Bootable USB working on everything but old laptop

[oustropique]

I have a brand new USB stick that I have loaded with a Linux distribution. I would like to install this on a ~7 year old laptop - old enough that the official BIOS distribution page for my make and model no longer exists.

The BIOS boot order screen does not pick up the brand or the label on the stick, so I have to assume it isn't detecting the stick at all.

The BIOS understands UEFI. I have previously installed Ubuntu via USB on this laptop (which makes updating the BIOS, if that's even important at this point, even more of a pain). The USB stick is recognised from within Ubuntu.

Another Windows machine picks up the boot partition and runs it fine.

Secure boot is disabled. I have imaged the USB with the ISO several times using Balena Etcher or the more configurable Rufus. No dice in either case.

I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

[touchingcloth]

Have you tried different ports on the laptop?

I've had similar issues in the past where UEFI didn't work on a USB-A device in one port, but changing ports/using a USB-C adapter was fine.

[oustropique]

Have you tried different ports on the laptop?

I've had similar issues in the past where UEFI didn't work on a USB-A device in one port, but changing ports/using a USB-C adapter was fine.

Yes, I've tried that as well. The computer's old enough that I only have two USB-A ports. I could try a hub or something.

[touchingcloth]

What capacity (and filesystem) is the stick/partition? I know that not all cameras are compatible with SDHC and SDXC format cards, for example, so there could be something similar where the laptop is old enough/32-bit enough to not recognise the device.

[oustropique]

A hub didn't work.

What capacity (and filesystem) is the stick/partition? I know that not all cameras are compatible with SDHC and SDXC format cards, for example, so there could be something similar where the laptop is old enough/32-bit enough to not recognise the device.

It's 128GB capacity, currently formatted to FAT32, because that's the Rufus default. I guess I could try an older stick: a hub didn't work.

[oustropique]

I had an older stick lying around. It had Windows on it, and the laptop booted that (not detecting the volume label or anything beforehand). So I got a second stick out and put the Linux distribution on it, and that didn't work, which makes me feel like it's my system not playing well with the .ISO, even though the distro is one of those lightweight ones for old computers.

I'm running 64-bit Ubuntu on the laptop right now, so I wouldn't have thought that it was a compatibility issue.

[touchingcloth]

Ah, might be worth putting the same distro onto your 128GB flashstick with Balena and seeing if that rules the stick out and the distro in as the cause of things?

[Sebastian Cobb]

You could try flashing the distro to the stick using DD rather than intermediary tooling if you think the iso might be getting mangled.

You'll need to find the disk address, easiest way is to call fdisk -l before and after insertion and see what new device crops up. It'll probably be /dev/sdb if there's no other discs beyond the primary.

then do

Code Select Expand

dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/sdb bs=512 status=progress
Try a debian netinst iso if you think it might be iso specific, the above definitely works with those.

[oustropique]

Thanks for your help so far.

After testing various sticks and distros with dd and Balena to no avail, I tried just using Balena to install the distro I actually want to install on the stick that booted Windows, and that worked.

Which is fine, but the stick is white-label, slow as all hell for live booting, and if it weren't for this one use-case I would happily bin it. I have no inkling as to why one old white-label stick works but another old white-label one won't, or why my brand new Kingston won't play nice either.

I guess I could call it a day, but I have no real idea what's happening, and not much in terms of information to diagnose the hardware issue with. The laptop is an old Toshiba Satellite in dire need of being smashed to pieces.

[touchingcloth]

Back up in your ass with the resurrection
It's the group harder than an erection
That shows no affection
They wanna ban us on Capitol Hill
'Cause it's "Die muthafuckas, die muthafuckas!" still