Recently, all the times I installed EndeavourOS from the ISO file I flashed on a USB key, I noticed that the USB key is not anymore recognized as bootable, once I install EndeavourOS. This can either happen an hour after I flashed the USB key or a month later.
I flash the USB key from a Windows 10 machine using Rufus or, lately, balenaEtcher. I also tried flashing the USB key with dd, but half of the times, the USB key is not bootable.
Is there anything I can do to avoid it happens?
I am not trying to understand why that happens, but if there is anything I can do, like (for example) marking the USB key as not writable. (I guess it could make sense, since the support used to install could also be a read-only support like DVDs or CDs.)
Have you looked in your BIOS/EFI settings which media is on top to boot first? This can have changed during a BIOS/Firmware update.
I did it, but it only shows a generic Removable drive entry which does not boot from the USB key. (It actually boots EOS from my hard disk.)
Only once I flash again the ISO on the USB key, I can see a boot entry for the USB key, and boot from that.
Normally, no matter how old the ISO is, it should boot. In this case, it could be a mechanical issue with the connector from either the USB key or the port. But that is something for you to figure out by trying several times.
It happened with three different computers. On the same computer, it happened with different USB ports.
Have you tried different USB keys? I recently had to say goodbye to one that served me nine years of ISO writing/booting intensively.
I did that too. I bought a new one because the connector of the old one was slightly broken, but I get the same result with the new one.
Before we go further asking each micro step to each other could you describe what you did?
With this I mean, which method do you use to write the ISO, and if you tried to boot another distro on these computers?
You can check in Gparted if the usb drive still has a boot flag checked? If not it is not recognized as boot medium anymore.
How that could happen is the question though
Are you running multiple OS’s on your computer? Like EnOS plus Windoze, or OS-X? That could reset some bios functions regularly.
Also, like Brian suggested, I’d look deeper into the start-up options of Bios/UEFI of your system. - Perhaps, it can be updated from the vendor’s site, too?
I installed only EndeavourOS.
To select the USB key for the next boot, I enter in the UEFI settings to select the USB key as first boot entry, but there is not entry for the USB key, except a generic one that does not select the USB key. (In fact, it just boots from EndeavourOS I installed from the USB key.)
Did you look into a potential bios update yet? (For this, you would need to check your computer vendor’s website.)
Also, as Bryan suggested, did you try booting the usb with a different distro-iso yet?