Ubuntu Bootable USB stick: The “elusive” 😂 “Try or Install Ubuntu” option...
Tags: ubuntu, usb, installation, bootable
Published: 2023-05-26 12:49:25

<em style="color:#111;">My Ubuntu 22.10 no longer booted. I tried to do a reinstallation using the original bootable USB stick, but there was no “Try or Install Ubuntu” option. The BIOS USB 3.0 option setting seems to affect this behaviour.</em>

Back in December, 2022, my first <a href="https://releases.ubuntu.com/kinetic/" title="Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu)" target="_blank">Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu)</a> installation went smoothly. 

The machine I installed it to is my old laptop, an <em>HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC</em>, its <code>Born On Date</code> is <code>04/October/2014</code>, the original OS was Windows 8.1. All USB ports are USB 2.0. The Ubuntu bootable USB stick I use is also USB 2.0, I purposely selected USB 2.0 for bootable USB stick.

I scrapped Windows 8.1, installing only Ubuntu 22.10.

In the laptop BIOS, I changed the boot order, moved <code>USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk</code> as the first option:

![068-01.jpg](https://behainguyen.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/068-01.jpg)

Inserted the bootable USB stick and rebooted the machine. From thence on, just followed the instructions in the official document <a href="https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-desktop#1-overview" title="Install Ubuntu desktop" target="_blank">Install Ubuntu desktop</a>.

Third week of May, 2023; while experimenting with some configurations, I installed <code>SELinux</code> -- which damaged my Ubuntu 22.10. (<code>SELinux</code> is no longer for Ubuntu 22.10, do not install it). After this, when booted up, it just displayed the <code>GRUB</code> menu, I can't work it out. So I decided that it is simpler just to reinstall.

I change BIOS boot option as before, using the same bootable USB stick... There was no <code>Try or Install Ubuntu</code> option! The available options are:

![068-02.jpg](https://behainguyen.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/068-02.jpg)
![068-03.jpg](https://behainguyen.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/068-03.jpg)

Neither of those four (4) available options helps.

After a few hours of searching, I came across a post discussing a similar issue, whereby the author has a single sentence which mentions that if there is a USB 3.0 option in the BIOS, it should be set to <code>Auto</code>. Focusing on getting my problem addressed, I forgot to write down the URL of the post, I could not find it for reference in this post, I do apologise for that. 

In my laptop BIOS, there is an <code>USB3.0 Configuration in Pre-OS</code> and it was set to <code>Enabled</code>: <strong>this is the default setting, it was like this the first time I installed Ubuntu 20.10</strong>:

![068-04-usb-3-enabled.jpg](https://behainguyen.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/068-04-usb-3-enabled.jpg)

I do not know why it worked at the first time! I set it to <code>Auto</code>:

![068-05-usb-3-auto.jpg](https://behainguyen.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/068-05-usb-3-auto.jpg)

This time, it does have the <code>Try or Install Ubuntu</code> option:

![068-06-install-option.jpg](https://behainguyen.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/068-06-install-option.jpg)

I am in the dark as to why it is like this... But that's how it is. Afterward, I went to the BIOS again, set the first boot option to <code>OS boot Manager</code>.

That's about it for this post. Thank you for reading. I do hope someone will find this post useful. Stay safe as always.