I'm having trouble dual booting Ubuntu on my machine. I followed a tutorial where I turned off secure boot, downloaded Ubuntu, created a partition, and then used Rufus and Balena Etcher to create the bootable USB. However, when I restart or try to access the boot menu, I only see options related to Windows 11—I can't find the option to load Ubuntu. Despite doing all the steps as instructed, I can't seem to boot from the USB. Any ideas on what might be going wrong?
2 Answers
It sounds like the USB isn't being recognized as a bootable device. That's the first thing to troubleshoot. Make sure your BIOS settings are configured to allow USB booting. Also, check the USB drive and the way you created the installer—some tools can be tricky! Sometimes using a different tool like Fedora Media Writer could do the trick. It's often more reliable for making bootable USBs than Rufus or Balena Etcher. If all else fails, try another USB stick.
Remember that the menu you saw when you restart is actually the Windows advanced options, not the BIOS boot menu. To access the real boot menu, reboot your PC and hit the BIOS key (usually F2 or Delete). The easiest way from Windows is to go to Troubleshoot → Advanced options → UEFI Firmware Settings, which will let you boot from the Ubuntu USB directly if everything is set up right.
I tried accessing the BIOS setup, but I still can't find an option for Ubuntu—it's just booting straight into Windows without any options for other operating systems.