- UEFI
- Boot and install
- Test if running in UEFI mode
- Stable portable systems — good for USB sticks
- Persistent USB drive that works with UEFI and BIOS
- One pendrive for all PC (Intel/AMD) computers
- A new and so far successful attempt to create a stable portable system, that works in UEFI and BIOS mode
- Installed system: add an ESP to an existing installation with MBR
- Creating an EFI-only image
- Ubuntu single boot in UEFI mode
- Introduction
- Prerequisites
- Dummy headlines
UEFI
There is a good wiki page about booting with UEFI, and a good tutorial thread, UEFI Installing — Tips.
Boot and install
If you want to boot in UEFI mode and install your Ubuntu flavour alongside Windows, you should use a 64-bit ISO file, for example
ubuntu-18.04.x-desktop-amd64.iso
Make the boot drive with for example mkusb, Disks, the new Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator (version 0.3.2) or the Win32 Disk Imager. These tools clone the iso file and are likely to succeed. Some ‘grub and ISO’ systems work in UEFI mode, others work only in BIOS mode. Syslinux does not work in UEFI mode.
If you have problems, try another tool to create the USB boot drive. You can also try the simple extraction described in this link. It works [only] in UEFI mode.
Test if running in UEFI mode
You may want to test if your Ubuntu flavour is running in [U]EFI mode. An installed system and a live system too is using the directory /sys/firmware/efi, so you can run the following command line,
test -d /sys/firmware/efi && echo efi || echo bios
The following command line is more robust and also easier to understand, so you may prefer it (if you copy & paste and are not bothered by typing a long command line),
if test -d /sys/firmware/efi; then echo efi; else echo bios; fi
Stable portable systems — good for USB sticks
Persistent USB drive that works with UEFI and BIOS
A persistent USB install of *buntu, usable with both Legacy and UEFI systems is described in the following post at the Ubuntu Forums
One pendrive for all PC (Intel/AMD) computers
You may want a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ pendrive, that works in most computers, from old 32-bit computers via 64-bit computers in BIOS mode to computers running in UEFI mode. It is useful for travelling and borrowing computers or for installing. There is a compressed image file and also a recipe how to make it, so that you can extend it or change it for what you need. See this tutorial about One pendrive for all (Intel/AMD) PC computers.
A new and so far successful attempt to create a stable portable system, that works in UEFI and BIOS mode
Installed system: add an ESP to an existing installation with MBR
Adding required partitions for different platforms
Platforms: Legacy PC, UEFI-based Windows computer, Apple computer
Creating an EFI-only image
If you need to install Ubuntu in EFI-only mode, you might want to create an EFI only image. Askubuntu describes how to do this.
Ubuntu single boot in UEFI mode
- to keep the systems separated, Ubuntu in one drive and Windows in another drive (so it will actually be a dual boot system, but not during the installation). Probably stable when installed in an internal drive.
- to make a portable installed Ubuntu USB pendrive for UEFI mode (portable alias works in many computers). Not stable when installed in an external drive (USB stick) because Windows can tamper with it, particularly during major updates [of Windows].
It is straight-forward to install Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS (64-bit), ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso in UEFI mode to the whole drive, when no other drive is connected in the computer.
This installation works without any tweaks. You need not run Boot Repair to make it work in UEFI mode, so version 16.04.1 LTS and newer versions work well with UEFI.
See this link with detailed instructions.
Installation/FromUSBStick/uefi (последним исправлял пользователь nio-wiklund 2020-01-24 08:34:22)
The material on this wiki is available under a free license, see Copyright / License for details
You can contribute to this wiki, see Wiki Guide for details
Introduction
Ubuntu can be installed from a USB flash drive. This may be necessary for most new portable computers without DVD drives and is handy for others because a USB flash drive is so convenient. Also, you can configure Ubuntu on the USB flash drive to save changes you make, unlike a read-only CD/DVD disk.
Booting from a USB flash drive created with usb-creator alias Startup Disk Creator and mkusb will behave just as if you had booted from the install CD. It will show the language selection and then the install menu, from which you can install Ubuntu onto the computer’s hard drive or launch the LiveCD environment. Other utilities, e.g. UNetbootin, may create slightly different boot drives or if on UEFI might not work at all with Debian iso files due to a bug
Note: This article uses the term «USB flash drive» alongside USB stick, USB drive, USB device, USB pendrive and thumb drive.
Prerequisites
- a 4 GB USB flash device/drive/stick. If the iso file is smaller than 2 GB, it is possible to use a 2 GB USB device, at least with some of the methods. Files on this USB device will be erased, so backup the files you want to keep before making the device bootable. Some of the tools require that this USB device is properly formatted and mounted while other tools will overwrite whatever is on the target device. Please follow the instructions for each tool.
- an Ubuntu flavour ISO file downloaded from an official web page, ubuntu.com/download or http://releases.ubuntu.com, stored in your running computer (for example in the directory Downloads in the internal drive, not in the USB flash drive that you want to make into a USB boot drive).
- Check with md5sum (or another checksum tool) that the download was good. In Linux there is the tool ‘md5sum’. In Windows you can do it with Rufus: click on the circle with a tick mark (more about Rufus here.)
Dummy headlines
After a major remake of this help page the following headlines are kept here because they may be linked to from other web sites. Several other headlines further down in the page are also kept for this reason.