@Rory have you tried using Fedora Media Creator to create the bootable USB? I'm pretty sure FMC makes bootable media compatible with UEFI and secure boot.
Aravisian,
Well, I appear to have a Zorin 16 Pro system up and running alongside Windows 10 on my Dell Laptop am writing this in Firefox on Z16Pro....yabbadoo.
The grubx64.efi file was on the Balena flashed iso and so I could add Zorin as a boot option as per the Zorin guys fix. Strange that the grubx64.efi was not present when flashed by Rufus.
Anyway, all done. Dual boot to Win 10 works.
One quick question, once I check out the things I need to I'd like to get rid of Win 10 and just have Zorin on this laptop. Would that simply be a case of running the install routine again and selecting the option to wipe everything and install Z16Pro afresh?
Yes, you can do it that way or...
You can use the partition manager to reclaim the space taken by Windows, expand the space allotted to Zorin into that - then Update grup and update initramfs.
When you are at that point, if you want to reclaim the space and keep your Zorin Install as is, you can start a thread if you would like a hand.
Aravisian, that's great and when I'm at the stage I'll probably start a thread as you suggest.
Many thanks for your help and patience with all this, it's sincerely appreciated and I'm grateful to you.
...and....damn.....Z16Pro is just so speedy on my laptop....and gorgeous....and I'm off to play!
Hi Rory,
Firstly, Balena Etcher is a pile of junk. It never worked for me on several different laptops. So I'm not sure why team Zorin insist on using this worthless tool.
Secondly, make sure you do a full format of your usb not a quick one(I had some dodgy fake ones from ebay which caused me problems).
Rufus seems to be the way to go. Did you try burning the USB in DD mode instead of ISO mode? This worked for me (when you click the button to burn the boot image, it will pop up which mode you prefer).
I found out in the end I had dodgy USB drives. I ordered new ones (offical genuine Kingston and paid a bit more for a 32GB). I then used YUMI Legacy tool (v2 something) to create a "multi boot" USB. On this I uploaded Zorin, Kubuntu, etc. just to test whether it was the Zorin ISO or something else.
Anyway, long story short, I had to disable secureboot and enable "legacy" options in the Bios. Then finally it started working.
I admit, Zorin should offer some education on dual boot topics (although it is outside the scope of the OS itself), this is where it has a chance to stand out as a distro compared to other sites that just expect users to endlessly google all day.
@swarfendor437 had written excellent unofficial manuals for Zorin OS - the latest being for Zorin OS 15 - much of which is still applicable on Zorin 16.
I fixed it by doing this:
It worked for me where Rufus didn't work in the past. I use both to be honest. I admit, this could be because of an option I used in Rufus. And sorry I don't recall the specific situation but just remembered this.
There is a lot of documentation out there on dual boot topics. Dual booting comes with its own set of challenges. But I guess, unlike the solution I will go for, with a laptop you do not have that option and you are stuck dual booting.
Or that installing Zorin on the a USB connected drive. Carrying around an external disk is kind of a nuisance if one needs mobility though.
Yes, thanks for clarifying that, it is what I meant, it becomes a nuisance and that is the key word I should have added to what I wrote.
That is not completely true. In my distro hopping I tried lot of different distros and different tools for making bootable usb.
and it is really funny. Some distro behave really well with Rufus, while other always fails. Same with "dd" or Etcher.
In Zorin case, I tried 4 different methods ( Rufus, dd, Ventoy and Etcher) and only succesfull was Etcher.
dont know why and how, but yes, it is working. So Zorin team suggesting Etcher, and yes, you should use it. Because they tested it. They don't want suggest something what is not working