Help restoring boot from external storage

Community Support
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1

After having trouble with the software setup on my new Framework 16 I had to set it aside for a while, and now that I’m coming back to it I can’t pick up where I left off.

Where I left off was having installed an OS on an external USB-C storage device[1], which I was able to boot from at the time. Coming back to it now I can’t get it to boot from the same external storage.

Following the instructions at How do I boot from a USB drive? I don’t see any boot options at all. Unplugging the external storage and plugging it back in did get the light on the storage device to come on, but did not get it to appear on the F12 screen (including after rebooting). The link from that page that says it goes to a workaround for this situation goes to How do I enter the BIOS on the Framework Laptop? , which does not describe a workaround. The BIOS only shows the two internal storage devices, not the external.

Does anyone know what I need to do to restore the ability to boot from my external storage again?

I have not (yet) enabled any of the boot security options in the BOIS.

  1. (I had trouble getting the installer to set up the partitioning I wanted; I plan to use the external to partition the internal storage in advance, then have the installer use the pre-made partitions. Once that’s working the external can be a rescue drive.) ↩︎

2

Which OS do you have installed?

3

The OS installed on the external before the BIOS stopped recognizing it is Debian 13. You think Debian somehow broke the BIOS?

4

Normally I would say no, but it is in beta, so I guess it’s a possibility?

5

Supposing it was that, any suggestions for how to fix it?

6

Use a usb to live boot a distro, and check your grub entries. You may have to re-install grub, I would follow this guide if you do: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing#via_ChRoot

7

The storage I installed to was a USB, which the BIOS has stopped detecting. I don’t see how grub entries on a device the BIOS doesn’t detect could be the thing that prevents the BIOS from detecting the device

8

Ok, there are several things in this page that you can try: https://askubuntu.com/questions/285539/detect-and-mount-devices

9

All of those depend on being able to boot to the OS, which is what I’m unable to do.

Support eventually decided to replace the mainboard. The replacement also fails to detect the portable drive - a Western Digital P40 Game Drive model WDBAWY5000ABK-WESN, which you may want to avoid if you want a portable to use with a Framework. The replacement does detect the USB-C thumbdrive I put the installer image on, but won’t boot to it.

I’m starting to think Framework computers may just not work with USB-C storage devices in general, which is going to make some things unnecessarily difficult. The least of which is just having a bootable installer that can go faster than USB-A. Nevermind having a bootable rescue drive.