Question about using startup disc creator

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Problem Description:

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What I’ve Tried:

I am going to use startup disc creator on a little lenova machine. This little machine uses a sdd card - there are not drives other than the sda. So, When I created a new ssd to put into this machine can I just replace the lenova or add the created disk and then what?


Please provide details on that ‘little lenova machine’. Which Ubuntu version are you trying to set up?

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I am trying to install a 24.04.2 version with a ssd card created by setup creator. The system I am doing this with is a Lenovo machine type 90vt, MTM:90VT008 MUS, Serial MZ200QE9P, MO:MZ9014A11100 I also have all the manuals. I do not know what else to say about it, other that it does not have a regular hard drives, just a 1 tb ssd disk.

Should I replace the ssd on the computer, add my own and possibly get to the settings on boot that will allow me to tell boot to use the one I installed along with the one that is there? I need to know before I start and not sure what to do. Thank you…

This being the case I need to know how to install the 24.04.2 disk to make this machine an ubuntu machine.Hopefully this has enough information proceed - Thank you…

I found the following reference for your hardware: https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/IdeaCentre_3_07IRB8?M=90VT008MUS

This hardware looks typical. It has USB ports. You can plug a monitor and keyboard into it.
Normal install instructions: Install Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu

Are you having some kind of trouble following the linked instructions?

My problem is not the machine. My problem is that I am trying to install a created ssd card so that I have an Ubuntu system. I need to know how to do that. I have ran the computer as a windows computer but I am not interested in having that - I want to have an ubuntu machine.

Thank you for the reply…

Are you asking how to copy your “created ssd card” onto the hardware, overwriting (deleting) any existing data and OS currently on that hardware?

Is the “created ssd card” a custom image that you created?
Or is the “created ssd card” an ordinary Ubuntu installer image?

You seem to keep asking the same thing over and over …

Please see my answers in the other threads, the Startup Disk creator is not to install Ubuntu anywhere, it is to create an Installation device out of a USB stick or DVD ROM …

Please follow the tutorial I linked in the thread above to create a USB key, then follow the tutorial that Ian linked above using that created USB stick or DVD/CD ROM you produced with the Startup Disk Creator

Does the live installer or USB flash drive you created boot ok?
Your 1TB SSD drive is what you want to install into, but best to backup Windows first. Many that totally convert to Ubuntu later find one program or game that only runs on Windows and want to reinstall Windows.

SSD may not be seen for several reasons. Is UEFI & SSD firmware the latest from Lenovo. If live installer works you can see versions here, or else look in UEFI/BIOS settings.

Compare firmware versions to vendors support site

sudo dmidecode -s bios-version
udisksctl status

Or Windows bitlocker and fast startup may be on. That locks up drive, so the Linux NTFS driver cannot see partitions on drive. Make sure those are off by booting into Windows & turning off those settings.

This should show partitions:

sudo parted -l

If EDID issues, that is related to your monitor.

Many Lenovo models have another setting beyone UEFI Secure boot for security. Check if you have “locked” boot setting to prevent an unauthorized boot of system.
Lenovo Locked UEFI/BIOS setting:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Foygxuo193ui41.jpg

I guess I have not said everything about what I am doing. I opened startup disk creator and used that to create a ssd disc. I have then installed the disk into several windows systems. When I do this I often have to tell the system to start with the ssd disc that I have previously installed. Other than that there is little else to do. This gets me an ubuntu system which I can then add what I wast, etc. It really works well. I do not want to have Windows in machines as well, just ubuntu. I have done this 4 or 5 times and, so far, its worked out pretty well regardless of who made it, how much memory it has, etc. I have done it with, amongst others, wondows, dell, lenovo, hp, etc. with no problems.

Now, my problem is a bit different. This is a system is a windows system that has a single ssd disc and has no other things like regular system hard drive. My problem is to install my ubuntu ssd disc. I think I should probably just add the new ssd disc and that should do the trick.

I am asking whether this should work or there is a better way to do it.

Thank you…

The startup disk creator only copies the Ubuntu installer and live system to the target device…

Boot the ssd and run the live desktop installer from the disk/ssd you created with startup disk creator and tell it to install to the internal disk, this is what the live/installer system is for…

After you started the installer (by clicking on the “install Ubuntu” icon on the desktop) just follow the tutorial that Ian pointed to in post #4 above…

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Often those tiny systems have Memory cards, not real SSD. I have an old laptop with old slow HDD and found I could run a full install of Kubuntu from an external SSD much better that internal HDD. What type & size is internal drive?

udisksctl status

You typically use a small flash drive for the live installer as most tools erase entire drive in creating installer.
There are several ways to create installers, I use grub2’s loopmount to directly boot the ISO and have multiple ISO in my SSD install of Kubuntu that I use to install to other drives. You can also just create a FAT32 partition with boot,esp flags & extract ISO into it. You then can use rest of drive, but have to manange which partition is ESP with boot,esp flags. One for intall or one as installer, both cannot be an ESP, but you can move flags.

Thank you for the reply…

First I should say that the disk has been tried on a couple other machines and works fine. My main problem is that most of my machines are a bit old and things happen. But, most of the time its fine.

I have also found that if I press F2 at the first part of booting I can then setup how the system boots, ie. which files in order. I usually put the disk I installed first and do not mess with the rest. When I do that the system normally boots right up and everything is dandy.

If I need any hard drives I have some to use. I could also, normally, add a ssd to the motherboard if I don’t need a hard drive. Most of the computers I am dealing with have no operating system and no drives. I have done this with windows but it doesn’t make any difference and I have given up Windows a long time ago.

Actually this has worked pretty good for me for a long time. Some things I don’t really understand and others sometimes takes too long (some longer than others). I have leared to get the system time and that has helped a bit.

Thanks again for the response!!

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