How To Disable Ubuntu 20.04 Disk Checkup and Remove Installation Medium Prompt on Boot?

Ubuntu 20.04, like any other Linux distribution, performs a disk check at boot time. This is a safety measure to ensure the integrity of your file system. However, there may be instances where you might want to disable this feature, such as when you’re using a persistent USB drive and the disk check slows down the boot time significantly.

In this article, we will guide you on how to disable the disk checkup and remove the installation medium prompt on boot in Ubuntu 20.04. Please note that these steps should be performed by advanced users who have a good understanding of the Linux file system and command line operations.

Disabling Disk Check on Boot

To disable the disk check on boot, we will use the fsck.mode=skip command line option. This command tells the system to skip the file system consistency check (fsck) during boot time.

The exact steps to add this command line option depend on the method you used to create your persistent USB drive. Here are the steps for different methods:

Method 1: Using mkusb

If you used mkusb to create your persistent USB drive, follow these steps:

1. Open the terminal and type the following command to open the grub configuration file:

   sudo nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg

2. In the Persistent menuentry, add fsck.mode=skip as shown below:

   linux ($root)/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed maybe-ubiquity fsck.mode=skip quiet splash persistent ---

3. Save and close the file.

Method 2: Using UNetbootin

If you used UNetbootin to create your boot drive, follow these steps:

1. Open the terminal and type the following command to open the grub configuration file:

   sudo nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg

2. In the first menuentry for UEFI boot mode, add fsck.mode=skip.
3. Open syslinux.cfg as root and add fsck.mode=skip to the default menuentry for BIOS boot mode.

Method 3: Using Rufus

If you used Rufus to create your boot drive, follow these steps:

1. Open the terminal and type the following command to open the grub configuration file:

   sudo nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg

2. In the Default menuentry for UEFI boot mode, add fsck.mode=skip.
3. Open /isolinux/txt.cfg as root and add fsck.mode=skip to the “Try Ubuntu without installing” menuentry for BIOS boot mode.

Removing the Installation Medium Prompt on Boot

To remove the “Try Ubuntu / Install Ubuntu” screen, you can delete “maybe-ubiquity” from the boot parameters in the grub configuration file. This will bypass the prompt and boot directly into the Ubuntu desktop.

If you’re using Rufus and want to remove this screen from the BIOS boot, overwrite syslinux.cfg with the following content:

default persistent
label persistent
 say Booting an Ubuntu Persistent session...
 kernel /casper/vmlinuz
 append file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper persistent initrd=/casper/initrd quiet splash noprompt --

Conclusion

Disabling the disk checkup and removing the installation medium prompt on boot can speed up the boot time of your Ubuntu 20.04 persistent USB drive. However, please be aware that skipping the disk check can lead to undetected file system errors, which can cause data loss or system instability. Always make sure to backup your data regularly and use these steps responsibly.

For more information on Ubuntu and its features, you can visit the official Ubuntu documentation.