When I find an old computer that won't boot USB I go back to a 32 bit CD install, then upgrade. Some old PCs simply won't reliably boot with USB.
On Mon, 22 May 2023 at 08:34, Giles Orr via talk <[email protected]> wrote: > I've recently acquired (through a friend who stopped using it) a > Toshiba Satellite L500 - Core i3 (3rd gen?), 4G RAM. I'm determined > to get Linux onto it (preferably Debian). I thought I had succeeded: > I booted from a Debian USB stick, installed to the HD. All appeared > to go well, but the system won't boot. It returns to the Boot Menu > and says "HDXXXX has failed." What the search engines are telling me > is that with this generation of Toshibas, the problem is generally > Secure Boot / CSM etc. Which makes sense, but ... there is absolutely > zero mention in the BIOS/UEFI ("Phoenix SecureCore Tiano Setup") of > "Secure Boot," "CSM," "Legacy," or "UEFI." Acccording to notes I > found online, "SecureCore Tiano" has "full support" for legacy > booting. > > Another issue with this machine is my mixed success booting from USB > sticks: I have an old-ish USB stick I built myself that has GRUB and a > large menu of ISOs: works great on most systems, won't boot on this > thing - probably because it's an old-style BIOS-boot only(?). > > One of my ideas was to upgrade the BIOS: it appears there's a newer > version available, but it's NOT available from Toshiba, which is the > only place I'd want to download it from. The rest look like dubious > secondary download sites (if you know one you consider reliable, let > me know). > > What I read online said that Fedora's installer puts an EFI partition > on the HD as part of the install, while Debian doesn't. And that > may(?) be why I can't boot from my Debian install? So ... I > downloaded the Fedora installer, put it on a USB stick ... and no joy: > the Toshiba doesn't recognize the Fedora USB stick as a bootable item. > Would this be because I burned it on a "Legacy" system? Is there a > fix for that? Except ... I'm about 99% sure the Debian Installer USB > stick was created on the same machine. > > Worst case, I can stick the HD from the Toshiba into another machine, > install Fedora on it, repartition to make room for Debian, put the HD > back into the Toshiba ... but that's getting damn complicated and > annoying. > > As always - any suggestions welcomed. > > -- > Giles > https://www.gilesorr.com/ > [email protected] > --- > Post to this mailing list [email protected] > Unsubscribe from this mailing list > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk >
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