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February 26th, 2025 08:16
Can't see USB as a Boot option in my new Inspiron 14 7445
I recently got this Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2 in 1 with a Ryzen 5 processor. I have tried Etcher , Rufus and now even Ventoy. Still the boot order doesn't show any option to boot from a media (USB) other than the default Windows 11 SSD. There's pretty much no option where I can see any option to fix this. No option to switch to legacy BIOS either. What could be the problem? I checked reviews of the my laptop on Dell's website and even BestBuy and people did admit that they managed to run Linux without any problems , they had the same device.
Previously I had used Ventoy as a last resort, went to EFI partition of ventoy in file explorer double clicked MOK_MANAGER_KEY certificate to install it in windows. On restarting, my Ventoy USB boot option appeared to my surprise after many attempts, I then disabled secure boot. I managed to run live USB of Fedora briefly (for some reason dual microphone did appear in live USB fedora but upon testing, it only gave static sound instead of voice. That's why I didn't install it immediately.
However my main concern is that why even after doing the same drill, I am unable to see USB as boot option in my UEFI ? Does this mean I will have problems trying to go through installing a non windows OS cos my USB wont be detected ?? Its a headache, please I need a fix not a gimmick which I did previously and it worked temporarily but now it doesn't.
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ejn63
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February 26th, 2025 12:09
There hasn't been legacy support in new systems for years now -- you need a Linux distribution that has UEFI support (Ubuntu will, but most other distributions will require you to build an installer that has it, as the default distributions often still do not)
It may take a while for all the driver support needed on a new system to show up -- particularly for less popular distributions. This system has no Linux support from Dell, so the support community for whatever distro you're installing would be the place to start.
hashir1010101
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February 26th, 2025 12:35
@ejn63 Hello. So what I implied from your response is that Fedora may not have UEFI support? Hm maybe I should try with Ubuntu. I know the laptop itself doesn't show support for Ubuntu or some other linux distros in it's manual for this laptop (as in drivers cos obviously I don't believe a laptop will refuse to boot any OS image just because it's not windows) . But like I said the reviews I saw for this laptop on bestbuy and Dell show that it works Ubuntu and Mint very well. So I should try with pure UEFI supported major distributions that ship such ISO image ? I didn't know if that was such a thing. Thank you very much for letting me know. I shall get back to you after trying with Ubuntu . Good day to you
(edited)
ejn63
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February 26th, 2025 13:45
UEFI support is present in some distributions but not others -- and even among those distributions that have it, realize that Dell ships systems with Intel Rapid Storage mode ON, meaning you will also need to load support for that into Linux before the installer will recognize the drive (you can disable it on some systems, but on at least some newer systems, there is no support for AHCI (non-RST) mode.
hashir1010101
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February 26th, 2025 18:37
@ejn63 Coming back to you. I tried with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Flashed the image with GPT based and UEFI option with FAT32 as disk format. Works with secure boot aswell. Thank you. I was very concerned if my laptop has the only problem . Turns out the positive Linux reviews of my laptop model were based on distros like Ubuntu , Mint that support both secure boot and strictly UEFI based systems aswell. Finally!