Can't boot from USB. (Partially Solved)

Ok... quick update.  I was still unable to get the computer to boot from USB in UEFI mode but I did get it working in Legacy mode. Here's what I did:

1. Everywhere I read about my problem, the first recommendation was to disable both Intel Rapid Start Technology and Intel Smart Connect Technology in the BIOS. Unfortunately, in my BIOS, Intel Rapid Start was not available. Finally, after messing around with a lot of settings, I found out that I could make the Intel Rapid Start option show by first enabling USB Wake Support (which was disabled by default). So after disabling the two options above as well as secure boot, I tried again with no luck. The computer simply will not boot from USB in UEFI mode.

2. As far as Legacy mode is concerned, I found out that I had a bad USB boot disk because the Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator Application is broken and has not been fixed since 2011 (a lot of other posts about this out there). I had to use UNetbootin to re-create my 13.04 beta 2 startup disk. This still didn't make it work in UEFI mode, but I was able to boot from USB in legacy mode and I installed Ubuntu. I then switched back to UEFI and even turned on Secure Boot. Everything seems to be working ok, but I haven't had a chance to really test it yet. I'll report back tomorrow if I encounter more problems.

Stick with legacy mode if you're going to try and boot and install via USB on this machine.  The XPS 13's that are pre-loaded with Ubuntu are also shipping in legacy mode.  I believe this is something specific to the XPS 13 machines as the XPS 12 can boot and install Ubuntu 12.04.2 and 12.10 with EFI and Secure Boot enabled with no problem.

Intel Rapid Start support will not affect your ability to boot from USB. Booting off a USB stick from UEFI mode on this system will require knowing how to manually add an entry for the USB stick. There also was at one point a bug where, when selecting the file to boot in the UEFI boot configuration, you had to move the cursor to deselect the boot file then reselect it for it to be properly added. My personal recommendation would be to install in BIOS mode then follow the steps to switch to booting in UEFI mode if you require UEFI mode.

Thanks. As you'll see above, I did manually add the entry for the USB stick to the UEFI menu. That is not the issue. The problem is that the XPS 13 simply does not recognize the USB stick when trying to boot from it (after adding the entry). It appears to work in older XPS 13s with the USB 2.0 slot. However, as far as I can tell, no one has gotten it to work with the USB 3.0 slot. My  laptop is the newer one with 2 USB 3.0 slots so I don't have a fallback (except to use Legacy mode).

Just to be clear, I did FINALLY get it to work by reverting to Legacy BIOS mode and using UNetbootin to create the boot drive instead of the buggy Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator.

I did read about how you added an entry for the USB stick. When you're selecting "/efi/boot/bootx64.efi", press the up/down arrows so that the entry is deselected then selected again. Then see if this makes a difference when trying to boot to the USB stick. If it does, please let us know.

I tried what you suggested:

1. Typed USB in the name field

2. Tabbed over to the drive selection and selected/deselected several times. After making sure that the USB flash drive was selected, I....

3. Tabbed over to the File field and entered: "/efi/boot/bootx64.efi"

4. Saved and restarted.

This didn't work. Trying to select the USB entry after F12, still takes me to the ubuntu bootloader (the USB is simply not recognized). This seems to be an issue with all USB 3.0 ports on the XPS 13. I've only read about one person who claimed he got this working but he could not provide a way to reproduce what he did. He simply  said that he restarted "many many many" times and finally it worked. Well, I can assure you that I've also restarted "many many many" times and it has not worked.

To be clear, how are you invoking Unetbootin and how were you invoking the modern USB creator tool?

Running "usb-creator-gtk -n -i " works for me, and I encounter problems when using Unetbootin on Ubuntu releases from the past few years. I have been able to UEFI boot from a USB stick on the XPS 13, but I can't recall if I have done so using the USB 3.0 port. I have will see if I can try duplicating your problem if I get the opportunity. I think it would help if you submit a bug report on the Sputnik Launchpad project so we can track this better.

I invoked Unetbootin from the command line using sudo -s or gksudo (don't remember which). I couldn't get it to run otherwise.

As far as Startup Disk Creator, I didn't think to invoke it from the command line. I double clicked to start it and went through the regular steps. It just didn't work for me. It copied all of the files from the ISO to the flash drive but then it ALWAYS crashed when trying to write the boot sector (after asking for root password). It also crashed if I tried to use it to erase the flash drive. I then had to use gparted to fix the flash drive before I could try again. I found some forum threads that offered up different "fixes" but none of them worked. You can  search for "ubuntu startup disk creator crash" if you wan to see all the other posts about this... as far as I can tell, it's been broken for a couple of years (at least the GUI version). There are already a lot of bug reports in Launchpad so I won't bother.

I will submit a bug report for the USB boot issue on the Project Sputnik bug page.

EDIT: Bug report has been submitted. Please upvote it if you're having the same problem. https://bugs.launchpad.net/dell-sputnik/+bugs

I just posted this on the LaunchPad bug site as well, but I got this working with a WinPE 4.0 USB boot drive in UEFI mode using these steps:

Intel SpeedStep and Intel Smart Connect are both enabled. Secure Boot is disabled (it was by default) and then I added a boot option with these steps:

1. I set Boot Option Name to be "USB Boot" (though it can be anything)

2. I tabbed past File System List, since there was only one option, it was USB, and it was already selected

3. I left File Name blank and hit enter to get the file selection prompt. I am booting a WinPE 4.0 boot image, so I chose this path: "EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi".

4. I tabbed to select [Yes] and hit Enter

I was able to boot my USB key under the UEFI section of the boot manager and get our corporate Windows 8 image installed. This leads me to believe that the XPS 13 BIOS/UEFI is not the culprit for booting to USB with UEFI.

I had exactly the same problem with updating BIOS for 9333 (A02). By disabling both "smart connect" and "rapid start", I could proceed to boot from USB and succeed updating the BIOS.

I had to boot my XPS-13 9343 from USB stick to install BIOS A04 and to re-partition the disk (boot to GpartEd image to shrink swap to gain storage space). It was simple. Created the bootable USB using unetbootin. Then booted to BIOS, put it in legacy boot mode, move USB to the top of the boot order list. Insert USB stick and let it boot.

Then when done, boot to BIOS, set it back to normal (switch back to EFI and let it boot to the SSD).

well i just bought a new dell i7 inspiron 3000 series machine and had to install windows version on it by booting from USB, there was no option in the uefi , so i added a new option by inserting usb in the slot and then browsing to the efi/boot/bootx64.efi   , it again asked for the file name , i typed complete path " efi/boot/bootx64.efi " again ...this created a new entry to boot , and the USB stick booted and windows setup started from the usb ....

I found that the 9350 only lets you efi boot from USB 3 rated sticks.

I found that the 9350 only lets you efi boot from USB 3 rated sticks.

I've booted the 9350 from many USB 2.0 flash drives.