Cannot run off usb

[pmbergin]

I recently decided to try Ubuntu-Studio on my 64 bit HP-15 laptop. I created an iso boot on a flash drive, and used the "try it out" mode to see if I liked it. I was unable to enable wifi (couldn't turn on the wifi button) and decided against an install. I later attempted to try various other flavors of Linux... Mint, desktop etc... but when I booted from the flash with the new iso, the system reverted to back Ubuntu-Studio. I reformatted the flash drive and recreated the install numerous times, and keep getting the same result.

This only happens on the HP laptop, I boot from the usb on other machines and get the correct install.

Any ideas?

[TheFu]

Welcome to the forums.

I have no idea how a flash drive written with 1 OS is somehow, magically, running a different OS. All I can ask is "are you sure?" How are you writing the ISO files to the flash drive? dd? mkusb? Something else? Could you have left a flash drive connected to the HP and it is booting from that?

[pmbergin]

Nope! :P

I just now redid the usb with Linux Mint so I'd immediately recognize a different presentation. I booted from the usb on my laptop and, sure enough Ubuntu Studio. I booted from the same usb drive on a different and, sure enough, Linux Mint. I'm using "Universal USB Installer," and I see no reason why that should be an issue since everything is fine everywhere else. BTW, this laptop has NEVER had a Linux installation on it so there's no existing Linux partition.

I don't get it.

[sudodus]

I think you have written Ubuntu Studio to a drive in the 'stubborn computer'. Otherwise it would not boot into it. Please boot from the USB pendrive and run the following commands,



df
sudo lsblk -f
sudo lsblk -m
sudo parted -ls


-o-

Please post the output between code tags like this



output


to get output like this



output


This will help us help you.

[pmbergin]

I was thinking along those lines myself, but the bios is set to boot to the usb first. At any rate I'll give that a shot.

[pmbergin]

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 1950132 4 1950128 1% /dev
tmpfs 393216 6308 386908 2% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p1 61079548 29770376 31309172 49% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 2787456 2787456 0 100% /rofs
aufs 1966072 4668 1961404 1% /
tmpfs 1966072 0 1966072 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 1966072 0 1966072 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 1966072 8 1966064 1% /tmp
tmpfs 393212 20 393192 1% /run/user/999
/dev/sda3 467732796 228927088 238805708 49% /media/mint/Windows

~$ sudo lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
loop0 squashf /rofs
sda
├─sda1 vfat 1CED-E77B
├─sda2
├─sda3 ntfs Windows DAA284C8A284AA99 /media/mint/Window
├─sda4 ntfs C6EEB392EEB378EF
└─sda5 ntfs RECOVERY 84C83A29C83A1A3E
sdb
└─sdb1 vfat UUI 72BA-4A7E
sr0
mmcblk0
└─mmcblk0p1
ntfs UUI 0EC86563C86549D3 /cdrom

sudo lsblk -m
NAME SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
loop0 2.7G root disk brw-rw----
sda 465.8G root disk brw-rw----
├─sda1 260M root disk brw-rw----
├─sda2 128M root disk brw-rw----
├─sda3 446.1G root disk brw-rw----
├─sda4 976M root disk brw-rw----
└─sda5 18.4G root disk brw-rw----
sdb 7.5G root disk brw-rw----
└─sdb1 7.5G root disk brw-rw----
sr0 1024M root cdrom brw-rw----
mmcblk0 58.3G root disk brw-rw----
└─mmcblk0p1 58.3G root disk brw-rw----

sudo parted -ls
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABF0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 274MB 273MB fat32 EFI system partition boot, esp
2 274MB 408MB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres
3 408MB 479GB 479GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata
4 479GB 480GB 1023MB ntfs hidden, diag
5 480GB 500GB 19.7GB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag


Model: Kingston DataTraveler 160 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8011MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 4129kB 8011MB 8007MB primary fat32 boot, lba


Model: SD SD64G (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 62.6GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 16.8MB 62.6GB 62.5GB primary ntfs boot

[pmbergin]

The pathology is as follows:

I boot to the usb, I choose to run Mint
I get the Mint splash screen
When the computer starts, its starts to Ubuntu Studio

When I do the same on a different machine it runs Mint

[pmbergin]

Never mind, I got it. I had inadvertently written an iso to the sd card I use for backup. I pulled the card out and she booted right to Mint.

Thanks, if I hadn't seen that readout I never would have thought of that.

[sudodus]

Never mind, I got it. I had inadvertently written an iso to the sd card I use for backup. I pulled the card out and she booted right to Mint.

Thanks, if I hadn't seen that readout I never would have thought of that.

Yes, you got it :-)

Please click on Thread Tools at the top of the page and mark this thread as SOLVED

[TheFu]

My laptop has USB and SDHC ports. I sometimes forget to pull the SD card out after copying new photos off it. An inserted SD card is flush with the case, so it is easy to miss.
The system BIOS is stupid. It tries to boot off any external device and won't look at the internal disk even if there isn't any OS. Usually takes me 10+ minutes to check the SD slot when the boot fails. I check everything else - power cord, battery levels, flash drives, but the SD card is first in the boot lineup, so none of the other things work either.

My point is that everyone does stuff like this. ;)

[pmbergin]

What I don't get is, since there's a full implementation on the usb (obviously,) why does it initially run off that, but switch to the SD card?

Doesn't make sense at all.

[TheFu]

BIOS controls that. They probably figured 99.99999999999% of the people would boot from internal storage and didn't worry about the order for USB or SDHC boot much. Too many choices is confusing to many people. Just ask any of the over-simplified UI makers.