"No bootable device found" after Ubuntu installation hangs

Question

Received my Dell XPS15 9550 today and the first thing on the todo list was installing Ubuntu 16.

After some initial challenges which were fixed because the SSD was configured in the BIOS with "Raid On" I got to the step "Erase harddrive and install Ubuntu". It stayed at that step for 2 hours.

When I rebooted the laptop it wouldn't boot, the BIOS has no SSD anymore, under boot I can't select any medium and if the laptop goes past BIOS it ends up in Dell Support Assist with the error "No bootable devices found"

I've been roaming forums for the last couple of hours trying to find a solution but nothing helped and I'm at a loss. Hopefully someone here knows the answer!

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 11 '16 at 19:28

1

sorry to hear about your trouble. There are lots of Ubuntu tools to fix a broken boot process, but I don't think we can help you if not even the BIOS can see the SSD. It sounds to me as though you have a hardware or BIOS settings issue; maybe the SSD failed.

Your new laptop must be covered by the warranty. I recommend that you contact Dell and ask them to help you troubleshoot the hardware problem and restore the computer to the way it was when you got it, with Windows installed. Then you can try again to install Ubuntu, with our help. (The Ubuntu installer will need to see a working OS installed, so that it can copy the way the existing OS boots.)

I don't understand what you meant when you said that RAID was on in the BIOS settings; that doesn't seem to make sense if you only have one SSD. You don't have more than one drive in the computer, do you? If you do have more than one SSD, then you could have "fake RAID" (RAID implemented by the BIOS, rather than a true RAID controller, or in software). If you do have "fake RAID" and it was working correctly, the Ubuntu installer should have been able to handle it...

Good luck.

answered Nov 11 '16 at 19:28

rclocher3

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So the RAID on made no sense to me as well but found it in an article about installing Arch Linux as an issue so tried to turn that off. I've contacted Dell support but sadly they don't reply during the weekend – Sander Mangel Nov 11 '16 at 19:32
Can you give the link to that Arch Linux article? – rclocher3 Nov 11 '16 at 19:34
What happens if you restore all the factory default settings in the BIOS? – rclocher3 Nov 11 '16 at 19:36
couldn't find the article I ended up with but this one describes the same issue: http://askubuntu.com/a/696646/129277 Restoring factory settings still ends up with no device found. – Sander Mangel Nov 11 '16 at 19:40
Aha, I see the issue a little better now. This could be some sort of UEFI or AHCI problem. – rclocher3 Nov 11 '16 at 20:29
ok glad I could explain :) – Sander Mangel Nov 11 '16 at 21:19
This question seems relevant. The answer given is to change the boot mode in the BIOS to AHCI/SATA, reinstall Windows, and then reinstall Ubuntu. – rclocher3 Nov 14 '16 at 16:42

"No bootable device found" after Ubuntu installation hangs

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