I can't boot to either an optical drive nor a live USB [SOLVED]

[relztrah]

I'm trying to boot to a live CD in an external optical drive or a live USB. I can't do either. My laptop always boots directly to MX Linux regardless of the boot settings.




I believe the boot order is correct. I could show a screen shot of MX boot options for either the optical drive or the USB and it shows the same. Whichever one I have connected, I set to boot first.

I set the BIOS to boot to one or the other, depending on which I had connected. So that's not the problem. Here is my system info.

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System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-28-amd64 [6.1.119-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-28-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.4_x64 Libretto September 15  2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: T100TA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: T100TA v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends
    v: T100TA.304 date: 03/14/2014
Battery:
  ID-1: BATC charge: 5.8 Wh (20.9%) condition: 27.7/30.6 Wh (90.5%) volts: 3.5 min: 3.8 model: Intel
    SR 1 SR Real Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging cycles: 20
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Atom Z3740 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Silvermont level: v2 built: 2013-15
    process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x37 (55) stepping: 3 microcode: 0x31E
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 224 KiB desc: d-4x24 KiB; i-4x32 KiB
    L2: 2 MiB desc: 2x1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 566 high: 666 min/max: 533/1866 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 533 2: 666 3: 533 4: 533 bogomips: 10666
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; STIBP: disabled; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not
    affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-7 process: Intel 22nm built: 2012-13 ports: active: DSI-1
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0f31 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1368x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99") s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: DSI-1 res: 1368x768 hz: 60 size: N/A modes: 1368x768
  API: OpenGL v: 4.2 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (BYT) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Message: No device data found.
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-28-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Message: No PCI device data found.
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 65.86 GiB used: 10.93 GiB (16.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk2 maj-min: 179:0 vendor: SK Hynix model: HCG8e size: 58.25 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0x6 scheme: GPT
  SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data.
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: PNY model: USB 2.0 FD size: 7.61 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 58 GiB size: 56.79 GiB (97.91%) used: 10.93 GiB (19.2%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/mmcblk2p2 maj-min: 179:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 314 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/mmcblk2p1 maj-min: 179:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 1024 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 6280.4 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2143 libs: 1064 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 225 Uptime: 1m wakeups: 1 Memory: 1.81 GiB used: 1004.9 MiB (54.3%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[fehlix]

I'm trying to boot to a live CD in an external optical drive or a live USB. I can't do either. My laptop always boots directly to MX Linux regardless of the boot settings.

Most UEFI system firmware offer to show a UEFI boot options list to select an EFI-boot entry, e.g by pressing a Fn-key (depends on the system in use)
at POST, i.e. just after power on - or when you see a firmware logo.

[relztrah]

Even with that settting it doesn't boot to the USB.

[Eadwine Rose]

Have you checked the integrity of the USB, is the burn ok, did the downloaded file's checksums match?

[j2mcgreg]

Those PNY usb drives can be hit and miss. Try a drive from another brand.

[fehlix]

I'm trying to boot to a live CD in an external optical drive or a live USB. I can't do either.

Maybe tell us what's on the CD or USB you try to boot, and how the media was created.

[relztrah]

I'm trying to boot to a live CD in an external optical drive or a live USB. I can't do either.

Maybe tell us what's on the CD or USB you try to boot, and how the media was created.

I am trying to boot to Puppy Linux. I have the live CD/USB both of which were created from the .iso file.

[fehlix]

I am trying to boot to Puppy Linux. I have the live CD/USB both of which were created from the .iso file.

One reason sometimes the DVD/CD-Drive is faulty or too slow, and very often cheep USB-sticks can be the cause of an boot issue.
Sometime a downloaded ISO is corrupt. In case you have not checksum verified the iso.
Maybe post the sha256 checksum, so we can compare:

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sha256sum filename.iso

In case checksum is identical to the one on the download page,try another USB-key and also try to boot the USB on another PC.
If still not, maybe we can boot the ISO from USB/DVD with help of another UEFI boot manager.
But perhaps verify first the checksum, next use another USB-stick.
And finally we can use rEFInd UEFI bootmanager, which happens to be in most cases a very good rescue tool, to circumvent
faulty UEFI firmware and often allow to boot from attached drives, where buildin UEFI firmware would fail.

[relztrah]

My genuine thanks all who have responded. I am going to mark this thread SOLVED, although it's not exactly solved in the sense that I can now boot to a live USB drive. But it's solved for me since I don't have the time or energy to pursue it any further. I've attempted every possible solution: checked all BIOS settings, checked all settings in MX Linux, did checksums on each ISO file, created the bootable flash drives from other computers, etc. Nothing seems to work. What I didn't do it attempt to install Puppy on another laptop using the same live USB flash drive. But like I wrote previously, I won't be using this laptop much anyway, and I have a working Linux distro installed on it. So I'll just leave it with MX Linux and learn to love it. In fact MX Linux was recommended to me as a good option for this ASUS 2-in-1.

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how I managed to load MX Linux on it from a flash drive in the first place.