Why can I never boot from USB?

[Maheriano]

I used the Create USB Boot Image from the menu at the top of Ubuntu and everything worked fine but when I rebooted with the stick in, it only booted to the following command line:

boot:
No matter what I type, I get the following:

<what I type> is not a valid Linux kernel. Please try again.

So last night I downloaded the USB image for the Ubuntu Mobile beta daily release, downloaded the USB Image Create program, installed that and used it to successfully create a boot image on the same USB drive. I reboot with the stick in again and the exact same command line comes up again. I really want to try this Ubuntu Mobile build, what am I doing wrong? The file is 755 megs so I can't burn it to CD and I don't have a DVD burner....yet.

[Maheriano]

Here's the link I was using to do all the downloads:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mid/daily-live/current

[0cton]

maybe your download has some bad "sectors"\bytes
have you tried md5-ing it and comparing to the provided hash?

[Maheriano]

I don't think that's it. It happens every time I make a USB boot image.

[jo4hnc]

Here's a pretty good guide to installing to a flash drive.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ubuntu-804-usb-hard-drive-install/

[Maheriano]

I think I figured out the problem with this. I tried it with a different USB stick last night and it worked fine. I guess it was giving me the boot prompt because there was more than one image installed onto that flash drive. Then it wanted me to choose.