The OptiPlex Micro family (3050, 7050, 7080, etc.) requires a couple of BIOS tweaks before it’ll boot from a USB drive.
BIOS Settings
Press power and spam the F12 button to enter BIOS.
Select Change Boot Mode Settings and make sure of the following:
- Boot Mode -> UEFI
- Secure Boot -> OFF
Save and exit. Then spam F12 again on reboot. Select your USB drive. It should appear as a UEFI device.
The Trap
Don’t set the machine to Legacy mode thinking it’ll help. The Ubuntu 24.04 Server ISO expects UEFI. Legacy mode just causes it to fall back to booting from the hard drive and ignore the USB entirely.
Flashing the USB
Download your Ubuntu Server iso file, plug in a USB stick and use Startup Disk Creator. Select your iso and your USB drive -> Make Startup Disk
Hostname Resolution
Ubuntu Desktop ships with Avahi enabled by default. Ubuntu Server doesn’t ship with Avahi. Without it, you cannot reach your new server using its hostname. Fix that with:
sudo apt install avahi-daemon
sudo systemctl enable avahi-daemon
sudo systemctl start avahi-daemonCopy SSH Key
From your control machine, copy your SSH key over so you can manage the server headlessly:
ssh-copy-id username@hostname