XPS 8950, Ubuntu bootable USB not seen

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@oduda  - You said "Secure boot is disabled", but the image you posted says at its very top "Secure boot: ON".

So which is it?  Either you didn't actually disable Secure Boot, or you didn't save the change when you exited BIOS setup.

You probably also need to plug that USB stick into the PC with the power completely off. Then power on and use the F12 menu...

Sorry, uploaded the wrong image.
I have taken dozens of them for Dell support.
But what they recommend is just trying a different usb or a different port, which do not really help.
So I was thinking maybe it's because the BIOS is set to UEFI. But there seems to be no way to switch it to legacy on Dell XPS 8950.

Legacy setting options have been phased out on all PCs, not just Dell, because of Microsoft and Intel  requirements. XPS 8940 was first Dell XPS model without a Legacy support option.

What size USB stick are you using and how is it formatted?

Is BIOS set to RAID or AHCI? Look, but don't change it!

Is USB Boot Support enabled in BIOS?

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@oduda wrote:

So I was thinking maybe it's because the BIOS is set to UEFI. But there seems to be no way to switch it to legacy on Dell XPS 8950.

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I think @RoHe covered that question.

You can run the Ubuntu Live USB Flash-Drive .

You should also be able to install Ubuntu on system drive (even with UEFI and SecureBoot) because it is (one of the few) Microsoft authorized Boot-Kits. If you can't get it started the normal-way , you can try the F12-on-boot One-Time-Boot-Menu.

NB:

BitLocker is there to prevent access.

I turned mine OFF and installed Linux MINT.

Having the exact same issue! Literally bought my XPS 8950 for my Linux development and I can't even boot up from USB. Incredible.

Can you elaborate on how to turn bitlocker off please?

Enable/disable bitlocker.

If you select the option to add a boot device, USB will be one of the options.  You need to specify the ISO name and the path to the BOOTx64.EFI file in that ISO.  However, I've done that, and have had zero success in getting the image to boot on the XPS 8950.

Same here.  I have used the BIOS options to disable secure boot, I've added the usb device to the boot options, for that device I used the ISO filename and the path \EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.EFI.  I select that device for boot, and after a long wait with a blank screen, a line of text saying that the the specified device did not boot is displayed.  There must be a way to do this.

I actually managed to successfully install Ubuntu 22.04 on a fresh 8950 with Windows 11.  Reading this thread made me despair that it wouldn't work.  I believe the key that opened the door is to select grub as the file to install.

I'm not going to reboot the machine to get the exact terminology that is on the screen, but this should get you by.

With the computer off, I plugged in the bootable USB, pressed whatever button it is to get to the BIOS settings.

I turned off secure boot.

I went to the boot screen.  There is a selection where you can add a boot method.  That brings up a list of possible boot devices.  One of those was my USB stick.   I didn't realize for several tries that it actually was reading the directory structure in the stick, but it is.  I descended the structure until it showed 3 possibilities, one of which was grub.  I selected that and it popped up a box to enter a filename.  I used EFI\boot\*grub*, I believe, where the directory names were what I had descended, and *grub* was the exact filename that it had displayed in the previous step.  I saved and exited, and it all worked.

I have no idea why you have to enter that file name.  The software had examined my stick and come up with those 3 possibilities, and I selected one of them.  (I don't know if there could be another legal possibility.)

I chose the grub option because people on this thread said one of the others didn't work, and the Ubuntu documentation mentions grub.

BTW, I couldn't get rufus to work to generate the bootable USB.  It did not pop up a menu to select the image file.   I used balena etcher.  It doesn't show up high on my searches;  I went to an Ubuntu community irc chat group to find that.  After the typical scorn heaped on newbies to such groups, and told that I shouldn't be considering rufus because the other one is the standard one, I posted the official Ubuntu link recommending Rufus.  So don't be fooled by that.  A search just now isn't bringing the name up.  I had to go to my browser history to get it

Thanks very much for your article on installing ubuntu 22.04 on a Dell 8950. I used the "grub" directory path for the USB installer that  COKHW mentioned.

I installed an additional 2280 500GByte SSD in the second slot for ubuntu.
I still like Dells update program for firmware upgrades & hardware testing on Windows.
Dell supports their hardware for many many years with firmware upgrades.

I used the default Ubuntu 22.04 build from the ubuntu web site & the install
program booted up fine but it hung right away after I asked it to install ubuntu.
I then downloaded the Ubuntu daily build & I was able to install Ubuntu on the 2nd drive.

I now have a dual boot system that works fine so far.
Chrome did crash once today but I am not sure why.

I followed the steps in addition to what cokhw mentioned:

1. Clear the entire disc using GParted
2. Create a bootable USB of Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS using Ubuntu USB Image tool
3. Start the machine, go to BIOS, do a factory reset
4. Select AHCI/NVMe option instead of RAID
5. Save and restart the machine with USB in
6. Start BIOS, go to Boot tab, add path to grub using File Browser Add Boot Option (EFI/boot/*grub*). I don't remember if it was *boot* or *grub*.  Do trial and error. Provide a name for the boot option.
7. Save and restart.

I was able to install the OS afterward.