UNSOLVED
m15 R3, boot from Thunderbolt 3 external drive?
I have a m15 R3 and a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD.
My goal is to boot Ubuntu 18.04 on the X5 SSD through the Thunderbolt 3 port on the m15 R3.
My main issue is that i am unable to detect the X5 SSD on startup, therefore i cannot boot from it.
On Windows, I am able to detect the X5 SSD and use it as a storage drive.
I know other laptops do not support booting from Thunderbolt 3 port,
however, from looking through the BIOS of the m15R3, i can see options such as
"Thunderbolt Boot Support" and "Enable Thunderbolt Pre-boot modules".
Therefore i assume it is possible to boot from Thunderbolt 3 port.
I have enabled the following options in the BIOS:
* ThunderboltTM
* Thunderbolt Boot Support
* Enable Thunderbolt Pre-boot Modules
I would like to know:
* Are there other options in the BIOS i need to configure?
* Do i need to disable Secure Boot?
* Any other advice on the matter, or any formal documentation?
Thanks for the reply, unfortunately my supervisor still wants the original C: drive.
I have found a solution to my problem, should probably write down what i did for others like me in the future.
Ensure you can access the thunderbolt SSD on Windows.
Ensure all the BIOS options for Thunderbolt Boot are on.
Boot using a Live USB, i booted with Ubuntu 18.04.
Then "Install Ubuntu", follow the steps untill the part about "Installation type".
From here i chose "something else".I then created these partitions on the thunder bolt drive.
-> EFI Partition, 1GB , Primary
-> Swap Partition, [2xRAM] GB, Logical
-> Ext4 Partition, [Remainder] GB, PrimaryContinue the installation process.
Next time i boot my computer, it auto boots Ubuntu if my Thunderbolt 3 SSD is plugged in, Windows if not.
crimsom
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6114 Posts
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Posted December 16th, 2020 00:00
Hi @16fb welcome to this user to user forum.
Have a look at "I can't boot from my external ssd using usb or thunderbolt" which includes clarification from @jphughan.
Have you considered creation of a new internal OS (C:) drive with Ubuntu as its Operating System. Then swap this Ubuntu OS (C:) drive to replace the internal Windows 10 OS (C:) drive. Then swap out internal drive to use Windows 10.
There is also discussion on community threads about having two OS (C:) drives and selecting which one to use during the boot process. However, not sure that Dell BIOS supports dual booting selection option.
There is also discussion about installing virtual drives on the Windows 10 OS (C:) drive and that would give a virtual Ubuntu environment to use.
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