Unable to find a medium containing live file system: USB ports shutdown during Ubuntu install

Question

I'm currently trying to do a fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS from a USB 2.0 on a new Windows 10 machine (want to replace the OS). The main issue I'm encountering is that during install, eventually I hit BusyBox with the error

(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system

I'm convinced that this is an issue with my USB ports shutting down, specifically only during the installation of Ubuntu.

Full description

• I created the live USB with Rufus (following Ubuntu's tutorial). I verified the integrity of the download.
• In BIOS, I disabled Secure Boot, and I'm booting with UEFI priority. I made sure that all the USB options in BIOS are set as "Enabled".
• When booting the USB with Ubuntu on it, I hit a black screen after the GNU Grub screen (Try or Install Ubuntu). I bypassed this by adding nomodeset acpi=off and nolapic parameters (following this guide).

Other Symptoms

My USB ports seem to work fine when I'm in Windows. I reach GNU Grub and the purple Ubuntu screen, so it seems like the USB is detected when booting. However, the USB stops flashing whenever the black screen with the boot errors/firmware bugs pop up. I have a LED mouse attached to another USB port during the process and the LED turns off here too. From here, I reach the purple Ubuntu screen, and then the BusyBox with the initramfs error.

The live USB works fine on other machines.

What I've tried

• USB 3.0 in 3.0 port; USB 2.0 in 2.0 port; USB 3.0 in 2.0 port; USB 2.0 in 3.0 port
• Using an older version of Ubuntu
• Unplugging and replugging USB during the Ubuntu purple screen (via here)
• Changing boot order
• Booting from legacy
• Adding usbcore.autosuspend_delay_ms=-1 to the boot options
• Trying both "Try before installing" and "Install Ubuntu"
• Creating the USB with LinuxLive and Unetbootin

System and Hardware

I'm trying on a new Lenovo Thinkpad E585 with

• Motherboard: Lenovo KV20CVTO1WW
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2500U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx

There is no CD/DVD Drive. I thought about using an external DVD drive, but I would expect the same result, since it connects via USB. Am aware that this is a frequently encountered issues, but no fix has worked for me so far. Any help much appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Solution

Solution

It turns out some of the boot options probably interfered with the USB ports' functionality during install. I believe apci=off may have controlled some power settings.

What worked for me was booting with the options nomodeset and noapic. I needed the nomodeset to get past the graphical problems.

Comments

[John Freeman]

This does not fix the problem for me.