Can't get the live USB image to boot

Support and Help
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I am unable to get the Ubuntu live USB image to boot. I’ve tried disabling secure boot in the BIOS, but most of the other BIOS settings are unfamiliar to me, so I have no idea what else I might try.

Ubuntu Version: 25.10-desktop
Problem Description:
I hit F12 during boot to get the boot device menu.

I choose my live USB flash drive.

The grub menu comes up with the option to boot/install Ubuntu, which I select.

Screen goes black and nothing else happens. I’ve let it sit for 30-minutes.

Relevant System Information:
Gigabyte TRX50 Aero D

Threadripper 9960X

128GB Kingston Fury DDR5 ECC RAM

Intel Arc Pro B70

Windows 11 installed on M.2 NVME drive. I’m trying to get Ubuntu Desktop to boot, so I can install it on a second M.2 NVME drive for dual booting.

What I’ve Tried:
Disabled secure boot in the BIOS

2

Welcome to the Ubuntu Community, Richard!

Depending on your graphics card, it may be missing some component the live installer doesn’t provide. There should be an option in the live installer boot menu to start the session with safe graphics settings. Since I haven’t seen a live installer in a while, is this still what it looks like? I think it should be under “Modes” (F4) or “Other Options” (F6). If there is no setting for “Safe Graphics” there should at least be an option to provide additional boot parameters; just add nomodeset there.

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@geek-verve Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse :slight_smile:

If you are able to, it is usually recommended to disconnect the Windows drive and leave only the target drive plugged in.

This can, sometimes, also solve issues like the one you are dealing with.

Either way, let us know if you are able to proceed.

4

Black screen often indicates a graphic problem, therefore try and boot in Safe Graphics mode.
Other things to consider when a USB boot fails:-

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5

I am of the opinion that providing links to official Ubuntu tutorials and guides is important. They are at ubuntu.com under the Download Ubuntu link.

Official Try Ubuntu Desktop tutorial

I found this information under the On Windows tab

If you’ve already tried Rufus and the USB stick failed to boot on your system, change Partitioning scheme to GPT and check that Target system is set to UEFI (non CSM). This works on modern systems that disable legacy compatibility.

Is the USB memory stick being booted in UEFI mode or CSM mode?

Regards

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DId you SHASUM verify the ISO you downloaded (Or use Torrents) to verify the ISO you downloaded?
A bad ISO will give a bad install experience

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We are also assuming that the Ubuntu 25.10 ISO image that was downloaded was the Intel or AMD 64-bit architecture and not the ARM 64-bit architecture. Sometimes we need to go back to the beginning and confirm that the correct steps have been taken.

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The boot menu is grub, I believe. Not as polished as the one you linked. I did try safe graphics mode, but got the same result.

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I always consider that going in (not my first time setting up a Win/linux dual boot), but I always want to ensure that linux sees the Windows installation and adds a reference to it in grub. While I’m sure there is a way to add it later, that’s something I don’t know how to do off the top of my head, so I try to keep things easy on myself.

I’ll try that as a last resort. Thanks.

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As a first resort, please confirm that your downloaded ISO is in perfect condition

32e30d72ae4798c633323a2684d94a11582bb03a6ab38d2b0d5ae5eabc5e577b *ubuntu-25.10-desktop-amd64.iso
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The checksum does match.

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I’ve tried both UEFI and CSM.

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That may only be half the story. I have seen dodgy USB hardware, be that the port or the thumb drive. The only way to know if the data made it to the device unscathed is to check the actual thumb drive. The live boot loader has an option to check the integrity, which should be used for this, because dodgy USB ports can introduce (random) read errors.

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14

For completeness, I’ve just remembered this:

But that might still not be the whole story, because it’s a streaming workload, whereas the live boot is most probably doing random access.

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ubuntu 24.04 is the first time I had that issue this nomodeset at the grub menu fixed it on 3 computers

nomodeset

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Unfortunately I tried both safe graphics mode as well as adding nomodeset manually. They both produce the same boot command, and neither worked. :confused:

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Is Fast Startup enabled in Windows? If so it might interfere with boot process. If it’s enabled try disabling it.

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18

I tried that both ways as well. No joy.

I decided to give a different distro a try, and Bazzite installed without a hitch. It must be a combination of Ubuntu/Debian on my particular hardware. It will likely get sorted out in time in later releases. For now I guess I’ll just stick to Fedora based distros.

Thanks.

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19

Still using Linux so all good IMHO