USB Persistent Mode not on the boot menu - UEFI MB

[Blackcat12]

I am new to Linux and have searched the net, but I cannot find a clear answer for this issue. I have an Asus Sabertooth 990fx Gen 3 motherboard and I believe that the UEFI is causing my problem. I am hoping that someone here can provide a little guidance. I am looking forward to spending some time with Linux to get comfortable and then make the switch.

I am using the 64bit Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon as my source iso and have used several different programs (Linux Live USB Creator, Universal USB Creator, Live-USB-Install) to create bootable USB flash drives with persistent mode. Regardless of which app that I used to create the usb boot drive with, I am only seeing the Live Mode during boot up on my desktop. I have checked these same usb drives on a Dell laptop (from my office) and I see a different boot menu. I am able to boot with persistent mode when using the laptop.

Does anyone know how I can get this to work with persistent mode on my desktop?

[gold_finger]

Well, since nobody has answered you yet, I'm guessing they're all thinking the same thing as me -- "Never heard of that problem before. Gonna wait to see if someone else has."

I've never used the programs you listed to create a live USB, so not familiar with what kind of menu they use at start-up. I've used UNetbootin and a couple of linux-only programs. From my experience using those, I don't recall ever seeing a choice to use persistence or not at the startup menu. (Not implying that yours can't be doing that -- just that I've never seen it.) For me, if the USB was created with a persistence file, it is booted that way with use of the persistence file automatically enabled. There is nothing on startup or afterwards "announcing" that persistence is enabled.

My guess is that if you did correctly tell those programs to make a live USB with a persistence file (which you normally have to specify the size of), then that's what they did. Maybe for some reason unknown they announce that on one computer but not the other. I don't know. But I'd imagine they would use it if you put it there.

To confirm that, boot into your USB, open up a text editor or the LibreOffice Writer program, create a test document and save it to your Documents folder. Then shutdown/reboot into the USB and see if that test document is still there in your Documents folder. If it is, that means it IS using persistence. It would not be there if persistence were not enabled.

If it's not there and you perform the same test successfully on the Dell laptop, then I haven't got the slightest clue why that is happening.

Only suggestion if that's the case is to try using UNetbootin. It's available for use in Windows, MAC and Linux. Here's the site: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Report back what happens with your test please, especially if you could do it on one computer, but not the other. Got my curiosity peaked with this one!

[usbtux]

I can only get persistence to work with unetbootin here's how to do it:-
http://youtu.be/pq2bsTh_dDs How to use unetbootin to make a liveusb from windows
Install Unetbootin via synaptic then - Use Unetbootin in Linux Mint http://youtu.be/HRMzroqA1Wc

[Blackcat12]

Thank you for the responses. I have downloaded unetbootin as recommended and formatted the stick made a new USB boot drive. The results are the same as with the other boot stick creators.

I have a black screen on my desktop boot menu with 4 options.
1. Linux Mint 16
2. Linux Mint 16 compatibility mode
3. Check Integrity
4. Test Memory

When I boot on the laptop with the same stick, I get a blue box with 10 options. I let it boot using the first (Default) option and created a test document. Then rebooted the laptop and the test document is still there. What I see as the last 4 options on the laptop blue box boot menu are essentially the only 4 that I see on the desktop, but without the blue box.

To date, all of the boot sticks had been created from my desktop so I tried creating one from my laptop as well. Unfortunately, the results are identical.

[gold_finger]

I have a black screen on my desktop boot menu with 4 options.
1. Linux Mint 16
2. Linux Mint 16 compatibility mode
3. Check Integrity
4. Test Memory

If you pick one of the first two options here, will it actually boot-up the live Mint USB so you can use it, or do you then get a black screen and are unable to do anything else?

[Blackcat12]

The system will boot, but it is Live Mode rather than Persistent. All of my installed apps are gone on the next boot.

The issue is definitely with UEFI. I just went in to my BIOS on boot up to have another look. I noticed that the UEFI device is also being listed a second time, but without the UEFI label. I changed the boot sequence to use the non-UEFI device label and it booted properly. However, this setting /choice in the BIOS boot sequence will not stick. I have to first go into bios and change it each time.

[gold_finger]

To be honest, I'm really not sure how to get around that. I'm stumped!

If your USB is 16GB or larger and you have a DVD drive, you could try burning a live DVD to boot from, then do a full installation (not a "live" one -- a real install) to the USB. That may be a bit tricky with a UEFI set-up and I've got no experience doing that. I would imagine that the safest way would be to set-up partitions needed for UEFI ahead of time on the USB, then direct the installer to them. You could use GParted from the live DVD to set those partitions up on the USB.

As a hypothetical example:

• Create a "gpt" partition table on the USB. (In GParted -- Device -> Create Partition Table -> gpt.)
  250MB partition for an ESP boot partition, formatted FAT32, flagged as something like "/boot/efi".
  Rest of space for the "/" root partition, formatted Ext4.
  Don't bother with separate "/home" partition
  Don't bother with "swap" partition if you have 4GB or more of RAM
  Be sure to NOT install grub to the ESP on the hard drive.

Try using the search engine in my signature line below to find references on installing to USB's with UEFI.

Sorry, can't be of more help. I'm as stumped as you on this.

[Blackcat12]

Thank you for all of your feedback. I have a new 16gb stick here. I will give your full installation suggestion a try this week-end.

[gold_finger]

Blackcat12,

Just found this -- may be helpful: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI# ... _partition

Edit added 4:59pm
One more page that might have something useful with regards to booting:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/i ... -supported

[Tyvain]

Hello,

I am facing the exact same issue. I tried to install a persistant USB key using lili (and some alternativ soft), but they always boot as live: I loose everything when I reboot.

I spent maybe 10 hours this week, trying many times, with different distribs (lubuntu, ubuntu, boghi, mint). But always the same problem.

This is really annoying...

If you have any idea I can try, or how to solve, feel free to speak .

Thank you.

[Blackcat12]

I have not had great success yet. I used many programs to create the USB boot device, but the results are pretty much the same. My last attempt was to boot from a DVD burned from the ISO and install Linux on an external hard drive. I made a UEFI boot partition using GParted. I still cannot get my system to boot consistently on it. I have tried numerous setting in the BIOS/System Setup with no better success. Any of my devices will boot properly when connected to my laptop, which is not UEFI. UEFI seems to be very temperamental.

[gold_finger]

Did a little more looking around and found that there is a bug report about this -- so it is a problem and you guys aren't doing something wrong. In the bug report, there is a post suggesting to add the word "persistent" (w/o the quotations) to the boot parameters to fix the problem. (Until they fix the bug, you'll need to do this on every bootup of the live USB.) Don't know if it works, but poster sounded confident that it would, so give it a try and let us know if it worked.

Follow these instructions for how to add a boot parameter when booting from the live USB/DVD and follow steps to just add something to the end of line -- you'll need to type a space then the word persistent.
Changing the CD Boot Option Configuration Line

Hope this works.