Help for USB device not detected.

[Adam]

Hi,
I just met rEFInd and I really liked it. I tried setting it up, but I have a problem. My setup does not detect bootable USB devices. My setup has two operating systems (Ubuntu and Mint). I would like to add the ability to view a bootable USB stick if it is inserted, but so far I haven't been able to.

I insert the refind.conf file and the configuration file of the theme I have chosen below.

refind.conf

timeout 20

use_nvram false

# scanfor internal,external,optical,manual,firmware

dont_scan_dirs ESP:/EFI/boot,EFI/ubuntu,EFI/boot,EFI/deepin_os,EFI/UOS

include themes/rEFInd-minimal-themes/rEFInd-minimal-dark/theme.conf

theme.conf

hideui singleuser,hints,label,badges
icons_dir themes/rEFInd-minimal-themes/rEFInd-minimal-dark/icons_dark
banner themes/rEFInd-minimal-themes/rEFInd-minimal-dark/background_dark.png
banner_scale fillscreen
selection_big   themes/rEFInd-minimal-themes/rEFInd-minimal-dark/selection_big_dark.png
selection_small themes/rEFInd-minimal-themes/rEFInd-minimal-dark/selection_small.png
showtools shell,memtest,about,shutdown,reboot,firmware
dont_scan_dirs ESP:/EFI/boot,EFI/ubuntu,EFI/BOOT,EFI/mint

I've done some testing, both on the configuration files and in the BIOS, but so far I haven't been able to see the new entry when I insert the USB stick. The USB stick is a normal live Ubuntu distribution that works, as the BIOS sees it and by starting it I can boot the live ubuntu.

Can you give me some advice?

Thanks in advance for your support.

[joevt]

There's documentation at https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/using.html
It says

Ordinarily, rEFInd displays tags for OSes it finds on internal hard disks, external hard disks (including USB flash drives, CF disks, and so on), and optical discs. Sometimes, though, the firmware hasn't had time to fully examine these devices by the time rEFInd starts; or you might only insert or plug in the media after rEFInd appears. In these cases, you can press the Esc or Backspace (Delete on Macs) key to have rEFInd re-read its configuration file and re-scan your media for boot loaders. This action can take a few seconds to complete, so be patient. You can also use this feature to detect OSes if you launch a shell and use it to load a driver or edit the refind.conf file. If you regularly need to press Esc/Backspace, you might look into the scan_delay configuration file option, described on the Configuring the Boot Manager page.

Does the USB stick contain an EFI booter?

[Adam]

Hi joevt,
thank you for your answer. I confirm, I used the standard process reported on the ubuntu site for the creation of the stick (at least I think I remember), I see the EFI partition inside the stick, moreover it is also recognized by the BIOS as bootable and if I disable the boot refind I can boot the pc with the live distribution that is on it.
Thanks again.

[joevt]

Did you press Escape in rEFInd to do a rescan?

I'm not sure where to go from here. You could try replacing the rEFInd executable with RefindPlus debug version. RefindPlus should work with your current rEFInd config file. You can then enable logging and see what file systems it's detecting or ignoring.

[Adam]

Hi joevt,
Thanks again for your availability and your support.

I tried pressing the esc key as you said, but after a quick load, the rEFInd only ever reports the two systems already installed on the internal hard drive.

For RefindPlus, on the other hand, if you had a tutorial or an article to read with the steps to follow to show me, I would be really grateful and I could let you know the result shortly.

Thanks again for the time you are dedicating to me.