aurora-nvidia-stable.iso does not boot

[Jawzper]

I am a new user just dipping my toes into Linux, trying to give Aurora a try on bootable USB. Unfortunately, I am struggling with the "bootable" part.

Steps to reproduce:

• Visit https://getaurora.dev/en
• Select Desktop/Laptop hardware, Nvidia GPU, no Dev version, and download iso.
• Hash checks out: b3a5805d12a348a167aeba5f56580e01f657195e8d22a62c709e5acb289575f7 (aurora-nvidia-stable.iso)
• Flash to USB with balenaEtcher.

Attempting to boot from USB results in error "System doesn't have any USB boot option". On further inspection I realized the USB stick had weird partitions, it was necessary to reformat.

I couldn't find any specific instructions for installing this distro on the website, so I just took the steps that worked for others.

Am I doing something wrong or is there a problem with the file on the site?

[inffy]

Sounds like a problem with the usb stick or maybe a bad flashing of the iso onto it.

Do you have another usb stick you can try. You can also try with Fedora Media Writer or Ventoy to get the image to boot.

[Jawzper]

I suspected the USB stick as well, but it worked fine with Pop OS and chkdsk has no complaints.

Fedora Media Writer sounds promising, so tomorrow I'll give that a try, go digging for a different USB stick if necessary, and report back.

[Jawzper]

After using Fedora Media Writer I was able to begin the booting process only by navigating manually to it in UEFI. I think I must have been choosing the wrong partition of the USB.

Next problem was a media check fail error at 4.8%. Did some searching and learned this is a false positive that might be caused by windows interfering with files on the USB stick. Some guy on reddit suggested to unplug the USB before the post-flashing verification is complete, to prevent windows from getting its fingerprints on it. That actually worked...

Found more info here since then: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/install-media-sometimes-fail-media-check-at-4-8/108478
It seems I could also have just skipped the check entirely since I compared the checksums myself.

Anyway, it works. Computers are weird. I have done this instead of sleeping so I will save installation for another day, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.