Please help with not booting from USB so to install Debian

[Liam Proven]

On Fri, 9 Jun 2023 at 17:19, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
> >
> Thank you for that, Liam.

Happy to help;

> I have posted the URL for the message above, in the list archive, to the
> Debian list, for the particular user (and, anyone else interested), to
> read the message (and, so that they can follow the stepwise procedure),
> with the additional step, which, whilst it occurs to some of us, might
> not occur to all;

NP.

The trouble with this bit:

> "
> and, of course, after that procedure, in the system UEFI/BIOS, change
> the boot order to
>
> USB drive
> Optical (eg, DVD) drive (if the computer has one)
> HDD
>
> so that the computer should attempt to boot from the respective drives,
> in that order.
> "
>
> which, I suggest, would be worthwhile to add to the stepwise procedure,

The trouble is... troubles are...

"Boot device order" is a BIOS concept.

It *might* have an equivalent in a UEFI machine but it is by no means
guaranteed. It depends entirely on the vendor and revision of the
UEFI.

Some have a drive (or device) sequence; some don't.

Some mix in UEFI ESP boot entries to the above list; some don't.

Some have *only* a list of UEFI entries, no drives. Some let you
reorder this; some don't. Some let you reorder it, then ignore it and
boot the newest or the most recently updated or the one whose
partition is current or some other criterion I can't identify.

Some have one list of legacy boot and a different list for UEFI boot.
Some, the lists will change depending which you pick to be tried
first. Some ignore what you pick.

UEFI is a bit of a mess. UEFI is Intel's firmware for Itanium, called
EFI and 100% proprietary, ported to x86, standardised and allegedly
opened up.

Or, as I see it, UEFI is Intel's revenge on AMD for getting to set the
x86-64 standard, and Microsoft seized on it as a way to stab Linux and
FOSS OSes in the back, as is the company's style for getting on half a
century. The leopard does not change its spots.

 So, no, your suggestion does not work and that is why I did not even
attempt to suggest it. UEFI is far too variable and uncertain to give
any generic advice like this, sadly.

The best advice is: insert the medium, reboot, and try hammering away
on the F12 key during POST to get at the menu to set a temporary boot
device. If that doesn't work, try F2, Esc, F10, Del... or Google your
machine's make/model to find the keystroke.

I am still learning my way around UEFI. I am reasonably happy I know
how to make a machine boot from it now, and I have reconstructed
working ESPs by hand successfully.

But one of the main things it's taught me is that most fans and
advocates of UEFI have seen very little of the vast variety of UEFI
firmware out there, don't know how messy and inconsistent it is, and
have only thought about booting Their One Favourite OS on it (whatever
that is, doesn't matter) -- they have not investigated dual booting
much, or booting >2 OSes, or booting >2 related distros, or using
non-signed bootloaders, and so on. They have no real idea how bad it
is, and that's why they advocate it: from ignorance. They don't care,
either. No OS other than their favourite matters.

In the brave new world of legacy-free firmware, it is still the Wild
West and there is no sheriff to bring order.

Worse... it isn't even "universal" at all. Chromebooks don't use it.
Very few x86-32 machines use it, but some do, and there are also
x86-64 machines with 32-bit UEFI, and Linux does *not* like that
combination *at all*. Basically *no* Arm32 hardware uses it, and very
little Arm64 hardware does.

So while it's a thing, except for x86-64 PC compatibles where it's a
total mess, on anything else, it's probably not even there at all.

-- 
Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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