Booting Ubuntu from USB drive on MSI motherboard -- EVERYTHING fails

It looks like the latest bios version is 7C37v14 (Release Date 2019-09-18). Update your bios to this version in order to get the latest Linux support.

With these processors and motherboards being so new it is a good idea to pay attention to the latest bios releases.

Updating the BIOS to version 7C37v14 fixed the issue!

Modern distros like Ubuntu can have live USB disks made with dd. If even go so far as to say this is a superior way of doing it.

As root:

dd if=/path/to/iso.iso of=/dev/sdb 

Replace sdb with whatever your USB device is showing up as.

On mobile, but IIRC you can check with lsusb.

Edit: I thought this was a bug with unetbootin. It can be iffy sometimes.