<p>
I want to create a bootable 12.2 USB stick. I followed the instructions on the [https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Live_USB_stick#Bootable_USB_from_DVD_or_Net-install"]](http://maxqnzs.com/bootorder1.jpg http://maxqnzs.com/bootorder2.jpg I miss using Suse and would love to have a Suse on a stick, bootable with storage space as well, and be able to use it with my main PC. Any suggestions on how to fix this would be gratefully received.</p>
The ability to boot from a USB thumb drive is not determined by the Operating System you use, but your BIOS setup. If you have a new computer and Windows 8, you might have a UEFI BIOS enabled which only boots a signed OS, but otherwise, the ability to boot from any device is determined by your BIOS setup and the USB disk you are trying to boot from. You must normally elect to restart your PC with the Boot device plugged in and your BIOS set to boot it before any other device that actually has a disk in it. A USB thumb drive that boots on one PC should boot on another if the second PC BIOS is setup properly and is not a Windows boot up thing. I do have a bash script to create a bootable USB drive you can find here: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/s-c-l-u-suse-create-live-usb-version-1-00-82/
Thank You,
Thanks for the quick response. I know it’s a BIOS setup issue, which is why I posted the screenshots of what I saw when I tried to modify the BIOS settings. The BIOS only lists two devices, and so I thought I’d ask here how to make it see my USB stick, which is working fine on my laptop.
A USB drive will be a hard drive. With it plugged in, restart and go into BIOS setup and put it first among the hard drives. If we assume no CD/DVD is in place, then the Thumb Drive should boot 1st. On my Dell Laptop, External USB drives are a separate listed category, so it is a BIOS dependent thing on just exactly what you will do to make it boot.
Thank You,
I am very grateful for your patience, and apologise for my vague, fuzzy posts. The screenshots I took show the boot options available to me when I restart the PC with the bootable USB stick in place. They are exactly the same as the options available to me when the USB stick is not inserted - there is no separate listing for USB drives (as there is in my laptop’s BIOS) and no new device appears as an option when I boot with the stick in. The boot order remains “P3” ( CD/DVD) then “P6” (HDD) and that’s it, with only those two devices showing up anywhere in the BIOS boot menus.
Try using using the Hard Drive BBS Priorities option to find and place the Thumb Drive First.
Thank You,
Thanks for the suggestion about the Hard Drive BBS Priorities. Sadly, no luck there either. This is what I see there:
http://maxqnzs.com/disabled.jpg
It looks like I need to find out how to get my BIOS allow booting from a USB drive. At least the stick works on the laptop!
On 2012-11-27 23:56, maxqnz wrote:
> Thanks for the quick response. I know it’s a BIOS setup issue, which is
> why I posted the screenshots of what I saw when I tried to modify the
> BIOS settings. The BIOS only lists two devices, and so I thought I’d ask
> here how to make it see my USB stick, which is working fine on my
> laptop.
There was a recent thread of somebody with a Seagate external drive,
which refused to boot. Seagate support confirmed that they did not
support booting from (that) external drive on USB.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Thanks. I know it’s not an issue with the USB stick, since it works fine in the Acer laptop with an older BIOS. It’s beginning to look like I might to have to flash the BIOS on my PC to get the latest update. What I had hoped would be a simple, fun re-entry into Suse has turned into a time-consuming hassle that I will have to shelve until I have the time, without disruptive periods of nonproductive sue of my peimary PC. 
The bios looks similar to my asus p8h77-m pro. I can put the usb stick in and boot using f8 to select the boot device. The menu lists the devices available for booting. your usb device should be there. Select it and it should boot.
Thanks for your reply. Someone suggested that on another forum too - here’s what I get when I press F8 with the stick inserted:
http://maxqnzs.com/f8.jpg
As a wild guess - some BIOSes are known to support only boot from USB in “floppy” mode - i.e. drive without partitions. Some support only HDD mode - i.e. you must have one (and often exactly one, the first) partition with MBR etc.