Lubuntu USB Installation Not Shown In MacBook Air 2013 Boot Menu

XXX_BlueFire_XXX

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Hello All!

My saga to get a portable Lubuntu usb installation continues. I recently successfully installed Lubuntu on my 128 GB Samsung USB 3.1 drive. The usb was able to boot into Lubuntu and perform the functions of the OS on the following system:
DG45ID Motherboard
Intel Celeron 450 Processor
8 GB of DDR2 800 MHz
AMD RX 470 4 GB
(Indeed a strange set up lol, though it's being used for testing)

This proved to me that the installation was successful and worked as intended since the USB was the only media attached to the motherboard.

Now we arrive at the issue. This whole project is centered around getting a USB which I can plug into any computer and boot into Lubuntu, whilst being able to access programs and data installed natively on the OS. I'm sometimes on the go, so having a USB that I could carry with me to learn Lubuntu wherever I am makes things really nice.

I wanted to try and have the USB boot into the Lubuntu installation on my MacBook Air 2013; however, holding down the option key to access the boot menu only yielded the two native installations present on the built in SSD (Mac and Windows 10). I'm still learning a lot about how computers work, so thought I'd turn to people with much more experience than me. It's strange that the Mac doesn't see the USB as it is able to detect and boot into Easy2Boot (basically a mini OS which allows you to store many different iso files on one USB) when that's plugged in. Not sure what's going on, though maybe it has something to do with EFI / UEFI business. Again I have no idea how Lubuntu or the Mac actually boots, simply a guess since the Easy2Boot registers as an EFI boot disk.

Hopefully that's enough information and we can start working on troubleshooting. I'm open to third party applications for a quick fix; however, would also love to understand what's going wrong. Also, feel free to redirect me to the correct forum topic if there is another place for this. Thanks in advance for all your help!
 


when you enter the Bios of the macbook you should be able to set the boot order function, often for speed lappy's are set to first boot from hard drive/ssd then disk then [if its not too old ] usb, you need to change the boot order to USB first, this will slow the initial boot by around 20 seconds from the hard drive as it will always look for a usb first
 
Addendum... been reading up on mac books, it seems that many models don't have a traditional Bios, but have a hidden partition holding the start up parameters and instructions which you should not alter as it could cause major problems.
now I know why my daughter threw out her 4 yr old mack book and bought an HP laptop [her local mac repairers wanted more to fix it than it was worth]
 
@brickwizard
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to access the MacBook Air motherboard BIOS nor do I know if one even exists in the traditional sense. Changing the boot order was something I though of as well; however, it's strange that it can see and boot into a bootable Easy2Boot USB in the boot menu though not the Lubuntu USB. I'm not sure what would make the USB invisible as it has a boot loader that works on the other boards I tested.

The lock down of Apple definitely has its drawbacks. It wouldn't be a problem if they offered to give us any technical information; however, they're much more concerned with getting you to take it to the Genius Bar so you can get price gouged. I actually recently donated to Louis Rossman to fight for R2R, something which Apple actively tries to destroy on a regular basis. When my Mac was having a heating problem, Apple told me to take it to the Genius Bar, where they would replace the entire motherboard for $700, essentially the cost of the entire laptop. I fixed it for free after a few days of work. Was a simple fan issue. Would've lost all my data and had to pay that money. Completely stupid and wasteful.

Hopefully we can figure out a solution to this. Guess we could focus on what makes the Mac motherboard board different from other boards and go from there.
 

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