I'm trying to live boot Linux Mint 22.1 or Ubuntu 25 on my HP laptop so I can use the Linux terminal with a legacy BIOS. However, I'm running into issues getting either distro to boot in legacy mode. I've tried using Rufus with the MBR option (for BIOS or UEFI), but it seems like the boot files in the EFI folder are missing. When I attempted to use Universal USB Installer 2.0.1.0, I got it to boot, but it drops me into the grub command line instead. Following a guide from the Linux Foundation, I tried executing 'linux boot/vmlinuz', but I'm getting a 'file not found' error. I suspect it's because the vmlinuz file is located in the 'casper' directory. However, when I try 'linux /casper/vmlinuz', I encounter an 'invalid magic number' error. Can anyone help me troubleshoot this?
1 Answer
First off, you should use the 'DD mode' setting in Rufus to create your bootable USB. Also, when booting in legacy mode, you don't actually need the EFI files, so don’t worry about that part.
I tried that, but I still get an 'invalid magic number' error when I try to boot. What else could be wrong?