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October 11th, 2022 13:00
Booting Ubuntu from a USB Drive
I am trying to boot Ubuntu from a USB drive and - while the boot menu on my Inspiron 3668 shows that I have a USB drive - I keep getting a "no grub" error. Does anyone know how to boot Linux from a USB drive on my machine. It works just fine on other, older PCs I've used, but it won't work on this @2017 machine.
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fhill
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November 18th, 2022 15:00
I ultimately threw away the idea of running Ubuntu from a USB drive, bought a cheap SSD and installed it on that. Runs like a charm! The problem seems to be universal with modern, UEFI BIOS computers. There's a lot of massaging that needs to be done (not worth the effort) to get things to work. In any case, with a native installation on a SATA SSD, the machine flies! Oh, how far Linux has come over the years! Just great.
NJDave
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October 11th, 2022 14:00
There appears to be a problem with your Ubuntu USB drive. Just to check I downloaded the ISO for latest Ubuntu desktop (22.04.01 LTS) and built a USB key with both MBR and GPT formatting, and my Intel gen-10 Vostro got a good GRUB menu and readily booted the live environment both times.
You may want to verify the checksum of your ISO download, use a well-known utility like Rufus to build your USB drive, and/or try another USB drive.
ann_droid
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October 13th, 2022 09:00
Hi
Works for me.
fhill
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October 21st, 2022 09:00
Sorry for the delay. Let me be clearer, and it may require a completely new installation on the USB, but I'm not sure that should be the case. I have Ubuntu 22.04 installed on a USB drive that was configured for an Inspiron 3847. That works just fine. But, when I try to use the same drive in the 3668, the F12 boot menu only shows "boot from USB" not Ubuntu as is displayed on the 3847. Do I have to format the drive explicitly for the 3668, or should it work across similar Dell systems?
NJDave
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October 21st, 2022 12:00
I really don't know what the problem is. I was going to suggest that the drive may be MBR- rather than GPT-formatted (to boot in BIOS or legacy mode, rather than UEFI) but the 3847 has UEFI I believe. If the drive were MBR I imagine it wouldn't appear in the boot menu, let alone boot to the point that it had an issue with GRUB. (I don't believe the 3668 has a legacy mode.) You will want to switch off Secure Boot before trying to boot Ubuntu on the 3668, but again, if that were the problem I'd expect a different error.
I know you typically have a lot of leeway in moving a Linux boot drive between systems, but whether it's "supposed" to work or guaranteed to work I've no idea.