[Installation] Bootable USB

[milda]

Hi,

I cannot get my USB to become bootable. I have tried downloading the ISO file twice. I have disabled secure boot in BIOS. I have tried the USB drive on two different Windows PC´s but it won´t work. I have created the bootable USB with Rufus and I have tried v. 4.4 and v. 4.6. I have created a bootable USB three times now with Rufus. I need some help here as I really need to install Debian on a new PC. Both of the PC´s I have tried it with boots up fine with Acronis True Image bootable USB and also Easeus Partition Master bootable USB, so that means that the PC´s boots up with bootable USB´s I guess.

Kind regards | milda

[ann_droid]

Hi

Did you try to verify the download ....

Windows 10 PowerShell and LibreOffice Calc & Writer to make a HASH of IT.

PS C:\>get-filehash and enter the path to the ISO file.

PS C:\> get-filehash

cmdlet Get-FileHash at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
Path[0]: U:\Downloads\openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Build710.3-Media.iso
Path[1]:

Algorithm Hash Path
--------- ---- ----
SHA256 A74D4072E639C75CA127DF3D869C1E57BCC44A093A969550F348A3EAD561FE4F U:\Downloads\openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Build710.3-Media.iso

PS C:\> "A74D4072E639C75CA127DF3D869C1E57BCC44A093A969550F348A3EAD561FE4F". ToLower()
a74d4072e639c75ca127df3d869c1e57bcc44a093a969550f348a3ead561fe4f You can use LibreOffice Writer to Convert to lower case of course.

Open the openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Media.iso.sha256 in Writer, copy & paste the checksum into cell A1 of Calc,
then the PowerShell version into cellA2. =IF(A1=A2,"YES","NO")

a74d4072e639c75ca127df3d869c1e57bcc44a093a969550f348a3ead561fe4f
a74d4072e639c75ca127df3d869c1e57bcc44a093a969550f348a3ead561fe4f
YES

You may actually see (probably) that it matches without the formula being applied.

Linux Command Line and LibreOffice Calc & Writer to make a HASH of IT.

$ sha256sum and enter the path to the ISO file.

$ sha256sum /mnt/UTILarea/DOWNLOADS/openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Build710.3-Media.iso
a74d4072e639c75ca127df3d869c1e57bcc44a093a969550f348a3ead561fe4f /mnt/UTIL….LOADS/openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Build710.3-Media.iso

a74d4072e639c75ca127df3d869c1e57bcc44a093a969550f348a3ead561fe4f openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Media.iso

Open the openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Media.iso.sha256 in Writer, copy & paste the checksum into cell A1 of Calc,
then the Linux command line version into cellA2. =IF(A1=A2,"YES","NO")

a74d4072e639c75ca127df3d869c1e57bcc44a093a969550f348a3ead561fe4f
a74d4072e639c75ca127df3d869c1e57bcc44a093a969550f348a3ead561fe4f
YES

You may actually see (probably) that it matches without the formula being applied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would also compare the type of USB that does boot, is it for Legacy or MBR?

If in doubt please ask.

[milda]

Hi Ann_Droid

Thanks for your reply. It is compicated to understand all that for someone who is not that experienced - that´s me. It´s Debian and not OpenSuSE that I need to have bootable. Do you think I should try to make a bootable USB with OpenSuSE or Fedora, for instance?

Kind regards | milda

[pbear]

Rufus used to be reliable. Something went sideways about a year ago and I haven't been able to figure out what. Two other GUI apps to consider are BalenaEtcher and Universal USB Installer. Yet another option (and what I use these days) is Ventoy. Does have the burden of being a bit complicated to set up. On the bright side, once over that hump, it's super easy to use; you simply copy ISO files to the Ventoy drive and boot directly from them; it even boots Windows ISOs. A third option would be to find a friend who runs Linux and ask them to burn the ISO for you. Doesn't matter what distro they use; almost all have a burn-to-USB app.

Last but not least, have you considered virtual machine? That's what I recommend anyway to folks coming to Linux from Windows for the first time. There's a bit of a learning curve for the virtualization software (I recommend VirtualBox, a free app from Oracle), but not bad. Upsides include (i) can boot the installer or live session directly from the ISO; (ii) able to install Linux without disturbing or modifying Windows in any way; (iii) can create as many VMs as you have storage space to accommodate, making it easier to see which version works best for you; and (iv) it's a good way to test things, as you can snapshot the pre-test state of the VM, then restore with the click of a button when the test is finished. As an added bonus, once you have a Linux VM running, you can use that to burn the ISO to USB drive if-and-when you decide to go the next step and install to the computer.

By the way, it's extremely unlikely this is a download problem. If you used a browser or dedicated downloader app, it will have confirmed the checksum as a matter of course. Also, did you download the standard installer or a live ISO? If the former, I strongly suggest you use a live ISO. Much easier for newbies and also useful as a recovery drive. Notice there's a separate ISO for each desktop.

[juribel]

You might have success with Ventoy. Download it, prepare your USB device with it, then simply copy the ISO file(s) onto it. You can copy as many different ISOs onto the device as there is enough space left. When you boot from the stick, Ventoy will start and offer the ISOs to select for further booting.

[milda]

Hi Juriel and pbear,

Thanks for your suggestions. One thing I have not mentioned is that it boots up fine on an old laptop I have running Debian 12.9 on. I have been using Debian for some five years now and I want to have one Windows PC and one Linx PC. I have had OpenSuSE installed on a Windows machine using Virtualbox many years ago. When I ugraded Debian last summer or so I used Rufus to create a bootable USB for that and it worked just fine. So my first step here is to try other software for creating a bootable USB. Vento seems a bit complicated and risky as it´s easy to choose the wrong drive to copy to - or at least that´s what I have read. I´ll have a look at Universal USB Installer first and then BalenaEtcher.

One thing: when you say that I can burn the ISO from my Debin Linux - do you mean burn it to a DVD or can I burn it to a USB? I do have an external DVD burner - might that be a choice?

Thank you for your help! I´ll be back if it stil does not work, which I hope it does.

Kind regards | milda

[ann_droid]

Hi

Ventoy is a good method ..........

Ventoy HOW2.jpg (81.22 KiB) Viewed 181 times

Ventoy options.png (47.7 KiB) Viewed 181 times

VENTOY 0 TO 9 small.jpg (187.96 KiB) Viewed 179 times

All the iso's worked, and YES doom does run on certain hardware straight from the ISO.

[pbear]

Vento seems ... risky as it´s easy to choose the wrong drive to copy to - or at least that´s what I have read.

That's nonsense, cite please. Ventoy doesn't even offer to install to an internal drive unless the user jumps through hoops.*

* Obviously, no one would install Ventoy to the system drive, but some users have more than one internal drive.

Anyhoo, as you have a computer with Debian installed, see the FAQ on how to write to USB drive. CLI but simple.

[ann_droid]

Hi

There is evidence of Ventoy causing problems with a particular distro, but none of that applies to Debian.

[juribel]

I never had the slightest problem using Ventoy. But... Ventoy or not: as always, whenever you play with your data storage media, you should always know what you do.