Can't boot after install

[VaporTrail]

Greetings,

I'm trying to install Lite 3.6 on a Dell Inspiron 11 3162.  This is a fanless laptop (cheap) with a Celeron n3050, 2gb RAM and 32g MMC "hard" drive.  Install works perfectly and detects the MMC drive just fine but after install is complete the bios reports "no boot device found".

It IS set to LEGACY in the BIOS with Secure Boot OFF.

I've tried both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Lite but I'd prefer the 32-bit on this 2gb laptop.

TIA,

[TheDead]

Before anything, remove any USB devices, keys and memory cards and retry to boot.

There could be a grub "fix" but if there's nothing yet on the hard drive and it doesn't work, can you wipe the hard drive?
If yes, in GParted select your hard drive and delete everything and click Apply.
After, still in GParted, go in top menu and recreate partition table to MBR (MS-DOS).
Do not recreate partitions manually and try reinstall with default settings.

Cheers!

[VaporTrail]

Thanks for the reply,

I did exactly as suggested;  Booted into Live, used Gparted to remove everything, applied changes then created new MSDOS partition table.  Restarted and installed Lite accepting defaults.  ...Same results.

Various Linux distros install fine if set to UEFI mode, btw

[trinidad]

Yeah this has a really cheap BIOS (2011 version or so) You're going to have problems especially if you wiped the nv memory from the ssd, and you will have to run 64bit. The problem is you started out wiping the drive and probaly took out the esp and bios nv ram. Default your BIOS, probably even better to remove the battery and unjump and rejump the board with this setup. Anyway try defaulitng your BIOS first, set the clock too, then shutdown. Boot again and disable fast boot and enable boot menu. Shut down and boot again and try installing again using only the installer to install using the whole disk. It won't do any good to enable or disable UEFI as you have wiped the esp partition anyway. If it still doen't work you'll have to hack it, pull the SSD, install the system to it from another Intel box adding the firmware you'll need, and then put the SSD back in the lap. BIOS will porbably prompt for F1 key at boot post because of missing nvram. Hit F1 and see if it loads. If it does load update what you'll need to repair the system perphals on the lap.

TC

[VaporTrail]

I think you're right about having to use a 64bit OS.  I've just tried; Debian, Ubuntu and Lubuntu 32bit and they're a no-go.  64bit OS and UEFI and it's good.  Just installed KDE Neon 64bit in uefi mode and it boots fine.

It appears I will have to use a 64bit OS in UEFI mode.

[TheDead]

Strange that UEFI works with the settings you mentionned in the BIOS... oh well. v0v
Maybe a BIOS update would "fix" something. A bit late to try since you're not in Windows anymore, unless you made a clone before wiping?

ADD : Ah ah! :
https://askubuntu.com/questions/806151/d...stallation
A good read but it seems it needs Secure boot to work etc.

Good luck, again!

[VaporTrail]

I have to switch the BIOS back to UEFI mode to install a UEFI aware distro.

The BIOS is the most up-to-date at 2.3.0 from, December '17, I think.

I've fooled around with this thing for a while, frustrated the heck out of me.  Since it only has 2gb of ram I kept trying to use 32-bit distros, mostly Debian or Lubuntu.  I could usually get them to install in LEGACY boot mode with UEFI and Secure Boot turned off (obviously).  After reboot I got "no boot device found".

For whatever reason, I have to use a 64bit OS and be in UEFI mode (secure boot on or off doesn't matter).  It's the only way I can get an OS to boot and run after install.

Dell's response is that their "legacy" boot mode is only for booting and not intended for OS installation.  ...Not sure of their logic behind that.