Can't boot Ubuntu from USB in UEFI mode

Question

I am relatively new to Linux. I previously made a USB boot device that worked perfectly, using a single W95 FAT32 (bootable) partition. However, that disk was too small, so now I am trying to replicate the same exact partition and format on a larger USB. However, I am not able to get this to happen no matter what I try.

First, I tried to format the disk as fat32, and then used the startup disk creator in ubuntu to load the iso file to the disk. When I try to use this usb to boot, I get a black sceen. In my boot options, I see three different options corresponding to this usb. The options I see are:

1) UEFI: [name of usb]
2) UEFI: [name of usb] partition 1
3) [name of usb]

Please note that I am using an MSI z170a mobo and an intel core i7 processor, with a radeon R9 390 8gb graphics card in pcie2 and a 1000w PSU. First off, I am not sure what is going on with these three partitions -- I simply followed the exact instructions in the startup disk creator, but I have not seen in any forums a mention of it creating three different boot devices. However I did find that some people saw 2 devices, one for UEFI and one for the legacy BIOS.

I tried to look into the cause of this using the disk tool, and I found that the device has actually been partitioned into three parts -- one of them was the FAT32 partition of size about 1.6 Gb with the ISO file, one of them was about 24 mb (I believe this is for swap), and the rest is free space.

In comparison, the old usb stick that was booting properly had only a single partition. While the partition type was the same as the one I just created (W95 FAT32 (bootable)), I notices that the contents is in fact different. The old working usb had contents of FAT (32-bit version) — Mounted at /media/paul/1030-503F, while the partition with the iso on the new device had contents ISO 9660 (version Joliet Extension) — Not Mounted. I do not remember how I originally formatted the old disk image, unfortunately. But I would note that the disk is only 8 gb -- barely enough to install Ubuntu.

Question 1: how can I get my usb in the format of my old usb? I think If I could do this, everything should work. As a reminder, the config of the working partition is: just a single partition with fat32 format, and contents that say simply fat32?

Ok, so after giving up on getting the drive in the exact same format, I decided to simply push on. I tried to boot the device using the UEFI modes (both the regular and the one that has "partition 1" appended to the end), and all I got was a black screen. I found some mentions of this issue online, and tried all of the fixes -- including but not limited to setting nomodeset instead of quiet splash, or radeon.modeset=0 -- but none of them worked. Note that when I selected uefi I was not even able to get to the bios menu so that I could select f6 to make these changes -- I had to do them by hitting e in the boot menu and then adding the parameters in grub. This path did not seem to be fruitful, so instead I decided to boot in legacy bios mode.

When I select the boot option for this usb corresponding to the legacy bios, I am able to get to the bios menu. Once I am there, I can select Install Ubuntu. and then select Download updates while installing ubuntu and Install third party software... so that I can install the driver for my gpu automatically. I get all the way to the Installation type screen. For some reason I am not able to see the three different partitions here -- only the free space, but neither the partition of the iso file nor the swap partition are showing up. I ignore this for now, and attempt to format the rest of the drive with fat32 and mount the root directory to /. Unfortunately this again proves useless; I get an error that says

The file system fat32 cannot me mounted on /, because it is not a fully-functional file system. Please choose a different file system, such as ext2.

Ok, so I try this... skip the swap partition... and... I get another error:

The ext2 file system creation in partition #1 of sc17 (0,0,0) (sda) failed.

It occurs to me now that the reason I did not see the other partitions is because the non-uefi boot option probably corresponded to the free space, which is why it still needed to be formatted. and the other two uefi boot devices must have corresponded to the other partitions on the usb: the actual boot image and the swap partition. So it appears the problem still comes back to the partitioning and formatting of the new disk vs the old one.

By the way, I tested all of these steps without the graphics card, and I get the same results.

If anyone can solve even a part of this mystery, I would be very grateful, as it would give me at least some progress. Even answering one of these questions would be considered a correct answer in my book:

1. Why am I seeing 3 boot devices corresponding to one usb?
2. How do I create a startup disk with one single fat32 partition, similar to the one I described that booted properly?
3. Why are the UEFI options leading to a black screen, even while using the recommended fixes such as nomodeset?
4. Why is the installation process not recognizing these multiple partitions, and instead only recognizing the one with free space?
5. What does it mean that / is not a "fully-functioning" file system?
6. Why does the ext2 file system creation fail?

EDIT: I realized (at least I thought) that one way to get the larger drive in the exact same format as the older working drive was to simply copy the contents of the old drive byte-by-byte to the new one. I tried this, and indeed I saw the exact same format and partitioning on the new drive. However, I noticed one tiny change: the old drive still had a lighter shade stripe above the partition graphic, whereas the new usb did not have this lighter stripe across the top. I also saw that the old drive has an addition line of metadata: partitioning: Master Boot Record. How can I get this property as well? I think this is making a difference because I still cannot boot from the new drive, but can from the old one.

Following some of the answers, I tried to install Ubuntu onto a blank stick that was plugged in to my GPU rig, using a different bootable usb. However when I try to restart and boot using only the new install, I get this very strange screen I will affectionately call “rainbow fuzz”. This screen happens after I select the boot option, but before I get to the Ubuntu boot menu. I’ve never seen this before but maybe someone has? By the way, I don't think it is related to the graphics card, as the same thing happens with my GPU disconnected.

Answer 1

I have not been able to modify an ISO 9660 install made using SDC since 14.04. When SDC makes a Live USB you only get 1.5 GB of usable drive no matter what the actual size of the USB drive is.

Better to use mkusb to make the drive, in that case you get a small UEFI partition, a FAT32 Grub boot partition, an ISO 9660 OS partition, an ext2 casper-rw persistent partition that will save your settings and a NTFS data partition that can be used by Linux or Windows for data. you can vary the size of the casper-rw/data partitions. Use the EFI option when making the drive.

see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

If UEFI and BIOS booting is required and only a Windows machine is available, it is possible to make a Persistent boot drive using UNetbootin and install mkusb to it.

Another possibility is to download a Linux image that already has mkusb installed and write it to USB using Windows Image Writer, see:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2213631&page=17&p=13642568#post13642568

UNetbootin and Rufus and YUMI

It is good to see that UNetbootin 657 now supports BIOS and UEFI boot by default, however any attempt I have made to modify the partition structure, (shrink, move) has resulted in a broken BIOS boot, UEFI boot works OK but BIOS boot results in a flashing curser.

Rufus has options for UEFI boot and BIOS or UEFI boot. The later worked well for me, until an attempt to modify the partition structure had the same result as UNetbootin, a broken BIOS boot.

Yumi also suffers the same fate as SDC, UNetbootin and Rufus when the partition is modified. Files written to the root of YUMI UEFI Beta from Windows can be accessed in /isodevice and modified as root when booted from the USB. YUMI has no Persistent file size limit when installed in NTFS.

A Full install is a possibility on drives 8GB and larger.

Answer 2

I am guessing here, maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong. If In either case please let me know. If I am wrong, please describe with more details, how things are, and I might be able to give better help.

---

• 1) why am I seeing getting 3 boot devices corresponding to one usb?

  There are many different UEFI-BIOS systems, and they can display very different alternatives. It is difficult for me to know why your system is getting 3 boot devices for one USB drive. It is common to display one alternative for UEFI mode and one alternative for BIOS mode (alias CSM alias legacy mode). Sometimes the USB hardware is identified in clear text, sometimes not.

• 2) how do I create a startup disk with one single fat32 partition, similar to the one I described that booted properly?

  You can do it according to the advice by @johnnybegood in the comments (using Windows and Unetbootin (or Rufus, which is also a good tool). But the Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and newer versions is also a good tool. It is a cloning tool and clones the ISO 9660 file system of the iso file, which works well in a live drive (to 'Try Ubuntu' and to install Ubuntu).

  But, and this is a big but, you should not install Ubuntu into this same drive. I think your problem might be that you try to install Ubuntu into the same drive (USB pendrive) that you are booting from. Instead you should boot from one pendrive (a 2 GB pendrive is big enough for Ubuntu), and install into an internal drive (HDD or SSD) or into another USB drive (pendrive, HDD or SSD or memory card).

• 3) why are the uefi options leading to a black screen, even while using the recommended fixs such as nomodeset?

  There is probably some missing software (driver or related program) for your graphics chip/card. Sometimes the software for UEFI mode is different from that in BIOS mode, and things work better in one of the modes. (Something similar happens in a Toshiba laptop that I own.)

• 4) why is the installation process not recognizing these mutliple partitions, and instead only recognizing the one with free space?

  Are you trying to install into the same drive as you are booting from? It seems that is what is happening according to your description. Is there an internal drive? With Windows? In that case, it might be hidden because you have hibernated or semi-hibernated Windows, which means that Ubuntu should not touch it. Instead you should turn off 'fast startup' in Windows (which is a kind of semi-hibernation), or simply reboot instead of shutdown Windows, and check if that makes the internal drive show up among Ubuntu's installer's alternatives.

• 5) what does it mean that / is not a "fully-functioning" file system?

  Ubuntu cannot use it as its root file system '/'. Ubuntu needs a linux file system. The standard file system is ext4.

• 6) why does the ext2 file system creation fail?

  I suspect that you try to create it in the the same drive as you are booting from, and the structure of the partition table, partitions and file systems on that drive is very special and also actively used by the running system.

Answer 3

There are two types of "bootable USB" setups and I couldn't be certain from your description which one it was that you were trying to create:

1. A "live-boot" USB
2. A full system built on a USB instead of a hard drive

LIVE BOOT USB

It looks like you had this pretty much right already. This is a USB that has a boot loader, and a DVD (or CD) image, and that's it. Every time you boot from this USB you will get a Linux system freshly built on a RAM disk. When you shut this system down everything is lost. If this is what you want you just have to select the option that says "try Ubuntu without installing" or whatever option is closest in meaning to that.

The partitions you could see were the boot partition (which you thought might be swap) and the DVD or CD image.

Once you've booted from that you could format the free space as another partition and mount it. Anything you save on that will be kept. But you would have to remount it every time you boot because the mount table would be lost.

Enough of this, I'm pretty sure you didn't want this.

FULLY BUILT SYSTEM

If this is what you want, clean off all the stuff you have on your new USB. Delete all those partitions. You can rebuild your desired partitions on advance if you like, or the Ubuntu install will guide you through it. I use the install on the rare occasions I build a system.

Follow the procedure you used above to create a live-boot USB on a different USB.

Now go to the computer you're going to use the system on. You can build on a different computer, but it's much easier if you build on the system you're going to run on. Boot from your live-boot USB. Select the appropriate "Install Ubuntu" option for your needs and away you go.

Once complete you will be prompted to remove the live-boot USB and restart the system. There is a small chance that the new drive won't boot. If so, the answer is probably this: USB MBR Damaged

Just a word on partitions...

Some types of partition must have a corresponding format. The boot partition for instance must have the EFI file system on it. For other types you have more discretion but some simple guidelines will help you if you don't have anything terribly complex in mind to build.

Unless you have specific, critical reasons for it, don't use FAT-anything. It has very little integrity/consistency protection. File, folder or even drive loss is much more probable with FAT than with any of the newer formats.

Don't use NTFS unless you intend to share the partition with Windows. You can do this, and I have on my laptop, so that you can access the same files from either Windows or Linux. But NTFS isn't optimised for Linux and has some shortcomings with access permissions, ownership and so on.

In general use swap for your swap partition. Other formats can work but they have greater overhead not required for transient, non-file storage and will slow you down.

In general use ext2 for your /tmp partition. Again, this is transient storage and is lost on shutdown, so you don't need all the journaling and logging of ext3 or ext4.

In general use ext4 for any persistent file-based data.

Answer 4

I know this question already is a little older - but maybe someone with the same problem will find this:

If you already got a working live-USB (whether Linux or not should not matter) there is another completely different approach:

Install a partitioning tool and try copying the whole (single) partition of the smaller old stick onto the new one. If it works you can either create a new partition in the remaining space (just for data etc.) or resize the copied to be bigger. Or, of course, you can do both.

You might need some luck for it to work this way but it is easier and quicker than downloading and installing some 1.5 Gb .iso. And in case it works you have some extra time because all setting and files are transferred already.