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I have been using Ubuntu 16.04 for several years on a System76 Gazelle, but after a recent update, the OS will not boot and instead displays either a black screen or error messages. I am now trying to overwrite the OS with a newer version (Ubuntu 20.04) from an external Solid State Drive. The issue I am having is that the SSD does not appear as an option from my Aptio Setup Utility.

Any help is much appreciated.

Zanna
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jayfox
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    Did you make the SSD bootable? Or did you simply copy the installer .iso onto the SSD without making it bootable? – user535733 Sep 26 '21 at 22:42
  • https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu#1-overview https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-macos#1-overview https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview – guiverc Sep 26 '21 at 23:29
  • user535733 - You might have a point, I simply downloaded ubuntu onto the SSD without taking any special steps .. keep in mind i am NOT on Windows. My understanding is that Ubuntu should boot automatically from an external device but is this not right? Thanks. – jayfox Sep 27 '21 at 00:36
  • Your understanding was in error, sorry. A random .iso file on a random disk's filesystem is not bootable. Review @guiverc's tutorial links for how to properly create an Ubuntu installer from the .iso image. Note that the tutorials work with plain, cheap, common USB sticks precisely to avoid many hardware-specific issues. If your SSD is not visible in BIOS (Aptio Setup Utility), then your SSD-based method is likely a dead end, and you should borrow a USB stick from a friend. Note that System76 has a good reputation for supporting their hardware -- they may have a better solution. – user535733 Sep 27 '21 at 01:18
  • If properly written to your media (so it's bootable), it will boot. You can write media to a hard disk, ssd, thumb-drive, compact-flash, in fact any device that your hardware will boot from - but it needs to be written in a bootable form; having it a file on a file-system isn't bootable (without you modifying your boot loader of installed OS/system to give you the option to boot an ISO on a file-system's which is more work than writing an ISO to boot media in my experience - but worth it for devices that don't have a working USB port for example!) – guiverc Sep 27 '21 at 01:30
  • user535... and guiverc, thank you both. didn't know I needed to make the image bootable, I will try that next. – jayfox Sep 27 '21 at 02:27
  • To follow up, both user535733 and guiverc were spot on, I had not made my Ubuntu file bootable. In the end I followed this tutorial This talked me through creating a bootable USB drive from a Chromebook. Then my Aptio Setup Utility recognized the removable thumb drive so I could select it and proceed from there. – jayfox Sep 27 '21 at 19:38
  • I suggest posting an answer (rather than a comment - but similar in content to your last comment) to your own question to help others with the same problem in the future. – Zanna Sep 30 '21 at 04:09

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