Multiple USB boot entries from BIOS

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello everyone!!

I have just purchased an ASUS Zenbook UX433F and wanted to install LEAP 15 on it.
Used imagewriter to create a bootable USB stick.
Sadly, I could not get to the installation screen. Moreover, there are numerous boot entries, sometimes over 10, that are displayed on the booting menu from BIOS (see attached image). Selecting each of them gave a blank dark screen with no possibility of editing.
I have repeated the process of creating the USB stick to no avail, only effect is to have different boot entries in the BIOS.

https://pasteboard.co/HZmpEgE.jpg

https://pasteboard.co/HZmpEgE.jpg

Please any help would be greatly appreciated.

As a side note, with imagewriter and the current ubuntu iso image I managed to install this linux version. I have been using opensuse for a long time (10.3) and really would like to continue.

PS: Excuse my poor English.

2

You might need to turn off secure-boot to get it to work.

Yes, that BIOS screen is confusing.

The way that I boot the installer, is I hit F12 during boot. Actually, I pound of F12 hoping that one of those will be right for the timing. As far as I know, most UEFI boxes have this option, though it is sometimes a different key (instead of F12). That gives a boot menu for this particular boot, rather than changing the default boot setup. Give that a try. It might be easier to work out which to select.

3

Thank you for your response.

I am sorry I forgot to mention that I had tried that as well, i.e., with secure-boot turned on and off. Also, the option Launch EFI Shell from filesystem device did not take me anywhere but the blank screen with no blinking cursor. The other BIOS variable was Fast Boot which has to be disabled in order to pick up the USB.

The keys that I have found during this (painful) process are

F2: BIOS menu
ESC: Boot menu.

4

This seems to be due to limitations of your UEFI firmware (BIOS).

5

The boot device selection key on my only Asus with UEFI is F8. It puts the default selection at the bottom of the list just above Enter Setup.

6

Thank you for the response.

Unfortunately, F8 does not gave solution. I believe that ESC key is the boot menu for this ASUS model.
Also selecting the last option (just above Enter Setup), or any option just give me the frustrating blank screen.

7

It i just so strange to me that with the same procedure (USB + imagewriter + ISO image) Ubuntu was successfully installed.
I guess all that is left to try is to delete all the secure boot keys. I was reluctant to do this since it sounds so drastic.

8

Exactly what does this mean? What is the last thing the screen shows before you give up? Does this screen never appear?
http://fm.no-ip.com/SS/Suse/YaST/150/dvd-UEFIinstallation.jpg

Pasteboard - Uploaded Image
That doesn’t load for me. If you use the susepaste command or https://susepaste.org/ instead then I can see what you pasted.

9

That screen never appears… It just goes to a blank screen with no blinking cursor

Here goes my image

https://susepaste.org/22009307

Thanks for your help!!

10

Even if you never figure out how to create installation media that boots, the presence of bootable Ubuntu enables you to install openSUSE without any installation media. The installation kernel and initrd can be loaded somewhere on an existing partition, then loaded via a custom boot stanza by the Ubuntu bootloader to start a openSUSE NET installation. This is probably the last such custom.cfg entry I used for UEFI net installtion:

menuentry "Install openSUSE 15.0 via HTTP" {
	search --no-floppy --label --set=root m12p03res
	linuxefi /os150/linux showopts install=http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.0/repo/oss hostname=ab250 ifcfg="192.168.###.###/24,192.168.###.###,8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4,ij.net mindspring.com earthlink.net spectrum.net" net.ifnames=0 kexec_reboot=0 ipv6.disable=1 BrokenModules=floppy video=1440x900@60 lang=en keytable=us Upgrade=1 
	initrdefi /os150/initrd
}

I’m surprised by the extent of the differences between your UEFI BIOS screen and mine: both 2018, yet mine has seven main headings to your five.

11

Those are great news… I will try the proposed solution then (have to study a little for full understanding)…

In case you are curious… Here are the rest of images from my BIOS

https://susepaste.org/84908167
https://susepaste.org/29339013
https://susepaste.org/76505914

Thanks again!!

12

Happy to report that I am writing this from LEAP 15.

nrickert, mrmazda thank you very much for your help.

I did as suggested (with some variations) and used the GRUB that came with the Ubuntu installation:

  1. Copied initrd and linux from the (NET) ISO image to some partition.
  2. Add a custom boot stanza which referenced these files.
  3. Step 2 got me the installer from which I proceed. I did make the mistake (I believe) of no formatting the /boot/efi partition. Now I have to clean this up since I had to go to the grub console to initiate LEAP 15.

I could not make a functional bootable USB stick using imagewriter with verified LEAP ISOs (“normal” and NET). My computer simply did not properly recognized them.

13

Super!

I did make the mistake (I believe) of no formatting the /boot/efi partition.
That would have been a painful mistake to correct. UEFI BIOS don’t react nicely to its content disappearing. The ESP partition should only be formatted before its first use on a new or freshly wiped disk.