[07:18] <qwebirc58500> Hello there
[07:19] <diogenes_> hi
[07:19] <qwebirc58500> I am currently attempting to boot Xubuntu from an USB Drive ... problem is that it doesn't boot.
[07:19] <qwebirc58500> It isn't the first time happening, I have a feeling that the problem is the file system of the USB drive.
[07:21] <diogenes_> what software you used to write the usb drive?
[07:21] <qwebirc58500> First I tried DD command, then somebody told me to use Etcher.
[07:22] <qwebirc58500> Etcher has written in uhh ... "iso9660".
[07:22] <diogenes_> and what happens when you choose to boot from usb drive in bios?
[07:23] <qwebirc58500> Well, good luck with that. Since I've nuked my primary internal HDD, there is no Boot Menu anymore, unless we're talking about OS specific Boot Menus (in my Case Ubuntu only). In the BIOS itself, I cannot choose any drives specifically, I can only prioritise "removable devices" over Ubuntu.
[07:24] <diogenes_> what do you mean there is no boot menu?
[07:25] <qwebirc58500> Exactly that: There is no boot menu.
[07:25] <qwebirc58500> Before nuking my primary internal HDD, I could just press (or hold) the F12 Key to access the boot menu in order to decide from which device to boot from.
[07:26] <qwebirc58500> And when installing Ubuntu, I've nuked both my internal HDDs.
[07:26] <diogenes_> and what do you mean nuke?
[07:27] <qwebirc58500> Stand by
[07:30] <qwebirc58500> I "nuked" the HDDs as in "destroyed all Data"
[07:31] <diogenes_> i see, so i assume it was window 10 before?
[07:31] <qwebirc58500> yes
[07:32] <diogenes_> that's why it's always recommended to buy a laptop with clean HDD, with no OS installed but can you even access the bios?
[07:32] <qwebirc58500> Well, my Machine was bought in 2014. I didn't even knew what the fuck Linux was at all back then.
[07:32] <qwebirc58500> Also, screw Laptops.
[07:32] <diogenes_> can you access the bios?
[07:32] <qwebirc58500> yes
[07:33] <diogenes_> and does the bios recongnize your usb media?
[07:34] <qwebirc58500> No idea. Like I said, I cannot choose specific Devices. Only Operating Systems (which currently only is Ubuntu), [CD&DVD], [Removable Devices] and [LAN]
[07:34] <qwebirc58500> Ubuntu does recognize the USB Drive
[07:36] <diogenes_> qwebirc58500, then tehre is your issue, nothing will boot until you clean the HDD with a windows DVD or inserting the HDD into another pc and low level clean it, then you will get your boot menu back.
[07:36] <qwebirc58500> ugh ... ffs
[07:36] <qwebirc58500> Okay
[07:38] <qwebirc58500> So Imma hope that I can boot the USB Drive with Windows (that one *should* work though), and will come back ASAP. Oh, btw, just for Identification (when I come back), you can call me Thursday.
[07:39] <diogenes_> with a windows dvd (if it boots) then you need to press shift + f10 when the installation welcome screen appears then: 1. type in diskpart 2. list disk 3. sel disk 0 (<=== if that is your HDD) 4. clean <=== and that will clean it entirely and hopefully after reboot you will get your menu back.
[07:40] <diogenes_> but that will destroy your data so be careful to have backup.
[07:41] <qwebirc58500> Well, with nuking my HDDs I already destroyed enough. I have my backups since my switch from Win10 to Ubuntu.
[07:42] <qwebirc58500> I'll do the reboot now...
[08:07] <qwebirc87426> Thursday here, I have good news
[08:08] <qwebirc87426> First, the main problem was my BIOS active weird. I kept prioritising removable devices over Ubuntu and saved the changes over and over again, but as soon as I exited the bios, Ubuntu was prioritised again. So it had nothing to do with my USB drive or anything like that.
[08:10] <qwebirc87426> Second, I found out why the boot menu was not there - it was disabled in the bios. I had to go for default settings because of a weird booting error of the machine. That way the boot menu was entirely disabled. But by accident, I found it, enabled it, and used it to now finally install xubuntu.
[08:11] <qwebirc87426> Tl;dr, problem solved and I should have less such problems in the future.
[08:16] <qwebirc87426> BTW, is there any significant difference in software compatibility when comparing Ubuntu and Xubuntu?
[08:18] <diogenes_> qwebirc87426, xubuntu has a greater compatibility comparing to any other distro
[08:19] <qwebirc87426> Now that's something I like to hear.
[08:19] <qwebirc87426> BTW, diogenes (I think you were the guy), I managed to install Xubuntu now.
[08:20] <diogenes_> qwebirc87426, how u managed?
[08:22] <qwebirc87426> Well, simply enough, I enabled the boot menu. Because of an error, I had to turn all the bios settings on default several times now - and I didn't knew that the boot menu was toggleable in the bios. And, unsurprisingly, the default option of the boot menu was disabled.
[08:23] <qwebirc87426> Now why the USB drive didn't boot in the first place is a whole other mystery though. For some reason, no matter what I did, as soon as exiting the bios menu, Ubuntu automatically put itself in the highest priority.
[08:24] <qwebirc87426> That way my USB drives had no chance of booting at all, without using the boot menu specifically.
[08:27] <qwebirc87426> Sooo yeah, I'm outta here now, doing everything else that I have to.
[08:27] <qwebirc87426> Have a nice day bud!