[SOLVED] Can't Boot Linux - No Option To Enable Legacy Boot

[Appletax]

Solution: none. Cannot get it to work.


HP Pavilion 15.6 inch Laptop PC 15-eh1000 (2H5A6AV)


Got a brand new HP laptop with latest BIOS installed.

I tried booting Linux - Puppy, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora - all have the same issue - "The selected boot device failed."

Used Rufus to make the USB and tried both MRB and GPT.

Disabled Secure Boot. Tried both USB ports.

None of this worked.

It appears that I would need Legacy Boot support, which this motherboard apparently does not support.

This is odd - you'd think these new versions of Linux would work with Secure Boot + UEFI.

What to do?

 

[britechguy]

What version of Rufus?

Also, you could try Ventoy to see if the resulting bootable drive behaves better.

You seem to be on a run with cranky HP machines!

 

[Appletax]

What version of Rufus?

Also, you could try Ventoy to see if the resulting bootable drive behaves better.

You seem to be on a run with cranky HP machines!

Right. LOL.

Always latest Rufus. 3.17 now.

Cool program! I installed it with GPT partition style and Secure Boot support.

Mounted Ubuntu ISO and dragged and dropped the files into the flash drive.

Does not work. MBR does not work. Secure Boot off and on does not work.

Tried this:

 

[Appletax]

My reason for wanting to boot into Linux is because I want to transfer data from a failing hard drive (it's not super bad) to her new laptop - using a docking station.

Tried opening her user folder to extract the data in it, but after 2 hours 30 minutes of waiting for Windows to change the permissions, I quit trying and decided to try Linux.

Guess I will connect the HDD to another PC that can load Linux and then place the data onto my external SSD.

Linux = no need to mess with permissions - it works immediately - let's you see the data and move it right away.

Wish I could do the same with Windows.

 

[HCHTech]

Guess I will connect the HDD to another PC that can load Linux and then place the data onto my external SSD.

This is the way to do it from the start. I would setup a dedicated Linux machine with hot swap bays - that way you control the process completely. Too many variables trying to do it the other way. Plus, Windows grinding away at the drive re-writing the permissions might be using up it's remaining life. You should be spending that remaining life getting the data.

 

[britechguy]

Well, you can, pretty much, if you copy off the data to an external USB drive, if all you're looking to do is get data.

I've never had an issue with a "Copy to external USB drive, copy back to new machine," transfer as far as permissions go.

You're not hitting the existing HDD any "more hard" in doing so, either.

I just copy C:\Users\{whatever user account needs data transferred here} to an external USB drive to transfer data.

 

[nlinecomputers]

HP Pavilion 15.6 inch Laptop PC 15-eh1000 (2H5A6AV)


Got a brand new HP laptop with latest BIOS installed.

I tried booting Linux - Puppy, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora - all have the same issue - "The selected boot device failed."

Used Rufus to make the USB and tried both MRB and GPT.

Disabled Secure Boot. Tried both USB ports.

None of this worked.

It appears that I would need Legacy Boot support, which this motherboard apparently does not support.

This is odd - you'd think these new versions of Linux would work with Secure Boot + UEFI.

What to do?

View attachment 13383

Your doing something wrong because both Fedora, Ubuntu and Mint support secure boot. The boot loaders have keys that are signed by Microsoft. Most all the major distros have had their keys signed by Microsoft, just so secure boot can work without having to load a key into the UEFI.

 

[Markverhyden]

Tried opening her user folder to extract the data in it, but after 2 hours 30 minutes of waiting for Windows to change the permissions, I quit trying and decided to try Linux.

Hopefully it didn't make things much worse by doing that. As @HCHTech said you need to have a dedicated box for things like that. Doing stuff like trying to boot foreign machines from a *nix should only be reserved for on site. Your description of what you did with rufus doesn't sound correct. You should launch rufus, pick the target and then pick the source within rufus. None of this dragging and dropping from a mounted ISO.

 

[Markverhyden]

Well, you can, pretty much, if you copy off the data to an external USB drive, if all you're looking to do is get data.

I've never had an issue with a "Copy to external USB drive, copy back to new machine," transfer as far as permissions go.

You're not hitting the existing HDD any "more hard" in doing so, either.

I just copy C:\Users\{whatever user account needs data transferred here} to an external USB drive to transfer data.

He said he tried and gave up after 2.5 hours of pinwheeling.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Create a bootable USB stick with Rufus on Windows | Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an open source software operating system that runs from the desktop, to the cloud, to all your internet connected things.

ubuntu.com

 

[Sky-Knight]

I also have a machine dedicated to imaging and data recovery operations. It has an SSD in it that boots Windows, but I've USB booted it to linux plenty of times too.

It's all about knowing how that system boots, because when you've got a weak drive...every boot matters!

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden

What was said that I keyed in on:
1. Tried opening her user folder to extract the data in it, but after 2 hours 30 minutes of waiting for Windows to change the permissions, I quit trying and decided to try Linux.

2. . . . because I want to transfer data from a failing hard drive (it's not super bad) to her new laptop - using a docking station.

What I'm proposing is avoiding the docking station and an "alien machine" entirely. If the machine being retired still boots, and there is no indication it does not, then boot it up, hook up an external USB drive, and copy C:\Users\{account(s)} to it. There should be no "twirling" as there should be no need for permissions changes (particularly if we're talking about one account, with that account's data being copied off).

This is being made a lot more complicated than it need be if getting user data from a "kinda sorta in the early stages of failure" drive is the goal.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy @Markverhyden

Not to mention that this process neatly avoids any on disk encryption entanglements... something we're ALL going to be dealing with soon enough.

 

[britechguy]

Not to mention that this process neatly avoids any on disk encryption entanglements...

I am also hoping and praying that imaging a machine, and picking and choosing from said image, will do the same on the occasions where that might be necessary.

"Disk encryption entanglements," is such a delicate way of putting what I'd not be able to say in mixed company. These will be the bane of virtually everyone's existence as nearly universal, and unchosen, full disk encryption creeps into the marketplace.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy an image made of a machine, and restored to that same machine will continue to work as expected.

But if you restore that image and put the resulting output into another machine that lacks the TPM module in question, you'll need the recovery key. The process of mounting the disk is automatic, Windows will simply ask for it. But if the user lacks the account with the requisite information... they're SOL.

 

[britechguy]

an image made of a machine, and restored to that same machine will continue to work as expected.

Which is what I would expect.

I'm talking specifically about picking things out of an image made on "an alien machine" for transfer to another. I don't do that, period, but I do know folks who do.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Which is what I would expect.

I'm talking specifically about picking things out of an image made on "an alien machine" for transfer to another. I don't do that, period, but I do know folks who do.

That will not work, because you won't be able to read the partition without the recovery key.

The systems that extend the image to Windows as a virtual harddisk I assume will ask for the key and let you navigate it, but nothing *nix based will work unless the algorithm can be broken.

Tools are adapting as we speak of course, so I assume Windows based recovery options will be plentiful in this space. Assuming they aren't already, since Win10 already does this... I imagine most of it is just training on our part.

 

[NJW]

Cool program! I installed it with GPT partition style and Secure Boot support.

Mounted Ubuntu ISO and dragged and dropped the files into the flash drive.

Does not work. MBR does not work. Secure Boot off and on does not work.

I'm not surprised it doesn't work – that's not how to make a bootable USB stick with Rufus.

See the link @nlinecomputers posted up-thread. If that sounds like 'RTFM' ... well, it is.

 

[Markverhyden]

@Markverhyden

What was said that I keyed in on:
1. Tried opening her user folder to extract the data in it, but after 2 hours 30 minutes of waiting for Windows to change the permissions, I quit trying and decided to try Linux.

2. . . . because I want to transfer data from a failing hard drive (it's not super bad) to her new laptop - using a docking station.

What I'm proposing is avoiding the docking station and an "alien machine" entirely. If the machine being retired still boots, and there is no indication it does not, then boot it up, hook up an external USB drive, and copy C:\Users\{account(s)} to it. There should be no "twirling" as there should be no need for permissions changes (particularly if we're talking about one account, with that account's data being copied off).

This is being made a lot more complicated than it need be if getting user data from a "kinda sorta in the early stages of failure" drive is the goal.

True. But if it's a failing drive and the customer wants the data then the fastest way is the best. And that's to not use a USB dock, even if it's 3. But we're vectoring off into what if land. My method is to use a bench top rig for everything as it'll have plenty of SATA ports. There's another benefit in that you can't say that the rest of the patient machine is peachy-keen so that's out of the equation as well. And to get back to best practices the whole thing should have started, in theory, with a full disk image and then recover data from the image.

 

[Diggs]

an image made of a machine, and restored to that same machine will continue to work as expected.

I'm still coming to grips with the details of Bitlocker. Can the image be resized and put back on the same machine running Bitlocker or does it have to be a sector by sector clone?