I am trying to install Fedora from a USB on my computer. Whenever I try to boot the system on the USB, my computer just loads something for a bit and then restarts. Same happens if I try to do the “troubleshooting” option. When I try the “test this medium” option, it usually flashes some sort of a message for less than a second and restarts. Sometimes it restarts instantly. What I have tried so far:
I used the exact same USB on a different computer and it booted there just fine. I also went through full Fedora installation on the other computer and there was no problem.
I updated the BIOS to the newest version and nothing changed.
I tried disabling CSM, this was almost catastrophic. I was barely able to enable it again due to a weird visual glitch which made it difficult to navigate the BIOS. After reenabling I was able to boot back to my Windows after a number of restarts.
Secure boot is off.
I tried a different USB socket on my computer.
I tried multiple different USBs and multiple different ways of burning the ISO (including the Fedora one).
Specs:
motherboard: ASRock A520M-ITX
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700XT
Currently runs Windows with no problems.
There are often conflicts with Windows configurations, and Windows updates can break linux, which is why I removed Windows from my systems.
1j Many Windows installations configure mass storage to support RAID with “Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST)” or AMD equivalent. so before attempting a linux installation you need to check for this in the UEFI/BIOS. There are ways to disable RST without reinstalling Windows that have worked in the past, but don’t assume your Windows installation will survive.
2) Windows systems are often configured with Fast Startup aka Hybrid Boot which boots directly to a saved image, so won’t allow you to boot linux.
3) Many UEFI/BIOS’s have “Fast Boot”, which skips “Power on Self Tests” and device initialization to reduce boot time, but often results in those devices failing in linux, so should be disabled before trying to install Linux.
Windows has a system troubleshooting subsystem that includes a “boot from USB” option. This sometimes works when Linux installers won’t boot.
It is impossible for Linux distros to support the multitude of ever changing Windows configurations, so it can be easier to wipe the disk, install Linux while leaving space for Windows, and then add Windows.
So I am not sure about RST, but I am happy to wipe windows - I was planning to install Fedora over the partition on which windows lives anyways. The Fast Boot is disabled and trying to use the windows troubleshooting subsytem also failed. I also tried a different distro that I previously installed on a different system - Omarchy - the problem is the same, I get to around the big Omarchy logo screen and in around a second the system restarts.
I am happy to completely delete the disk and proceed with the installation from there, but I am a bit worried if the problem really is what you are saying it is. Isn’t there danger of not being able to install any operating system once I delete windows?
I am also confused by one more thing. I thouhht the BIOS config lives in the motherboard not on the disk. So how will wiping the disk actually reset the BIOS settings to something that is able to boot from the USB drive?
If the BIOS has Fast Boot enabled, what happens after wiping the disk depends on BIOS error recovery. It may allow you to boot from USB, but may insist that you use the vendor’s “recovery” USB. You need to read vendor documentation or search for online accounts of linux installation on similar hardware. If the https://linux-hardware.org site isn’t overloaded with AI web scrapers you can see if others have had success with linux on similar hardware. Failing that, you can search for links mentioning installing other linux distros on your model.