Can't boot into live USB, Error: No caching mode page found

[littlekun]

Hello all
I used ventoy to create the Zorin 17 flash usb. When I tried to boot into it, it gives me this error and then boots back to my Z-Lite 16.3 .

Any solutions how to fix this?
(attaching few more screenshots if it could help)

• Output of lsblk
  

• USB drive
  

  

• ISO in ventoy drive:
  

  

[Ponce-De-Leon]

Maybe the Problem is the exFAT File Format. Or you could try it with another Tool like Balena Etcher, Rufus or Fedora Media Writer.

[Mr_Magoo]

The caching mode error shouldn't be causing the symptoms you describe, it's got to be two separate issues... I get the same caching mode error on my USB-to-SD card-to-miniSD converter where I keep Ventoy (upon which sits Zorin 16, Zorin 17 and Win10PE .ISO files). I attempted to fix it, but the recommended fixes I found on my searches didn't work.

HP Computer Owners - update your UEFI

If you own an HP computer, you know that HP doesn't generally use the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (which is the application fwupdmgr) except for certain servers. They instead provide a .EXE file that is specific to the computer model and the UEFI version... this computer is on its third UEFI version since it was new, hence there are three .EXE files available for it. Well, .EXE files are Windows-specific. In this case, you can't even run them under Wine or PlayOnLinux to update your UEFI. Y…

You can use the Disks application to burn the .ISO file, that should work.

It also may be that the .ISO file got corrupted during download, so try downloading it again, then burning it.

[littlekun]

@337harvey

Which way did you create the Ventoy disk?

I used the WebUI method:

@337harvey

Another question, how old is the thumbdrive and did you verify the downloads (ventoy and zorin) prior to placing them on the drive? Did you create ventoy disk under windows, macOS or linux?

• The thumbdrive is, I guess, around 8 years old but it is in a perfect working condition. Few months ago I used the same thumbdrive to make the bootable Z-16.3. At that time I had used Balena Etcher.
• I have checked the hash value of Zorin 17 ISO 3 times. First just after the download, 2nd after transfering to the laptop, 3rd after placing in Ventoy drive and each time it matched with the correct ones.
• The ventoy disk was created in my current Z-Lite installation.

[littlekun]

@Ponce-De-Leon

Maybe the Problem is the exFAT File Format. Or you could try it with another Tool like Balena Etcher, Rufus or Fedora Media Writer.

Wish I could use Rufus but I don't have a windows system around me. I had used Etcher few months ago but then I read some negative impression about it so this time I used Ventoy.

@Mr_Magoo

The caching mode error shouldn't be causing the symptoms you describe, it's got to be two separate issues...

After selecting the thumbdrive from the boot menu it doesn't even take me to the Ventoy menu screen. It just show those 2 errors and then boots back to my current Z-Lite installation.

I just want to use ventoy so that I don't have to reformat the thumbdrive eachtime to make a different bootable iso.

[littlekun]

So this morning I gave Unetbootin a try and same thing happens here.

@337harvey

I recommend you use gparted, completely wipe and format (full format with write). Do remove the existing partition and create a new one in the process though. It will take longer, but should remove most of the issues with the usb. Then run trim and S.M.A.R.T. utility to identify bad sectors and check the health of the drive.

Currently formating the drive using the Disk utility app. After that going to fill the drive with video files and again going to full format it. And then try Ventoy.

[littlekun]

@337harvey

Then run trim and S.M.A.R.T. utility to identify bad sectors and check the health of the drive.

I can't run S.M.A.R.T

[Ponce-De-Leon]

@littlekun

I had used Etcher few months ago but then I read some negative impression about it

I use Etcher primary and had in the Past on Issues with that. But that is only me. But You could still use Fedora Media Writer. You can finde him directly on the Fedora Website or in Gnome Software as Flatpak. A good Point of this Tool is: When You have a USB-Stick with a Iso on ot the Media Writer can reset the Stick.

[littlekun]

Solution:
Add the following line to the /etc/modules

usb_storage

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Behind the Scene:
So after trying multiple re-formating of USB I still got the same issue 'No caching mode page found'. So I started looking for the same issue in different fourms and luckily found this:

get rid of "No Caching mode page found" message during boot

I gave it a try and Voilà, the Ventoy menu appeared and after choosing Zorin 17 from the list I got directly into it.

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Looks like Etcher was not the culprit in this case but I'm glad that stopped using it. Ventoy is great.