Installed Elive on a Lenovo Carbon X1 and Now can't boot from USB live OS. I can only boot into Elive.
I wiped Windows from the machine and only want this a Linux machine with several other Distros but I can't install anything else on the machine.
It seems that Elive has written to the BIOS and tells it to boot in to Elive only. There is no option to boot from a USB even though the USB ports are active as shown in the BIOS.
I want to flash the BIOS but I can only do it from within Elive.
How do I do this please?
It is not up to Elive to determine boot options .... that's firmware.
If you want to tell your X1 to change boot-priority you either hit 'Enter' when you see the the dark Lenovo splash screen (be quick!) or .... if it's enabled (t usually is): Hit 'F12' and the X1 will offer the available boot options. If you see the GRUB menu, you're already too late and need to reboot (better: shut it down completely and do a fresh start.)
Be aware that some distros do not support EFI and might require enabling 'legacy mode' in the BIOS/firmware to be able to be booted.
Also: Do not flash or change the BIOS/firmware unless you really need to and be absolutely 100% sure that the expected changes are the exact ones needed, where .... surmising from your post: You do not seem to be very seasoned in that matter and will be risking a very steep learning curve if things go wrong. 
Thanks for your reply.
I did all that you suggested and I STILL can't get it to sow me a USB as one of the boot options.
I even unplugged the SSD and tried to start up the Lenovo and it just boots in to the BIOS and shows me as Elive as the only boot option.
I know that Grub is stored on the SSD so without an SSD there should be no Grub booting up.
I have tried all kinds of combinations in the BIOS and none of them seem to enable me to boot via the USB. So I can't even install another SSD because the BIOS will not see it.
The only explanation that I can see is that Elive has made a change to the BIOS and I need to undo that by flashing teh BIOS and I can only do that via the CLI within Elive.
So I have to boot into Elive and then make the changes to the BIOS form there.
The USB port is active, because when I boot into Elive and insert a USB stick it shows up as a folder.
Hmm, you are actually mixing up some stuff there.
In that case I'd try using a different USB disk and/or format it differently.
Next I'd start seeing if having it in other ports makes difference.
- That said, I've had some Lenovo X1 Carbon machines react strangely to different USB sticks where sometimes I'd have to jump through hoops (like doing a factory reset) to even having the USB available using the F12 key.
First and foremost: Get in the BIOS (hit 'Enter' on the Lenovo Boot screen) and make sure that "secure boot" is disabled and then take a look at the "boot priority". Where as 1 time remedy tell it to use 'USB' as first option.
Also make sure that 'F12' is enabled to show boot options.
Does that mean that you've installed Elive on a SSD over a USB connection? ..... That would mean there's a fixed disk still inside the machine. 
Again: Elive does NOT do that without being explicitly told/commanded.by the user... and would require 'sudo' privileges to do that.... and for that matter: You CANNOT flash a bios from a running Linux, not in any way!!
Nope, that's the firmware NOT the bios... maybe take a quick picture of that?
But before we go any further you'll have to share some info on what you've actually got as a machine with the output of the following commands:
1.
inxi -Frnz
To find out exactly what machine you have and what Elive version you're running. You haven't told us so far 
2.
sudo fwupdmgr get-bios-settings
To find out what bios and settings you've actually got there.
and
3.
efibootmgr
Which will show all EFI settings (that's the firmware) including the 'Elive' boot option ... which you insisted on attributing to the BIOS.
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Its just as you said.
I managed to fix this issue by going into the BIOS and deleting the only entry, whcih was called Elive.
When I did this I was able to boot into live distros via the USB.
Thanks for your help.
I am still having some issues with Elive so I will be back.
Glad you got that sorted out....albeit I'm a tad baffled as to why that deletion was even needed. Most machines (especially X1 Carbons) allow for multiple entries ..... so many that after trying out multiple distros, I get so many entries I do remove them using "efibootmgr".
Just to clarify: The entry you deleted wasn't in the BIOS, it was in the UEFI boot manager which resides on NVRAM on the motherboard (hence the HD removal having no effect) and determines which boot order should be followed when loading the firmware from the EFI partition that's on the HD (that first small DOS-partition).
So all in all, it can't do any harm checking the commands I recommended earlier .... just to see what you have. 
You're quite welcome, we're here to help so don't hesitate.
