full install of ubuntu on USB is the most painful experience ever.

[jack5]

I have installed and run ubuntu usb and it shows a blinking underscore ("_") at boot. I have checked google extensively and researched the topic but still could not find the answer. I have tried installing Ubuntu 12.04, 13.04 and Lubuntu 13.04 without any success.

I do not want:
1) persistent USB
2) partition my USB
3) use complicated instructions involving terminal commands

Here are my specs:
Intel i5-3450
AMD Radeon HD 7800 series.

Here are the steps taken:
1. winMd5sum check on ISO
2. install ubuntu onto USB drive (installer drive) using universal usb installer.
3. unplugged all my hardrives
4. run ubuntu without installing
5. unmounted the USB drive (Ubuntu drive) that I want to install it on.
6. run gpart to create new partition and formatted the drive to ex4
7. run installer - selected the "Ubuntu drive", selected boot to / and format to use ex4
8. fail.

[ajgreeny]

You may need to use the boot option "nomodeset" because of that graphic card.

Is ubuntu actually installed on that USB disk? Attach it to your machine when alrerady running a live DVD or USB system, and navigate to the usb disk you have installed to to see if the system really did install.

If everything seems to be there, open the /media/usbdrive/etc/default/grub file and edit the line
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to read
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

You will need to open the grub file mentioned with gksudo gedit /media/usbdrive/etc/default/grub in order to be able to edit and save it in the live session.

PS: The usbdrive (red above) will show as some other named folder in your system, so use whatever is showing as that disk in your commands.

[ian-weisser]

Wait...you want to overwrite the same USB drive that you are using to run the installer?
Yeah, that won't work. Last time I looked, the USB installer loads into RAM, but all of the packages that need to be installed don't load into RAM. So you are overwriting them during the initial partitioning.

I have installed to USB, and it's not difficult at all. The easy method is to use a CD drive or another USB drive.
If you insist on using the same USB drive, or installing from an existing system, it's quite doable (done it), but there is no "easy" method.
I suggest the Minimal .iso: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...tion/MinimalCD

If you are using anything less than USB 3.0, expect a long boot (I had 30-40 seconds to a command prompt, 90-120 seconds to a lightdm prompt) and a fairly slow, laggy system. I used command line only - graphical desktops were unusably slow.

[jack5]

thank you for all your replies.

You may need to use the boot option "nomodeset" because of that graphic card.

If everything seems to be there, open the /media/usbdrive/etc/default/grub file and edit the line
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to read
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

You will need to open the grub file mentioned with gksudo gedit /media/usbdrive/etc/default/grub in order to be able to edit and save it in the live session.

I opened the Ubuntu USB and all the files seems to be there. I opened /media/ and nothing is inside it. I located a similar file at usbdrive/etc/default/grub, but could not save due to permissions. How can I use gksudo gedit to edit grub on the usbdrive? *note: i am on Ubuntu 13.04

edit: I found how to edit grub on an installed OS but not onto a USB stick via Live Ubuntu. http://askubuntu.com/questions/12812...hout-nomodeset

Clarification: I am using two USB. One as an installer and another for Ubuntu.

[sudodus]

What you try should be possible unless the graphics card won't cooperate with any available driver. So please continue along the tips of ajgreeny.

There is one more step though. You need to transfer the added/changed boot option to /boot/grub/grub.cfg, which is normally done when booted into the system (with sudo update-grub) but it can be done manually by editing the lines in containing 'quiet splash' in that file

 gksudo gedit usbdrive/boot/grub/grub.cfg

You can also try booting in recovery mode from the grub menu.
-o-

I suggest that you try a short-cut according to the following link to get a portable Lubuntu system (16 GB 13.04 or 4 GB Saucy alpha-2).

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...dSystemFakePAE

You may still need to use a boot option and later on a proprietary driver for your graphics chip/card, but since USB is slower than internal drives, it can be a good idea to have a light version of Ubuntu (Lubuntu instead of the standard flavour with Unity).

[jack5]

What you try should be possible unless the graphics card won't cooperate with any available driver. So please continue along the tips of ajgreeny.

There is one more step though. You need to transfer the added/changed boot option to /boot/grub/grub.cfg, which is normally done when booted into the system (with sudo update-grub) but it can be done manually by editing the lines in containing 'quiet splash' in that file

 gksudo gedit usbdrive/boot/grub/grub.cfg

You can also try booting in recovery mode from the grub menu.
-o-

Thank you for your reply.

I am new to the terminal and have difficulty accessing other hard drives through the terminal. In Files, I see the name of the USB drive as: "32 GB Volume". However, on top of the window I see it says d48ff598-f4b8-4279-9d14-c4046c79a4d3. What do i type in usbdrive you stated in the code above?

[sudodus]

Run the command

df

which will show something like this

/dev/sdd1        3627640   2190060      1253264  64% /media/lubuntu-saucy-a2

It means that the device /dev/sdd1 is mounted on the directory /media/lubuntu-saucy-a2 in the file system, the mount point. Use that (corresponding to the red text here).

[jack5]

thanks. followed the instructions and added nomodeset to "quiet splash".

the problem still occurs, namely the blinking underscore

[sudodus]

Did you add nomodeset in usbdrive/boot/grub/grub.cfg ?

Next step:

Remove quiet splash and add text boot options and try again. This time you should get text scrolling during startup, showing which programs that start properly (or not). Finally you arrive at a text screen (the graphical desktop environment is not started). If this works, it is likely that the problems are connected to the graphics.

Or try with a live session (boot a live session (try [X]Ubuntu) from the install USB drive) and check if you get a graphical desktop.

[jack5]

I did not add nomodeset to usbdrive/boot/grub/grub.cfg

the file looks significantly different. Where do I add nomodeset?

thank you for your quick response.