Framework 16 can't detect my flash drive

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
1

Hello all.
I am trying to install Linux on the framework 16. I successfully installed Ubuntu 20.04 on it. The problem is that I absolutely hate ubuntu and want to change it now to my preferred distro Linux Mint. I’ve read elsewhere that the recommended ISO is version 21.3 Edge, so I downloaded this into a flash drive. When I insert my flash drive in the FW16 (powered down), and I go to the bios it cannot see the flash drive. It just gives me a blank screen or the ubuntu options. Is there a fix to have the FW16 see my flash drive? I believe this might be related to updating the bios which I was unable to do again because I cannot boot from the flash drive.

2

Try another expansion slot? There have been reports on some USB sticks not booting from every slot. [RESPONDED] Issue with booting USB from port 6
Try both BIOS pages (press F2 or F12 repeatedly during boot). Disable secure boot?

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yes, i’ve tried both F2 and F12 with similar results. Yes, i’ve disabled secure boot.
Interestingly, when I switch the expansion slots, it can now see the drive, but when I choose boot from file, it opens files explorer into a empty screen. Perhaps I need to do something specific to the drive? I even reformatted it fat32, so the only file on it is the ISO.
Also, The flash drive is 16 gb usb type-A, if it matters.

4

I don’t think you can boot the ISO. You’ve got to flash the ISO to the stick and should see a normal file system.

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5

Uh you need ro “burn” the iso to the flash drive. You can use balenaEtcher for example to so it

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Ah this is the step I forgot. Thank you both. Let me try that now.

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Yep, that did the trick. FW16 was able to boot up to Linux Mint after I burned it on the drive. Thanks again.

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8

You can set up ISO Boot in GRUB2, so if you want to have multiple ISOs just copied onto a drive, that’s certainly possible to set up, but it requires manual configuration.

If you just want to set up a drive for a single installer, using a utility to flash the disk image (ISO) to the drive is probably the best way to do things

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