Can not install 12.04.3 LTS -- unable to find a medium containing a live filesystem

[KenF]

1. From some forum searches, I noted the closed thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1692832&highlight=unable+find+medium+live+filesystem , but nothing there helps.

2. When trying to boot into a live image of 12.04.3, I get this message ( "unable to find a medium containing a live filesystem") and the boot sequence stops.

a. Image on a DVD.

I have both a DVD read/write drive and a CD-ROM drive. This is the first time I've tried to boot a live image from a DVD rather than a CD-ROM. I've gone into the BIOS and tried every order of boot sequence.

dmesg indicates that it finds the two drives (/dev/sr0 and /dev/sr1). The error message is from initramfs and says it can not find a live image.


b. Image on a USB key.

I created the image using my current install (10.04) "Startup Disk Creator".

In the boot-up process it dumps out again into busy box with the same error message (unable to find a medium containing a live filesystem).

I was able to figure out that the image is on /dev/sdb1 and was able to mount that. However, I can not figure out how to continue the boot-up process or get it to realize that the image is there.

c. When 12.04 first came out and fit on a CD ROM, I was able to boot that. However, I didn't install it at the time.

3. Additional Information:

The image I'm using is ubuntu-12.04.3-desktop-i386.iso . I verified the MD5 hash.


Any help/pointers?

[Kirboosy]

You may want to try Unetbootin to create your USB key. That might create the key properly.

However, you mentioned on point "C" that you burned a CD intitially and it worked just fine. You can download the original 12.04 release from the link below.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/12.04.0/)

Hope that helps!
~Caboose

[KenF]

1. Regarding the USB key.

a. I tried using unetbootin. Same thing.

b. I found out a bit more about what's going wrong with the USB key. I don't have a solution, but it has to do with slow setup of the /dev area. Either the key is somehow too slow or udevd is acting odd.

-- When it first drops into busybox with the error message, I should note that an "ls /dev/sd*" does *not* show /dev/sdb.

-- casper.log show's it is trying to read the live filesystem from /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd, ... but not /dev/sdb

-- After a minute, /dev/sdb shows up. After another 30 seconds /dev/sdb1 shows up. This can be mounted, etc.

-- After a few more minutes there is a (repeated) error message to the console:

udevd[235]: timeout: killing "/sbin/blkid -o udev -p /dev/sdb" [ ]


-- After all of this occurs, I'm fairly certain I could continue the boot/load process. However, I'm not sure what to do. I tried "./init 0" ... which progressed for a while. It mounted /root and such ... but died out somehow without establishing a path for /bin, etc.

2. I was able to write the 12.04.0 release to a CD. It worked fine.

Thanks!!!

KenF


Thanks,

Ken

[jayrod]

I had the same exact problem, and I created the USB key using both the startup disk creator and the universal USB installer. 12.04.2 works, but 12.04.3 does not.

[xu.walker]

It turns out it would be related with USB stick type.

I used a 4G USB stick, it didn't work for a few ways I tried.

When I used an old 1G USB stick, it worked just fine.