Ok - made the bootable Ubuntu, but used
this installer from win
doze to save a reboot and 'groping around' in Linux, which I don't use often enough. Set BIOS to boot from "USB-HDD", with "Legacy USB storage detect" enabled - booted straightaway. Examined stick's MBR - pretty standard, 'plain-Jane' boot record. At this point can only recommend a few things: try the same installer with any convenient ubuntu.iso you have; try the 'old faithful' HP stick format utility to create a DOS bootable to double check; try a different (or, a few different) stick(s) - might just be a case of the well-know USB 'pickiness' that GBs in general exhibit... I can tell you a couple that
won't work: don't bother with OCZ 'Deisels', or SanDisk 'Cruzers' - known incompatible...
Lacking an 'inside contact' with GB who could explain the phenomenon, I can only guess at the root cause, but I suspect GB BIOS are just more demanding of
strict compliance with the USB specs - I guess at this, as a few cases of known 'non-working' devices (specifically some WD USB external backup drives, and [can't recall the manufacturer] a USB CD/DVD drive were later 'fixed' by new firmware from the mfgs... I have never been particularly put out by this, as I'm a fossil [:bilbat:6] - I think we were on win95 or 98 when USB was first introduced... Then, if you could get
any USB device working
at all, you were considered both lucky,
and a 'wizard' - and to get two working at once, on the same system - plainly impossible! [:isamuelson:8]