get there and i can try selecting the efi file (with the flash plugged in) how will i get to actually see it? if it tells me i have to hit another 'f' key, then how will i get anywhere from there? or maybe if the flash is plugged in then i will be able to? sorry, i must sound so feeble minded, but i do know i cant be stupid because after all, i am on linux...

You said
At that point, instead of pressing 'enter' then 'f10' it prompted you to press 'f10'.

Seems clear to me that you were prompted to press one key only and not enter then the suggested key.

If you want to use the bios and boot to a usb device the usb device must be plugged in before you power on or the bios cannot see it. The bios will only allow booting to devices it recognizes when power is first applied.

For most systems, the ability to access the bios is thru one of F1, F2, or Del; though some are different. To access the bios boot menu without entering bios it usually is something between F8 & F12.

If windows has turned on fast boot then the ability to access the bios before booting may be totally blocked and recovery with windows not installed may require physically resetting the cmos memory for bios, usually requiring a complete removal of battery power or shorting a set of jumper pins.

thank you, computer savvy...
after reading color purple's reply, i did try the flash again and this time it worked...i am using it to try lubuntu now, so that solves one of my problems.

next time i try to get into the bios without the flash (just because i need to know how to do that) i will try pressing f10 instead of enter.

update-

i am now able to use the f2 and the f9 keys, but neither lead to the boot sequence change menu.

f9 with flash plug connected gave me four options:
OS Boot Manager UEFI
OS Boot Manager Windows UEFI
Boot from EFI file
USB device (i dont remember the exact wording on this one, i was stunned to see it)

it ended up booting before i could make up my mind what i wanted to do...i mean i must have moved the arrow to get to the fourth option but did not press enter, and while i was thinking about it, it booted.

so that problem is solved apparently. i can boot from a flash drive, at least one of them, and i checked out lubuntu and it is fine. after a few hours i powered off.


second trial-
f2 this gave me the following options:
(i wanted to only try to reach the bios boot sequence, so i did not connect the flash)
Processor
Memory Test
Storage Tests
Power Tests
System Board Test
Keyboard Test
Language
Exit

i then tried the keyboard test (due to an issue i will not yet address here) and there was no mention of f10, i saw no message about f10, so i hit exit, enter, and then it booted me into ubuntu 22.04.

wherever i was before that i saw the f10 message i have no idea, but since it didnt work i am not concerned with finding it.

but i still have not found the screen with options to change the boot sequence...again, that is not a big deal since i was able to use the flash drive...but it does make me mad that i cant get there.

it has been a long time since i had to do this, but the way i remember it, there had always been one key that took me to the bios, and from there on it was the arrow keys etc and no more f’s. if that is not how this hp laptop works, maybe i have yet to find the right one that leads directly to the boot sequence using a designated key for that only. it is not esc, or f10, f11, f12, all of which i have tried while booting and i got nothing but the logo, the login and the gui. my hp is a 15s-fq2xxx (fq2000?)

thanks to anyone who is reading this, and if anyone has any idea what i am doing wrong, i would like to try how they do it.

There should be somewhere in bio/firmware settings to set the installed ubuntu as first in boot order, select "OS Boot Manager UEFI" and see if there is an option to set the installed ubuntu as first in boot order, if not there try the "OS Boot Manager Windows UEFI"
There should be a hint to move items up and down and may have to press f10 to save the change.

If you want to make a permanent change in the boot order in the BIOS firmware, use the F10 key. F10 should show a Boot Options tab at the top. Arrow over to that then arrow down to OS Boot Manager. If there is an arrow to the left of this entry it means there are multiple options so when you have highlighted OS Boot Manager, hit the Enter key and you will see the options. You can use the F5 or F6 keys to move entries up/down. Explained on the right of this screen.

Are those in a menu as you list them or are they tabs across the top?
Most UEFI bios screens start with a generic summary with tabs for additional screens and often have prompts at the bottom for quick access to configs with the F-keys.

Each tab will often have menus that lead deeper into the configs. The fact that those all say "Test" tells me you are likely into one of the sub-menu areas and not at the basic beginning screen.

It is pretty standard with most BIOS versions for the user to use the F10 key from anywhere within the bios to save the current settings and boot.

Might be able to change it in linux using sudo efibootmgr

efibootmgr usually doesn't work on hp systems.

efimanager
 

thank you jefro and computer savvy-
i had used efimanager but i wasnt sure it was working on the hp. however, i think now it makes no difference because according to different screens i see, the boot order is not the same. so if according to efimanager it is one way or another doesnt matter, and i can boot from the flash as long as it is plugged in when i try to boot. that doesnt make any sense to me, but that is how it seems to be working.

on my hp i have found the above list is in a screen reached directly by f2. it has no menu bar on the top, but the screen has a heading of HP Bio 2.2.8.0 and also mentions a url for updates and more information, which i will look at as soon as i get a chance. i hope i am beginning to understand these things. it was so much easier before...now it seems that each item uses a separate 'f' key, and when i read that the one i needed might be f2, f9, f10, esc, i never dreamed that i might need four or five of them to reach all the different screens i wanted to see.

the only screen with the menu across the top that i have seen, i found by accident this morning by using f10 when booting. for some reason these keys do not work for me about 90% of the time, so even though i had tried f10 numerous times before, today is the first time i saw the screen with the menu bar on top, "MAIN-SECURITY-CONF-BOOTOPTIONS-EXIT

if there was a basic beginning screen that would take me to any and all of the others, that would be consistent with what i remember doing in the past. not so long in the past, but in the space of five or even three years the technology changes so fast that all the names of things have been changed, let alone how to find them. for someone like me who does not upgrade more often than three to five years it is getting hard to keep up.

it is also exasperating for me to have to use those keys. i have read so many different explanations of how to do it-some people say hold them down and others say tap on them repeatedly and some say you have to do it very quickly...i am beginning to try and use one method consistently and see if i can get used to how it is supposed to work.

i want to thank everyone who has offered input and it has helped a lot. i have looked for a support forum for a long time, but most of them are too technical for my experience, and i hope to even be able to help someone else here some day.

There is a "efibootmgr -n" option that will allow to change the default bootloader that will load on the next reboot that works on most Hp. It will be something like this
will allow the 0005 to boot on the next reboot if it exist.