Unable to boot Ubuntu 13.10 installed on USB Flash Drive - UEFI System

[dss1873]

This is my first time trying to install and use Ubuntu. I have a Dell computer that came preloaded with Windows with UEFI and Secure Boot. Windows is installed on the first drive (a 240GB Samsung SSD) and a second 2TB data drive is also installed.

I was able to successfully create a pendrive on a USB Flash drive to try Ubuntu with persistence. I can boot the USB Flash drive w/o problem by hitting F12 at startup to obtain a list of boot options. Windows boot manager is listed as well as the PENDRRIVE.

I have then used the install Ubuntu option on the PENDRIVE to try to install an actual version of Ubuntu on a second 32GB USB Flash Drive (SANDISK). My goal is to have Ubuntul installed on a flash drive that I can plug into the computer and use when I want by hitting F12 at startup to get the the computer's boot option menu. I've read the various posts and doc about how to install for a UEFI system (I created two partitions, one an efi boot partition and a second ext4 partition for the Ubuntu install).

The install completed successfully on the SANDISK, but when I start the computer, hit F12 to get a list of boot options, the SANDISK does not show up. The PENDRIVE does.

It seems obvious to me that it should be able to work as the PENDRIVE (live Ubuntu version) works on my system so I don't understand why the fully installed version does not work.

I have run Boot repair in info mode and here is the link for what it generated:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/6451480/

[simbauad]

Doesn't seem like Ubuntu got something to do with it! Well you might try installing Ubuntu on your hard drive. Seems like your BIOS/EFI doesn't seem to recognize SanDisk as a bootable medium.

[oldfred]

You have an efi partition on sdg, but have no efi files in that partition.
And your fstab shows the Windows efi partition's UUID as the location of grub boot files, but they are not shown there either.
When you installed did you specify to install grub2 boot loader to sdg? Drive letters may change, but UUIDs will not.
Boot-Repair should be able to fix it, but do not use auto repair, but choose update MBR? and it should let you install grub-efi into sdb and should also update fstab. You may need to double check that.

Your install is like those that install to a second drive.

Two Drive UEFI installs
HP Envy 2 drive install i7 & 2 1TB drives
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2175877
Samsung Series 7 laptop - Ubuntu UEFI install to sdc (ignore CSM sidetrack)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2135459
Installing Ubuntu 12.10 alongside Windows 8 on Asus K95V laptop HD/SSD (EFI) Two drives. Details in post #6
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2116610
UEFI dual boot two drives - HP
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2072950
UEFI dual boot two drives see #14 on how edit UUID to Windows efi partiton
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2031836

[squakie]

My suggestion: read and re-read everything you can find from user OldFred about UEFI/EFI and Ubuntu. He has some specific links to information regarding problems with some PC's - including some Dells'. I don't know if THE solution for you will be in those or not, but it may be enough to get you thinking about it from a different view point and work out the solution. One thing I do remember, and I honestly don't know if it still applies or not, but you had to be using 64-bit Ubuntu for it to work along with UEFI/EFI. Oldfred has been a termendous help to countless people regarding the UEFI/EFI issues. That's why I suggest to read everything you can find from him. He's a highly intelligent perosn and has a deep understanding of Ubuntu.

Good luck!

EDIT: Noticed OldFred posted while I was typing, so just follow his advice

[dss1873]

Thanks very much. I had previously reviewed some of the threads you have listed for two drive installs, but as a beginner, was hard to follow everything.

When I installed, I made numerous attempts specifying both sdg (as the device for the boot loader) and sdg1 (the 100MB efi partition) as the device for boot loader. The install instructions are confusing as to when it says "device" does it mean the hard drive or a partition on the hard drive. The boot info file I posted was for an install where I specified sdg1 partition for the bootloader. But I have tried it both ways.

I should add that one of the many things I tried (per one of the threads you have listed I believe) was to disconnect the hard drive with windows installed and then install Ubuntu. That seemed to work until I reconnected the hard drive with Windows and then I was back to the same issue of Ubuntu not showing up as an option on the boot menu.

As a beginner, not sure what "fstab" is.

Also not sure what you mean when you say "Drive letters may change, but UUIDs will not." I think I understand the concept, but don't follow how to modify the install to use UUIDs. Maybe you are referring to something like in this thread: http://askubuntu.com/questions/20092...uuid-to-change

I will try using Boot_Repair as you suggested. But when you say, it should let me install grub-efi into sdb, do you mean that in a generic sense to stand for the second drive (which would be sdg in my case) or do you mean that in a specific sense to mean my sdb.

[oldfred]

Ubuntu changed to use UUIDs by default, so drives like an external that may change will work. My bootable flash drive is sde when plugged in, but on reboot it is sdb as I guess I skipped a SATA port when installing hard drives and USB flash drive becomes sdb.

You need to be installing in UEFI mode, and you get grub menu when in live mode, not purple screen. In UEFI mode grub is installed into the efi partition, but I think you still specify drive or sdb or sdg or whatever second drive is mounted as.
If installing in BIOS mode then you never specify a partition.

Many new UEFI are not totally clear on which boot mode you chose. Usually one will say UEFI and the other may be just about anything, CSM/BIOS/Legacy/AHCI or just a device label or name without UEFI.

fstab is a file used to auto mount partitions at boot.
Understanding fstab
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountlinux
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FilePermissions
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab

[dss1873]

I'm installing in UEFI mode (the boot screen says at the top "Boot Mode is UEFI - Secure Boot On").

I do get GRUB menu with four options, 1)Try Ubuntu, 2)Install Ubuntu, 3)OEM install, etc. I then have tried both option 1 (booting to live Ubuntu and installing from there) and option 2 (going directly into the install program).

When installing Ubuntu, one of the options is to specify the device where the boot loader will be installed and as I noted previously, I have been specifying the efi partition on the USB flash drive. I don't understand then why there are no efi files in my efi partition on the USB drive.

When I start Boot_Repair, it says "EFI Detected. Please check the options."

When I select Advance Option in Boot-Repair, there is a grub location tab. The OS to boot setting shows Ubuntu on sdh2 (which is correct). The Separate Boot\EFI Partition setting shows sda2 (the hard drive with Windows installed and the EFI partition on that hard drive which is incorrect). When I click the drop down arrow to choose sdh1, there are no other choices available except for sda2

So, I'm not sure how I to use Boot-Repair to fix it.

[oldfred]

Is there something about the efi partition on the sdh drive that is not correct?

Post this:
sudo parted -l

I do not see a difference in booting the Ubuntu installer as a flash drive and creating a new efi partition on your external drive??
Perhaps something in having secure boot on?
Have you tried with secure boot off?

[dss1873]

>>I do not see a difference in booting the Ubuntu installer as a flash drive and creating a new efi partition on your external drive??

That is my point exactly! I do not see why one works and the other doesn't. I'm booting the Live Ubuntu trial version on a flash drive in UEFI mode and secure boot on. So, why won't the second flash drive on which I'm doing a true install of Ubuntu not work. Obviously, in one case I'm creating the live Ubuntu version using the windows pendrive program and in the latter, I'm using the Ubuntu installer. This would seem to me to indicate that it is not a UEFI or Secure Boot issue, but something going wrong in the install (as you pointed out that the boot files are not being written to my EMI System partition).

Here are the results of running the parted command:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Samsung SSD 840 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 316MB 315MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
2 316MB 420MB 105MB fat32 EFI system partition boot
3 420MB 555MB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
4 555MB 256GB 256GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata


Model: ATA ST2000DM001-1CH1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 2000GB 2000GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata


Model: TOSHIBA TransMemory (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdg: 7759MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 7759MB 7759MB primary fat32 boot, lba


Model: SanDisk Extreme (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdh: 32.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB fat32 boot
2 106MB 32.0GB 31.9GB ext4

[oldfred]

Parted shows the efi partition in the SSD, but only shows a gpt drive with a fat32 boot on your 32GB SanDisk. I thought a FAT32 with boot flag was always an efi partition in gpt partitioning?

Install gdisk from repository.
sudo apt-get install gdisk
#change to correct drive you are installing into:
sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda


GPT fdisk Tutorial -srs5694 in forums
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1439794
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/

Only gparted/parted use boot flag to define efi partition. It actually is a long GUID in gpt(GUID) partitioning.
gdisk will show the efi with a short code of ef00.

I do not yet have an efi install but already partitioned my newest flash drive for two installs with both efi (ef00) and bios_grub (ef02) partitions.

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          976895   477.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2          976896          978943   1024.0 KiB  EF02  
   3          978944        29650943   13.7 GiB    0700  sys
   4        29650944        60532735   14.7 GiB    0700  sys