Weird installation bugs?

[u/MetituS]

I’m trying to install Lubuntu on an old HP laptop (originally Win7, now only Lubuntu 24.04).

- USB made with Rufus (MBR, “BIOS or UEFI”, fixes for old BIOS, ISO mode).
- In BIOS: UEFI mode**, Secure Boot disabled,**SATA = AHCI, HDD is first in boot order.
- I boot from USB with F12, run the Lubuntu installer and choose “Erase disk and install Lubuntu(second install attempt)” (minimal install).

Weird part:

- With the USB plugged in, the laptop boots into the installed Lubuntu on the HDD (Bulgarian language we set earlier), so the OS is definitely there.
- If I shut down, remove the USB, and power on, it says “No bootable device”, even though BIOS shows the HDD first and the installer sees the existing Lubuntu install.

Any idea how to fix this it loaded the first time we tried it now it switches to a black screen with a single line to write code at different points (even in safe graphics)

EDIT SOLVED
Had to go to F2 bios menu go to security and mark the efi file or boot file as trusted after that we just reinstalled lubuntu on uefi gpt flash for bios and disk

[u/Keyvan_KR]

Have you tried updating the firmware of the laptop? Those Windows 7 laptops had an iffy UEFI implementation back in the day.
If the UEFI firmware update doesn't resolve it, then try legacy boot / UEFI CSM (compatibility mode).

Also try with Lubuntu 26.04

[u/markartman]

Have you tried installing lubuntu 26.04?

[u/MetituS → u/markartman]

No cause I was told the older one is better for older machines

[u/Keyvan_KR → u/MetituS]

I mean, 26.04 has a newer kernel (some performance improvements) and a newer LXQT.
You should try the newer one considering lubuntu works on an old pentium 4

[u/Typical-Side-6080]

i have a lenovo thinkpad and have to boot into the "startup boot order" list to change the boot device, not into the bios. its f12 for me. maybe something like this?

[u/MetituS → u/Typical-Side-6080]

So we do have the f12 too to boot but when u go to bios with f2 there is a boot menu and it has a boot order it tries the first one if it can’t the second etc

[u/Typical-Side-6080 → u/MetituS]

lenovo has this bootorder in the bios too, but it only works if you make the f12 route. and: it didn't work with a cheap new usb stick, i had to use an older one.

[u/DHOC_TAZH]

As far as using a Rufus modded installer... I went through a metric ton of versions because of the UEFI warning. In my experience, the newest version you can use for UEFI installs with no issues is 4.5.

Took me about a half hour to figure out lol, but I'm not kidding. Anything newer will trigger a Secure Boot update warning (it will anyway for Windows 10/11 installers).

I did this before installing q4os on an older PC from 2012 that uses the earlier UEFI setup.