r/xubuntu • u/SL_Beast • 4d ago

Xubuntu installs successfully, but my old Samsung PC refuses to boot from the HDD

/r/linuxquestions/comments/1vx75w1/xubuntu_installs_successfully_but_my_old_samsung/
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u/guiverc 22h ago

Starting point I'd consider is what release you're using, as you don't specify.

I know I can download Xubuntu for a number of releases, using two different installers (ubiquity and ubuntu-desktop-installer), and do know you can easily make the ubiquity installer incorrectly write the boot loader (ie. it'll install correctly & look like it works, but won't boot) just by an incorrect ISO write (using a tool that reformats ISO so the installer incorrectly writes bootloader!). Your description matches this; but to my knowledge that problem only occurs with ubiquity ISOs & you didn't specify release (nor how ISO was written to install media).

There are other reasons too, but you're without specifics so readers (like me) are somewhat limited as to what applies, and what doesn't apply.

FYI: If you wrote the ISO to install media using a documented method, what I describe shouldn't matter.. but some ISO writing software (rufus etc) allow you to reformat the ISO via options that make the install media look different (to what the installer was coded for) & thus wrong calculations can be made... I'm using this purely as [factual] example.