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I have HP G56 laptop and it originally came with Windows 7 which microsoft updated to windows 10 for free. I did clean install and so i don't have option to go back to windows 7.

I want to try Ubuntu as after upgrading to windows 10, my laptop runs slow. I have created bootable USB several times but can't make my laptop to boot. I saw tutorials and already setup bios to boot from USB first and also turnoff fast boot from power option. I can however use other USB for windows 10 that i have and that works but not from Ubuntu USB

sudodus
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Poorav
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    1. Please tell us more about your computer - brand name and model; 2. Turn off secure boot in an UEFI system menu; 3. Which version of Ubuntu are you trying (name of the iso file)? 4. Did you check the iso file with `md5sum`? 5. How did you create the Ubuntu USB drive (which tool/method)? 6. Does the Ubuntu USB drive boot in another computer? – sudodus Mar 24 '18 at 20:38
  • 1. HP laptop, model#G56, 3 gm ram, 64 bit operating system, intel celeron CPU, 2.20 GHz – Poorav Mar 27 '18 at 03:40
  • 2. I do not see secure boot option in my BIOS setup – Poorav Mar 27 '18 at 03:43
  • 3. I downloaded ISO from Ubuntu website, file name is ubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-amd64 – Poorav Mar 27 '18 at 03:44
  • 5. I used Refus2.18 as per instructions from Ubuntu – Poorav Mar 27 '18 at 03:45
  • 6. I haven't tried on another computer as i don't have second laptop or desktop – Poorav Mar 27 '18 at 03:46
  • 4. md5sum value matches – Poorav Mar 27 '18 at 04:07
  • Thanks for this information :-) I will look into the details and try to help ... – sudodus Mar 27 '18 at 05:16
  • 1. According the details, I think that your computer is running in BIOS mode (not UEFI), which means that you need not worry about secure boot; 2. I think your Ubuntu iso file *should* work, but you can try also the first point release [ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso](http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/xenial/) which is supported until April 2021; 3. Maybe you made your boot drive for UEFI mode? You can try again with Rufus (which is an extracting tool, or you can use the cloning tool [Win32 Disk Imager](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Win32DiskImager/iso2usb). Cloning is very reliable. – sudodus Mar 27 '18 at 05:51
  • Have you tried to press one of the keys `F9, F10, F11, F12` directly at boot? My son has an HP Elitebook manufactured about the same time, and I think he gets a temporary boot menu after pressing the `F9` key (anyway it is one of the 'high number F keys'). – sudodus Mar 27 '18 at 05:57
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    I tried USB on my friend's laptop and it works so some settings are wrong or needed to be tweaked. – Poorav Mar 28 '18 at 11:45
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    I believe i do have BIOS mode (not UEFI) on my HP G56 laptop as i do not see UEFI option. I did made USB with Rufus-2.18 so let me ktry ubuntu 16.04.1 ISO instead of 16.04.4 ISO, hopefully that will work. – Poorav Mar 28 '18 at 11:49
  • I just tried to look for Ububtu's website and there is no longer have option for ubuntu 16.04.1 ISO, only option i can see on their website is ubuntu 16.04.4 ISO, which i have already made bootable USB. Earlier i have confirmed that that bootable USB works in other computer. So i need to change some kind of setting in my laptop. – Poorav Mar 28 '18 at 11:58
  • You find it at http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/xenial/ (scroll down to find the file). – sudodus Mar 28 '18 at 12:00
  • I tried version 16.4.1 but its still not booting. Doing the same thing i.e. it get hangup at boot, it displays "press esc to see startup option" and nothing happens. If i hit esc then it displays "press esc to pause" and if i hit esc nothing happens. Basically i have to turnoff the laptop by pressing power button. – Poorav Mar 30 '18 at 23:18
  • If i boot the desktop without inserting USB and if i hit the esc button, it opens bios set up. But if i insert the USB and then hit the esc button at startup, it hangs up and it don't even let me go to bios set up and i have to power off as i have described in my comments before – Poorav Mar 30 '18 at 23:20
  • I have no direct experience of you computer model, HP G56 laptop, but I can boot several other HP laptops from USB. I am sorry, I have no more ideas, how to make it boot. If I get some new idea, I will write a new comment here. -- Let us hope that someone else will chip in and tell you how to do it. – sudodus Mar 31 '18 at 05:15
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    reset bios to default, as may be you have some bad setting preventing boot from usb. Try also F9 during bios to display boot menu. Try another usb device (the fact it works on another pc don't mean it is ok for your pc) – laugeo Mar 31 '18 at 12:01
  • @Poorav, Please try according to the answers and let us know if you are helped by any of them. – sudodus Apr 01 '18 at 08:26
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    I truly appriciate your help. yes lets see what happens. One last thing though, i have win10 bootable use and it do work with this laptop. So i am not sure what bios setting would be wrong but ubuntu usb don't work – Poorav Apr 01 '18 at 13:38
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    I have had better luck with the latest UNetbootin than with Rufus, mkusb just about always works but requires Linux to install. – C.S.Cameron Apr 01 '18 at 23:07
  • @Poorav, If *you* don't tell us which of the answers that is most helpful for you, I will select what I *think* is the most helpful answer (and it might not help you at all). So please test according to the answers and tell us the result. – sudodus Apr 05 '18 at 05:35
  • Sorry Sudodus, i am not have that much of tech knowledge and this is a lot of info to understand and follow and i am slow. So below is what i tried, i tried older version but no luck – Poorav Apr 08 '18 at 13:10
  • I tried win32diskimage writer but no luck and it's doing same thing i.e. getting hangup at bios boot – Poorav Apr 08 '18 at 13:40
  • i tried Utumbu mini and same thing – Poorav Apr 08 '18 at 13:41
  • I tried unetbootin-windows-647 and same thing – Poorav Apr 08 '18 at 13:42
  • I do not see any option to reset the bios to default. if i try to upgrade it gives me error – Poorav Apr 08 '18 at 13:43
  • Fact is i can successfully boot from win10 USB but not from Utumbu USB, while all setup are same is really frustrating. – Poorav Apr 08 '18 at 13:44
  • Sudodus: One of the option below from shouperman is to use legacy iso file. Where can i find Utumbu legacy iso file? – Poorav Apr 08 '18 at 13:51

7 Answers7

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You commented that:

It gets a hangup at boot, it displays "press Esc to see startup option" and nothing happens. If I press Esc then it displays "press Esc to pause" and if press Esc nothing happens. Basically I have to turn off the laptop by pressing the power button.

The Ubuntu live USB that you made with the 1.5GB Ubuntu iso is not loading successfully, so try booting your laptop with the Ubuntu Minimal CD. The Ubuntu Minimal CD is less than 60MB in size, and loads the rest of the packages required to install Ubuntu during the installation process.

How to make an Ubuntu Minimal USB

It is possible to make an Ubuntu Minimal USB on either Ubuntu or Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 in Windows 10 using dd. While the minimal iso image is handy, it isn't useful for installing on UEFI-based systems that you want to run in UEFI mode. The mini iso lacks the proper files for booting the computer in UEFI mode. Thus the computer will boot in BIOS compatibility mode, and the installation will be in BIOS mode.

  1. Download the Ubuntu Mini CD iso file from these links:

    Download the file called mini.iso to your Downloads folder. You can download the mini.iso file to wherever on your computer that you want, but download it to your Downloads folder so that you can easily run the commands in the following steps without changing anything.

  2. Verify the md5 checksum of the Ubuntu mini CD iso file that you downloaded by running these commands:

    cd ~/Downloads/
md5sum 'mini.iso'

    If you are using Windows Subsystem for Linux download the Microsoft File Checksum Integrity Verifier tool from the official Microsoft Download Center. The Microsoft File Checksum Integrity Verifier tool is a command line utility that computes MD5 or SHA1 cryptographic hashes for files.

  3. Check that the results of the command match the MD5 checksum of the mini.iso file on the Ubuntu Documentation Installation Minimal CD webpage.

  4. Get a USB flash drive, 1GB or larger. Delete all the files from the USB flash drive. Mount the flash drive using the Disks disk utility. Or burn the Ubuntu Mini CD iso file to a CD.

  5. Check in the Disks disk utility to find out the device name of your USB flash drive. This is very important because if you use the wrong device name in step 6, you will overwrite your whole operating system instead of writing to the USB flash drive. So check the USB flash drive device name twice. It should be something like /dev/sd* where instead of the * character there is a lower case letter like a, b, c, etc. In the following step I am assuming that the device name is /dev/sdc, but the device name of your USB drive could be something else like /dev/sda or /dev/sdb so check the device name of your USB drive twice and make sure that you get it right in step 6!

  6. Open the terminal or Windows Subsystem for Linux and run the following commands:

    cd ~/Downloads/  
sudo -i  
dd if='mini.iso' of=/dev/sdc bs=4096  ## make sure that the device name of your USB drive is correct!

    The dd if='mini.iso' of=/dev/sdc bs=4096 command should take only a few seconds to complete on most computers because the mini.iso is a small file, less than 60MB. The result of running this command will be a bootable Ubuntu mini USB.

  7. Boot the computer from the Ubuntu mini live USB (or CD). The Ubuntu mini live USB (pr CD) should boot successfully and show a menu screen.

  8. If you select the Install option (the complete install, not the cli install) from the menu screen in Step 7, then you can select other options during the Ubuntu installation process to download all the packages that you need to perform a complete Ubuntu installation. Select the Ubuntu desktop package collection from the list of predefined collections of software in the Software selection screen in the Ubuntu mini CD installer. When you restart the system at the end of the installation, you will have a working Ubuntu desktop with the default desktop environment.

    enter image description here

karel
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  • +1. I would be even happier, if you suggest a safer alternative than `dd`. There are tools with a final checkpoint ... :-) -- Let us wait and see if @Poorav is helped by this method; maybe we must also help at the BIOS/UEFI level to make the computer boot from USB. – sudodus Mar 31 '18 at 08:19
  • Talking about tools with a final checkpoint, I can refer to this link: [Accidentally did dd /dev/sda](https://askubuntu.com/questions/982552/accidentally-did-dd-dev-sda/982649?s=10|15.0315#982649). You can scroll down to 'Safer tools to create USB boot drives with Ubuntu'. – sudodus Apr 06 '18 at 08:54
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My laptop suffered from similar problem, what i did is that i

1- disabled 'fast BIOS Mode' under the advanced settings.

2- disabled 'UEFI Boot support' (although my laptop doesnt have UEFI but this option is there is the BIOS settings, after disabling these it recognises the bootable usb)

waqar
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I remember having this problem on an older laptop a year or two ago. It probably has something to do with how the computer is trying to start. Sometimes UEFI won't launch a Legacy USB and vice versa. Make sure you're iso file is for UEFI booting or disable that and use Legacy, but then you need to make sure that your iso file is the one that boots with Legacy.

shouperman
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Try to put your bootable media in USB 3.0 ports instead of 2.0 It seems that 2.0 ports are totally frozen in my case. Ubuntu does not recognize any input in the test mode of bootable usb media and also after I managed to inatall the entire OS including keyboard or mouse.

Woochul Jung
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    Also the reverse is sometimes true. If USB 3.0 ports don't work try inserting the USB bootable media in a USB 2.0 port. Also sometimes trying any other USB port works. And if none of these work sometimes trying a different USB stick works. – karel Dec 24 '18 at 14:41
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    I have just experienced this issue in a HP 15-bc451ns, where Ubuntu 18.10 doesn't load in a USB3.0 (marked as USB SS) but yes in a USB 2.0 – Nothor Jan 24 '19 at 19:28
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I have been struggling for ten years with the problem that an older computer (32 Bit Acer Aspire One) BIOS does recognize my USB .iso file. I just today found the answer from a wiser person than I and I want to share this with all of you.

Here is how to do it properly: If your computer has only LEGACY boot mode, the USB stick has to have a MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table before making a .iso installation (boot) file. And the USB should have a single FAT32 partition.

If your computer is in UEFI boot mode, the USB stick has to be formatted to have a GPT (GUID Partition Table) partition type.

So in short: if your USB has a GPT partition table, it won’t work in legacy-computer, and if your USB has a MBR-partition table, it won’t work in UEFI-computer (might work since UEFI is the new standard and may be backwards compatible).

THE SOLUTION IS: Change partition table type (MBR vs GPT) of the USB to correspond the boot mode of the computer (Legacy vs UEFI).

In Linux you can change partition table type of the USB stick in GParted or KDE Partition Manager and your problem is solved: Your computer now recognizes the USB stick!!!!

Sometimes GParted and KDE Partition Manager won't do the job. Then you have to use program called Disks, which will erase old partition table and create new.

However, when I tried to re-do an install to the same Acer Aspire One, it did not succeed.

After multiple attempts and hours of research, I did find a writing that said that another USB device connected to port near USB stick may cause the computer not to recognize the USB iso-stick.!!!

I had a mouse connected to port next to USB stick and removing the mouse everything worked again: Computer recognized the USB .iso and started booting from it.

So remove all other USB devices before inserting an USB .iso.

UPDATE: Trying to boot from USB iso third time gave following error: USB 5-5 device descriptor read/64, error -71 and solution was found in here:

By adding the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/options (I did not have an options file there, it had a different name):

options usbcore use_both_schemes=y

computer recognized USB stick and it solved this problem.

H2onvety
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I was unable to boot from USB key with an ASUS N53s Laptop with a key made from Lunbutu V18 to setup an Ubuntu V20.

Seems the key use the UEFI mode. The BIOS saw it, the GRUB menu was displayed but stalled after pressing Enter key.

So I reinstalled the key from Windows using Rufus (look like it make a not UEFI one) and I used the "Bypass boot order" or "Boot override" section provided by the ASUS BIOS. The section list all the connected USB devices, you select the one you want to boot in directly and it worked !

Putting the USB key, first in the boot order was no enough, it was looping into the BIOS menu.

Tilermind
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I encountered issue when trying to boot ubuntu 22.04-lts on HP envy x360. I wrote here how did I resolved it: https://chanon.info/install-ubuntu-22.04-on-hp-envy-x360/

Basically, with Rufus, you need to enable 'Add fixes for old BIOSes' option. Hopes this help.

Chanon
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