# UEFI USB options - currently unable to flash bootloader
**URL:** https://dietpi.com/forum/t/uefi-usb-options-currently-unable-to-flash-bootloader/22619
**Category:** Troubleshooting
**Created:** [28 January 2025 16:51 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/uefi-usb-options-currently-unable-to-flash-bootloader/22619 "2025-01-28T16:51:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rhinot](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/rhinot)
#### Post date: [28 January 2025 16:51 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/uefi-usb-options-currently-unable-to-flash-bootloader/22619/1 "2025-01-28T16:51:32Z")
Hey All - After unsuccessfully trying to dist-upgrade my Atomic Pi from a Lubuntu build with expiring support, and because I saw on reddit that others were able to do it, I decided it was time to jump to my favorite distro: DietPi.
I’m running my AtomicPi headless, and the internal eMMC died a few years back (which is what the redditor relied on for the DietPi installer), so I was just running the machine off a USB drive. That means I need a live UEFI image on the USB for the system to run. Unfortunately, DietPi [doesn’t seem to have this option](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/write-image-for-native-pc-for-uefi/18709/2), so I went with the plan to install running UEFI Debian on the USB, then run the DietPi install script.
I used FAI (I’m limited to 2 links, so Google FAI project, if interested) to build a live Debian image, capable of UEFI with SSH on by default, and successfully booted and ssh’d into the machine.
I then ran the diet-pi installer and received the following error:
> [INFO] DietPi-Installer | Selected hardware model ID: 21
> [FAILED] DietPi-Installer | Unable to flash the bootloader: The boot drive does not contain a partition table. Aborting…
The closet thread I could find on this is regarding running the install script on a [NanoPi with an NVMe drive](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/nanopi-r5s-boot-from-nvme/18064). I didn’t see a clear resolution, so I’m turning here with the hope that someone can help.
I will also share the output from the requests @MichaIng made in the other thread:
```auto
df /boot
findmnt -T /boot
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/live-rw 6296468 5161776 1054088 84% /
TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS
/ /dev/mapper/live-rw ext4 rw,relatime
```
```auto
findmnt -Ufnro SOURCE -T /boot
/dev/mapper/live-rw
```
```auto
cat /etc/fstab
# UNCONFIGURED FSTAB FOR BASE SYSTEM
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid,size=50%,mode=1777 0 0
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
```
I am happy to try another base OS, if you have one that works for the UEFI & headless (so ssh needed) constraints. I’d also happily beta test a DietPi UEFI x86\_64 write image, if you have one.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@MichaIng](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/MichaIng)
#### Post date: [28 January 2025 17:13 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/uefi-usb-options-currently-unable-to-flash-bootloader/22619/2 "2025-01-28T17:13:02Z")
Indeed our installer does not support device mapper root/boot mounts currently. In such cases, installing GRUB the regular way would surely fail, as it would need to know where and which bootloader is actually located, and I guess the kernel is not present in `/boot` either. This setup looks more like a R/O image with a limited writable overlay.
Coincidentally, I created a non-installer UEFI image just yesterday, for testing. See the NativePC UEFI image here: [Index of /downloads/images/testing](https://dietpi.com/downloads/images/testing/)
If this does not work, you could attach 2 USB drives, flash the installer image to one of them, and install it to the other one from there.
---
### Author:  [@rhinot](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/rhinot)
#### Post date: [28 January 2025 17:15 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/uefi-usb-options-currently-unable-to-flash-bootloader/22619/3 "2025-01-28T17:15:37Z")
Wow. Quite the coincidence.
I will try that image right now. I’m on a Mac, so I was going to use Balena, but if you have a preferred way to write it (e.g. dd), lmk.
Thank you!
---
### Author:  [@rhinot](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/rhinot)
#### Post date: [28 January 2025 18:43 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/uefi-usb-options-currently-unable-to-flash-bootloader/22619/4 "2025-01-28T18:43:10Z")
Installed and working. Thank you!
Let me know if you need me to test anything or give you any logs.
_Sidenote_: I thought the DE was automatically installed on first boot when I specified a DE in dietpi.txt without listing it separately as software to install, just like OpenSSH. It wasn’t. Not sure if I’m just not remembering previous installs or if this was a change in behavior since my last install.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/system)
#### Post date: [28 April 2025 18:44 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/uefi-usb-options-currently-unable-to-flash-bootloader/22619/5 "2025-04-28T18:44:04Z")
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