Enable external boot devices in UEFI

Question

I own an HP Pavilion 5 Notebook which came pre installed with Windows 8. I'm trying to install Ubuntu on my system via a LIVEUSB. But my system doesn't detect the LiveUSB during boot. My boot order is proper, with external USB in the first place, but the system just boots into Windows directly.

Also I observed that when I turn on Legacy mode, the USB is detected. But then I have to install Ubuntu in CSM mode instead of EFI, which causes boot problems later on.

Is there a way to detect my external boot options in UEFI as well? P.S. Secure Boot was disabled during the booting. The tool used for creating the LiveUSB was YUMI Multiboot installer available at pendrivelinux.com.

Some tools create non-UEFI bootable media, which tool did you use? Try to just simply copying the contents from the ISO to the USB stick and try again. Unfortunately I cannot find a manual for a "HP Pavilion 5" to check. — LiveWireBT, Apr 24 '14 at 13:08
I used the YUMI Multiboot installation tool avaliable at pendrivelinux.com. — Neil, Apr 24 '14 at 13:20

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 24 '14 at 23:05

It's likely that YUMI is creating a USB drive that's not bootable in EFI mode. In my experience, the most reliable way to create a bootable Ubuntu USB drive is with dd, as in sudo dd if=imagefile.iso of=/dev/sdc (changing imagefile.iso and /dev/sdc as appropriate for your file and system). If you don't have a working Linux installation, there are Windows ports of dd, and other tools that do the same thing -- basically a raw copy of the file to the disk.

If that fails, I recommend you check your firmware for options called "fast boot," "quick startup," or the like. Such options work by skipping certain system initialization steps, which often renders the computer unable to see USB flash drives until after an OS has booted. Disabling such an option in the firmware may render the USB flash drive bootable again.

Enable external boot devices in UEFI

1 Answers1