Another problem installing ubuntu

**Tom_Carr** · January 12th, 2020

I am trying to install ubuntu on a dell laptop. This is a different computer than the one in another thread where I could not get into the bios.

On this laptop, I can get into the bios just fine. I want to make the computer boot from the DVD. I go to Boot / boot option priorities. I want to set option 1 to read from the DVD but it only gives me 3 options:

Windows boot manager
Onboard NIC (ipv4)
Onboard NIC (ipv6)

I go to "File Browser Add Boot Option", and select "ATAPI PLDS DVD +/- RW" but it doesn't add another option.

Boot list option is set to UEFI.

What am I doing wrong?

**CelticWarrior** · January 12th, 2020

You should be using a USB, not a DVD.

And you need to understand UEFI. Where those options appears is NOT where you should be selecting the boot from external media.

**Tom_Carr** · January 12th, 2020

I don't know anything about UEFI. I am not a computer professional. I just use ubuntu on the desktop for my own home use. Has it gotten more complex? A DVD worked fine when I installed it on another Dell two years ago.

**Tom_Carr** · January 12th, 2020

"Where those options appears is NOT where you should be selecting the boot from external media."

Where should I be selecting them?

**CelticWarrior** · January 12th, 2020

Saying it bluntly, you're missing some 20 years of knowledge updates. And for more than a decade now, computers don't have BIOS, they have UEFI. Unfortunately many manufacturers keep naming the firmware as "BIOS" or "UEFI BIOS" but actually the only proper naming convention is "UEFI", the thing that replaced the 40-something years old BIOS technology.

There are a few difference particularly regarding the requirements for OSes - Windows strictly forces installation in the recommended UEFI mode in GPT drives and Legacy mode ("BIOS") in MBR ("msdos") drives. Also differences where the bootloaders are installed now, the ESP (EFI System Partition), and not in the MBR like in the old days and, of course, only one bootloader could be installed in the MBR.

Also, the firmware usually has a "boot override" feature that is what we use to boot external media (not really a new feature but more important then ever). Usually but not necessarily the boot options appear in the rightmost menu, the same one where - again, usually but not necessarily - the "save changes and reboot" options are.

Also relevant in some systems and/or if specific drivers or software that install drivers (Virtualbox) are to be used is the new UEFI-only Secure Boot feature that you may need to disable. Again, this is somewhere in firmware (UEFI) settings.

**Tom_Carr** · January 12th, 2020

I'm 70 years old and I have some memory problems. I know that at some point I will not be able to keep up with the tech, but I want to try to keep up as long as I can. Last time I installed ubuntu was 18.04 about a year and a half ago. At that time I just burnt the DVD, put it in the computer drive, turned on the computer and followed the prompts on the screen. It was easy. On one computer I had to go into the bios and change it so it booted from the DVD, but it was easy to change the bios.

Reading over what you wrote, I may not follow everything you said, but I don't see that it tells me how to get this particular computer to boot from the DVD.

But thanks for trying to help.

**dragonfly41** · January 12th, 2020

What laptop and version of Windows? Is it Windows 10?

Try following a tutorial such as here.

https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-c...-bootable-dvd/

You will need to download the Ubuntu desktop iso file.

**Impavidus** · January 12th, 2020

DVDs are a bit old-fashioned and slow, but should still work – at least, if your computer has a working dvd drive. Those are getting rare. On the other hand, there are still old computers in use that can't boot from usb and need that dvd.

Uefi is the replacement for bios. Although uefi has existed for a bit longer, the great majority of computers remained in legacy mode (which emulates bios) until Microsoft demanded a switch to uefi for preinstalled Windows 8 systems in 2012. Many computers are older than that and changing is a bit hard without wiping all your existing systems, so I expect bios will stay with us until all computers from before 2013 have died of old age.

Can you read the dvd when running Windows? If not, you may have a bad burn or a faulty dvd drive.