Cannot boot from USB

[mster]

I cannot get my laptop to boot up any system. My CD drive doesn't work so I have for months been trying to boot from USB.

I thought maybe my hard drive was b*ggered so I bought a new one but have the same problems.

I am at the moment trying to boot into ubuntu 10.04 I just get the message "vesamenu.c32: not a COM32R image"

when I try to boot from the Hard Drive (ie no usb attached) it goes to the grub> prompt.

It also says


"GRUB version 0.93 (639k lower / 121664k upper memory)

[minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word TAB lists the possible completions of a device/filename.]

grub>"

Can anyone help please?

I'd really love to be able to use my laptop again..

Thank you!!

Marianne

[viralmeme]

I cannot get my laptop to boot up any system. My CD drive doesn't work so I have for months been trying to boot from USB

What did you use to create the USB distro? I downloaded the latest Lubuntu ISO and used the USB creator on a Ubuntu 9.10 installation to make a USB that boots. This might have something to do with it.

"vesamenu.c32: not a COM32R image"

[Rubi1200]

See here for some options to boot from the GRUB prompt which you are seeing:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1594052

Good luck!

[mster]

What did you use to create the USB distro? I downloaded the latest Lubuntu ISO and used the USB creator on a Ubuntu 9.10 installation to make a USB that boots. This might have something to do with it.

"vesamenu.c32: not a COM32R image"

I used 10.10 to make a usb bootup for ubuntu 9.10 is that the problem?

I am currently downloading 10.10 and will try that..

fingers crossed.

Any more suggestions before I try it? - I take it that creating a startup usb in system/startup disk creator is all I need to do and then just restart my laptop with the usb in? - it's set to boot from removable device already.

Thank you

Marianne

[mster]

I am also going to download the 10.10 alternate iso (the text based one) to see if that works if this fails.

Any more advice would be most grateful - I am a newbie at grub and Ubuntu as I have used the dreaded windows all my life.

For me Ubuntu is turning out to be a bit complex, which is a shame as I really like it and have it running fine on an old desktop pc that I turned to when my laptop died (the one I am using to post this message)

Really hope my laptop isn't a lost cause.

[mster]

Still need help!

The furthest I got was with lubuntu 10.10 by typing acpi=off when tabbing at the install menu I got a little text lubuntu 10.10 and the rolling dots underneath - it didn't progress though and the screen went black, no noise from pc - just stalled.

[utilitytrack]

Hello, if you have some Ubuntu installed, can you provide this:

$ dpkg -l syslinux\*

EDIT:
See this: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MaverickMeer...20Applications

Workaround: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-image-829397/

[mster]

Hello, if you have some Ubuntu installed, can you provide this:

$ dpkg -l syslinux\*

Hi I managed to get into drop to prompt with networking in recovery mode and typed in the above, this is the text:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
Status=Not/Int/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
/Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (status,Err: uppercase=bad)
/Name Version Description
ii syslinux 2:4.01+dfsg-3u collection of boot loaders
ii syslinux-commo 2:4.01+dfsg-3u collection of boot loaders (common files)

Does this help?!?!

[mster]

can anyone help?

[utilitytrack]

can anyone help?

You should try to use other version of Ubuntu, or some other live distributions wich don't have such problems with Syslinux bootloader: Knoppix, Fedora LiveUSB, etc. For example, for to do this you can use unetbootin installer: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ (it available for Linux or DefaultOS)