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I'm trying to boot ubuntu from USB to overwrite an existing Windows 10 install on the device (just a laptop). I downloaded the freshest .iso from here, and created a bootable USB using Rufus. After preparing the bootable USB I plug it into the laptop and boot it from the USB.

Precursor issue: occasionally after booting from a FRESH 18.04.3 desktop .iso I get an issue that I solved using this other askUbuntu forum post (in-case it's related to my real issue)

The install goes ok until it gets to the "Installation Type" window. I get this screen (sorry for the low-quality image). This is different to all normal "Installation Type" windows I've seen of people doing ubuntu boot tutorials and etc.

Clicking any buttons (such as the +, the -, or 'Change...') causes the entire installer to become unresponsive, and I can only power down the laptop after forcibly removing the USB and holding the power button down for a while. There are no other options in the dropdown. Clicking "install now" gives me an error prompt to select a partition.

Any advice on what to do? I feel like I've done everything perfectly apart from the previous issue.

Edit: these are the settings I used for Rufus

Edit 2: I think the issue is actually that the laptop isn't recognising the GRUBx64 file as a valid... disk partition header or something.

I've tried about 3-4 separate bootable USB programs, and 3 different Ubuntu distros, and the results are ALL the same - when I am prompted for an installation type, it has no partitions to select from.

I am sure that my laptop is the cause, since I've changed everything else and it's the same issue. What should I do to allow my laptop to recognise GRUB?

To clarify, I want to replace Windows 10 with a Ubuntu distro as the OS for this laptop. I do NOT want to dual boot Windows10 and the Ubuntu distro. I just want to get this working after many, many hours of suffering.

user74421
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  • For starters, may you please update the question with the make/model of your laptop and the settings used in rufus to create the bootable usb? I would also recommend disabling secure boot in the bios and recreating the usb stick with the settings appropriate for your machine (UEFI only VS UEFI and bios). – Gordster Sep 15 '19 at 05:33
  • You should check your UEFI/Bios-settings, SATA-mode needs to be set to AHCI. – mook765 Sep 15 '19 at 11:19
  • @mook765 I'll be honest I have no clue what that means. – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 11:41
  • @mook765 how would I find that screen? Windows 10 is very good at trying to hide everything from me. – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 12:00
  • Ok I was able to access the BIOS menu and set SATA mode to AHCI. My computer now tries to start up and blue-screens on every attempt with an "Inaccessible Boot Device" error. This is with or without the bootable USB being connected. Any advice on why on earth that happens? – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 12:26
  • You'll be able to boot back into Windows if you revert the change made to the SATA-mode, but you need AHCI to be able to install Ubuntu. Probably something wrong with your bootable USB, who knows. Boot-order in Bios-setup? Is there a special key you need to hit during startup to get to efi-boot-menu and choose USB from there? I don't know your hardware. – mook765 Sep 15 '19 at 17:44

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Could you boot into a "Live" copy of Ubuntu and click "Try Ubuntu". When it establishes a desktop, open a terminal with:

CTRL+ALT+t

You can destructively remove all other partitions by entering:

sudo gdisk /dev/sda

and use ? for help. Press d to delete partitions. Delete all of them, and press w to write the changes. Reboot into the "Live CD/USB" again and open another Terminal. Again run: sudo gdisk /dev/sda If there are no partitions listed you did well, if so just try again. Now press o and add a GPT by pressing y for yes, and w to write changes. This should leave you with a clean Guid Partition Table and nothing else. Execute: sudo gdisk /dev/sda once more and verify that GPT is now present. If so, you may press q to quit and reboot and attempt to install Ubuntu from your "Live USB". Create from Rufus with the settings below:

Partition Scheme GPT Target System UEFI 0 persistence FAT32 file system quick format create extended label and icons default cluster size

Be sure you safely eject, the new bootable drive as this will ruin your Live USB every time if you don't! Do not change UEFI settings like AHCI after this, someone recommended it but if you do that after a disk has been created or it might stop working. It is better to use the advanced functions of AHCI which is true, but start that way, don't change it while in use or you may loose data.

Proceed to boot into the "Live USB" disk and let Ubuntu guide the installation process. When you are prompted for partitioning choose to "Overwrite data with zeros" from the first drop down dialog box, and "Compatible with Linux systems ext4" in the second drop down dialog box. You may now give your new disk a name in the text entry box if you want. These choices may or may not appear depending on how things go. Choose to "Erase and Install Ubuntu", then accept all other default options.

When this completes, and hopefully it does, continue without checking any of the boxes for updating while installing as this may cause problems. Note if you chose to full format the drive it may be slow on larger disks and this may give the mistaken impression the computer stopped responding! Be patient.

**If you can't boot, try to disable secure boot. This should allow you to boot linux.

Buried Alive
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  • I was able to run Ubuntu through the "try Ubuntu" option. Running the command you gave did find a '/dev/sda'... thing, and I think it's the bootable USB as the "disk model" is the same as the USB. I open 'disks' as you say and edit the /dev/sda1 disk (it's the only one available in the list). There's no option to "overwrite data with zeroes" but there is a checkbox to "erase existing data" which I assume is the same thing. There is no dropdown for "Compatible with Linux systems ext4" to be chosen from. I give it a name and click continue, and it fails. – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 07:22
  • I can't edit the above anymore, but the fail reason is that the target disk is current busy. – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 07:46
  • I'll try doing it all again using a fresh Rufus version. In the mean time, how do I tell if I'm using UEFI or BIOS? – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 08:16
  • @user74421, Use the command line test -d /sys/firmware/efi && echo efi || echo bios according to this link. If you scroll that web page, you will find many tips and links about making USB boot/install drives. – sudodus Sep 15 '19 at 08:25
  • Also, how does one make a "Live" disk? I've been just following the Ubuntu-provided tutorial on using Rufus, will that result in a "live" disk? – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 08:34
  • @user74421, Yes, Rufus makes a live disk :-) – sudodus Sep 15 '19 at 08:38
  • Ok, I was able to make the bootable USB with that spec, but now the laptop doesn't recognise it as a device I can boot from. Is there another way to get it to recognise the USB? I've tried both secure and insecure mode. – user74421 Sep 15 '19 at 09:11
  • Rufus is known as a reliable tool. You can try another tool, but you can try other things too, for example try to boot from your USB boot drive into another computer. Maybe you need to modify some setting in a UEFI/BIOS menu, that you can get into at the very beginning of the boot process. This is specific for each computer but there are some general tips at this link. And it is easier when you turn off secure boot. – sudodus Sep 15 '19 at 12:39
  • @user74421, Thinking about this a second time, I suggest that you boot into your Windows (if still possible) and reboot**. Do not shutdown, because then it will semi-hibernate, if you have the standard 'fast startup' setting in Windows, and linux will see that and stay away from the drive, because access can corrupt the file system of Windows (the NTFS file system). – sudodus Sep 15 '19 at 13:05
  • @user74421, Please let us know if you can or if you cannot boot into Windows now. The following advice will depend on that answer. – sudodus Sep 15 '19 at 13:12
  • There's a lot of advice here. Booting in insecure mode doesn't change anything I can see. However I did notice I have 4 partitions on my HDD - I made a 5th for linux because I tried a dual booting tutorial for something different (didn't help). Is that number of partitions going to stop a linux install? One is 460GB, and I tool 50,000MB of that to make an empty partition. – user74421 Sep 16 '19 at 11:52