USB boot on macbook air- do i need to format usb drive?

[spacedpine]

Hi, I am excited to install linux on my macbook air and have been trying to boot with a kingston 4gb usb drive but when I try to boot with it (holding down the option key on reboot) only the Hard drive shows up for me to boot up on.. not the usb drive.. how do I format the usb drive to be bootable in this case?

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

It appears you have Boot Camp on your MAC. If not, install it.

If that doesn't work:

I would try making the USB with the dd command. Instructions for MAC OSX are here ( http://www.mguhlin.org/2010/07/unetbootin-on-mac.html)

If you have access to a Windows or Linux machine use these instructions for Unetbootin. http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/