Booting this flashdrive has been working for years on hundreds of computers but I just have this one computer that I cannot figure out how to get it to boot on. I have a Sony Vaio that will not boot to this device...
I had a similar problem with an ASUS laptop running Aptio UEFI (BIOS). If the UEFI does not detect the media as bootable, then you won't be able to select it as a boot option. As a matter of fact, I was not even able to enter the boot menu. In the old days, we would always be able to enter the boot menu, select the media and get an error message when attempting to boot.
To resolve the problem I experienced, I had to write a script to rebuild the ISO for the image I was trying to boot to using mkisofs
. The Super User question is here, and the Fedora bug report is here.
The bug report includes the script, and its reproduced below. It requires a working Linux system with a few packages installed. Once you have the remastered ISO, just burn it to a DVD with something like Brasero. Or write it to your thumb drive (see, for example, How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows or How to create a bootable USB stick
on Ubuntu).
I never did figure out why the UEFI/BIOS claimed the media was not bootable. I think the UEFI may have hard-coded a filename to a particular case. Or it may have been something with the ISO File System that the remastering fixed...
#!/bin/bash
# Fix no UEFI boot on Ubuntu and Fedora when on ASUS Q500A laptops with
# Aptio UEFI version 208. This may be useful for more EFIs.
#
# Be sure to have packages 'isoinfo', 'mkisofs' and 'genisoimage' installed.
#
# Refer to the following for building a bootable UEFI DVD:
# http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Pjones/BootableCDsForBIOSAndUEFI
#
# Place this script and the ISO to fix in the same directory. Adjust
# the filenames as necessary. Then run `sudo ./fix-uefi-iso.sh`.
UBUNTU=1
FEDORA=0
# Typical Ubuntu
if [ "$UBUNTU" = "1" ]; then
SOURCE_ISO=`pwd`/ubuntu-13.10-desktop-amd64.iso
DESTINATION_ISO=`pwd`/ubuntu-13.10-desktop-remastered-amd64.iso
MOUNT_POINT=ubuntu-13-10
fi
# Typical Fedora
if [ "$FEDORA" = "1" ]; then
SOURCE_ISO=`pwd`/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-19-1.iso
DESTINATION_ISO=`pwd`/Fedora-Live-Desktop-remastered-x86_64-19-1.iso
MOUNT_POINT=fedora-19-1
fi
MOUNT_DIR=/media/"$MOUNT_POINT"
TEMP_DIR=`mktemp -d -t ISO-XXXXXXXX`
echo "Source ISO: $SOURCE_ISO"
echo "Destination ISO: $DESTINATION_ISO"
echo "Mount directory: $MOUNT_DIR"
echo "Temp directory: $TEMP_DIR"
if [ -e "$DESTINATION_ISO" ]; then
rm "$DESTINATION_ISO"
fi
if [ ! -d "$MOUNT_DIR" ]; then
mkdir "$MOUNT_DIR"
fi
echo "Mounting $SOURCE_ISO"
mount -o loop -t iso9660 "$SOURCE_ISO" "$MOUNT_DIR"
echo "Copying $MOUNT_DIR to $TEMP_DIR for writing"
cp -a "$MOUNT_DIR" "$TEMP_DIR"
CURR_DIR=`pwd`
cd "$TEMP_DIR/$MOUNT_POINT"
echo "Renaming BOOTx64.efi"
if [ -e "EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi" ]; then
mv "EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi" "EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi"
echo " BOOTx64.efi -> bootx64.efi"
fi
if [ -e "EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.EFI" ]; then
mv "EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.EFI" "EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi"
echo " BOOTx64.EFI -> bootx64.efi"
fi
if [ -e "EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi" ]; then
mv "EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi" "EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi"
echo " BOOTX64.efi -> bootx64.efi"
fi
if [ -e "EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI" ]; then
mv "EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI" "EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi"
echo " BOOTX64.EFI -> bootx64.efi"
fi
VOLUME_LINE=`isoinfo -d -i "$SOURCE_ISO" | grep -i "Volume id:"`
VOLUME_NAME=${VOLUME_LINE:11}
echo "Volume name: $VOLUME_NAME"
# Typical Ubuntu
if [ "$UBUNTU" = "1" ]; then
BIN_FILE=`find . -iname isolinux.bin`
BIN_NAME=${BIN_FILE:2}
CAT_FILE=`find . -iname boot.cat`
CAT_NAME=${CAT_FILE:2}
IMG_FILE=`find . -iname efi.img`
IMG_NAME=${IMG_FILE:2}
fi
# Typical Fedora
if [ "$FEDORA" = "1" ]; then
BIN_FILE=`find . -iname isolinux.bin`
BIN_NAME=${BIN_FILE:2}
CAT_FILE=`find . -iname boot.cat`
CAT_NAME=${CAT_FILE:2}
IMG_FILE=`find . -iname efiboot.img`
IMG_NAME=${IMG_FILE:2}
fi
# echo "BIN_NAME: $BIN_NAME"
# echo "CAT_NAME: $CAT_NAME"
# echo "IMG_NAME: $IMG_NAME"
if [ -z "$BIN_NAME" ]; then
echo "Error: could not find isolinux.bin."
fi
if [ -z "$CAT_NAME" ]; then
echo "Error: could not find boot.cat."
fi
if [ -z "$IMG_NAME" ]; then
echo "Error: could not find efi.img or efiboot.img."
fi
cd "$TEMP_DIR/$MOUNT_POINT"
mkisofs -U -A "$VOLUME_NAME" -V "$VOLUME_NAME" -volset "$VOLUME_NAME" \
-input-charset utf-8 -J -joliet-long -r -v -T -x ./lost+found \
-o "$DESTINATION_ISO" -b "$BIN_NAME" -c "$CAT_NAME" -no-emul-boot \
-boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -eltorito-alt-boot \
-e "$IMG_NAME" -no-emul-boot .
chmod a+rw "$DESTINATION_ISO"
read -p "Press [Enter] key to delete TEMP_DIR and unmount MOUNT_DIR..."
rm -rf "$TEMP_DIR"
umount "$MOUNT_DIR"
cd "$CURR_DIR"
I have the same problem, my external boot device is enabled but still does not boot from USB – Ahmed – 2015-02-27T03:50:33.923
thanks, but other than that u can try to make external device boot the first option in bios->boot, then press f12 on restart, worked on my sony vaio VPCYB35AN – None – 2012-07-15T10:38:02.797