15.04 does not boot from USB stick

[tapasray]

As I need to run Ubuntu 15.04 on a Windows 7 laptop from a USB stick, I created a bootable stick (Patriot 16 gb) on the same laptop using the Universal USB Installer linked from PendrtiveLinux, changed the boot order so that the USB stick appeared at the top of the list, saved the change and exited. When I tried to reboot, all I got is a black screen with a static line of text that reads Syslinux, etc. Attaching a screenshot of the contents of the USB stick. I would really appreciate help with this. Thanks in advance.

[Double.J]

Hi there!

Urgh I feel your pain - it seems that Unetbootin's grandkids have gone a bit backwards of late. I've had lots of problems getting the various USB tools to work properly and it seems to be a bit hit and miss.

I can recommend LiLi (http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en/download). It says windows xp-8 support, but I managed to make a USB on windows 10 with it two weeks ago, and you're using 7, so it should be fine.
Fingers X'd for you!

JJ

[sudodus]

Is the problem that the pendrive is faulty or is there problems with the graphics driver or wifi driver?

Can you test if the pendrive can boot another computer?

Did you check the md5sum of the downloaded iso file?

What computer is it?

Is it running in BIOS or UEFI mode?

Please specify your computer hardware

- Brand name and model
- CPU
- RAM (size)
- graphics chip/card
- wifi chip/card

Do you need persistence or is a 'live only' pendrive OK for your purpose? (There are more alternatives, including alternatives with high success rate for a 'live only' pendrive, for example mkusb (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb) from linux and Win32DiskImager (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Win32DiskImager/iso2usb) from Windows.

[tapasray]

Thanks, JJ! I'll try Lili. Now that you say it, I remember using it in the past. Did work then.

Thanks, Sudodus. I don't think the pen drive is the problem - it was full of data in NTFS, with no corruption as far as I could see, and I formated it into Fat32 for using it as a boot disk. No, I haven't tried booting another machine with it. Will do that. I did not check the md5sum ... I know I should have.

The machine is an Acer Aspire One netbook.
CPU - Intel Atom 1.6 GHz.
RAM - 1 GB.
Graphics chip/card - If this refers to "Display adapters", then it's "Mobile Intel (R) 945 Express chipset family".
Wifi chip/card - Atheros AR5007EG

Thanks again. Do let me know if you need any other information.

[Bucky Ball]

When you do get it to run the experience might not be that pleasant with 1Gb of RAM. You might be better off with Lubuntu or Xubuntu.

[sudodus]

When you do get it to run the experience might not be that pleasant with 1Gb of RAM. You might be better off with Lubuntu or Xubuntu.

+1

That computer has too little horsepower and too little memory (RAM) for standard Ubuntu. Lubuntu, Xubuntu or Ubuntu MATE will run much better. Furthermore, I would recommend the long time support version 14.04.1 LTS, which is supported until April 2017 while 15.04 has only nine months support (until January 2016).

[tapasray]

Thanks, Bucky Ball and sudodus. I'll try one of those lighter versions of 14.04 and report back in a day or two.

[gordintoronto]

+1 for Xubuntu. I'm running 15.04 on the same netbook.

[Double.J]

+2

I just recently retired my N270 based netbook, I had done a RAM upgrade to 2GB

The main problem I always had with mainstream ubuntu was things not fitting the smaller screen. I mostly used Lubuntu, but I think I'd probably agree with Xubuntu these days. Although it was far from unusable with unity, at 1GB every bit of oomph is quite important, but then it depends what you'll do - we're not often using netbooks for high performance tasks! Ironically I actually switched to Ubuntu because of the old Netbook Remix... which became unity... which my netbook took issue with. C'est la vie!

Hope you got on with the USB!

[tapasray]

Greetings, all!

First, thanks @gordintoronto - you give me hope :)

@Bucky Ball, @JJ and @sudodus, I have nothing good to report. Tried Lubuntu 14.04 on a different pen drive, with the same result. Chose this particular stick - 2gb - essentially because a year or so ago I had used it to load Ubuntu in dual boot mode on my primary laptop, which is a small Sony Vaio that came loaded with a basic version of Windows 7, and that had gone smoothly all the way. But this time, on this Acer netbook (older than the Sony), nothing but a black screen with a line of text. I wish I would see Grub but no sign of it. Wanted to try the installation on an older laptop, a really heavy 17" Acer, but the boot menu on that one doesn't seem to have a USB option at all. Finally, I tried out the 2gb drive on my office desktop PC, an HP with Intel Core Duo 3.06 GHz processor and 2 gb RAM, but again nothing. Maybe I will try out Xubuntu. But I have a feeling that the problem is somewhere else.

[Bucky Ball]

Try another stick. Or have you already? If it is not working on three machines, that is the first thing I'd be doing.

[tapasray]

@Bucky Ball That's what I did. I was using a 16 gb stick when I was trying to install Ubuntu and started this thread. Yesterday, after reading your posts and others', I tried on three machines with a different stick. This one is only 2gb, but had worked without a hitch a year ago when I installed Ubuntu on my main laptop (a Sony Vaio) as dual-boot with preloaded Windows 7.

[Bucky Ball]

And the 16Gb stick doesn't work on any of the three machines either? If not, might be the ISO you've downloaded is somehow corrupt. Have you tried torrenting it instead? Cleaner and is checked on the way. You'll find the torrent file under Alternative Downloads on the Get Ubuntu page.

[sudodus]

It is time for trouble-shooting :-)

Does the downloaded iso file match the md5sum listed here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes)?

Do you need persistence or is a 'live only' pendrive OK for your purpose? There are more alternatives, including alternatives with high success rate for a 'live only' pendrive, for example mkusb (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb) from linux and Win32DiskImager (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Win32DiskImager/iso2usb) from Windows.

Can any of your pendrives boot another computer?

-o-

If you can download a couple of iso files, I would recommend

lubuntu-14.04.2-desktop-i386.iso and xubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386.iso

14.04.1 LTS is supported until April 2017. Yet I recommend lubuntu-14.04.2-desktop-i386.iso or lubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-i386.iso, because they are better debugged than lubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386.iso.

You can get the best of both flavours if you install Xubuntu 14.04.1 LTS and update/upgrade it to be up to date. After that you can install lubuntu-core, reboot and clean the system:


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo reboot
sudo apt-get install lubuntu-core
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean

This way you can switch between Xubuntu for most applications and Lubuntu when you need a faster desktop, for example to play video.

[tapasray]

@Bucky Ball No, I didn't try the 16 on three machines. Only the 2. And the first ISO I tried (Ubuntu 15.04) was actually torrented, not downloaded. There was something wrong with it, which is why I downloaded the ISO. Then when I quit trying with Ubuntu 15.04 and tried out Lubuntu 14.04, I downloaded the ISO. Did not torrent it.

@sudodus Thanks. I shall try the Xubuntu version you have mentioned. As for checksum, the latest try was with a bootable 2 gb stick created with unetbootin-windows-613, which did its own checking, I think. But I'll do it with your link anyway.

As for persistence, I had set 4 gb on the 16gb stick as there was plenty of room. But on the 2 gb stick I set zero. I am not very clear about the use of persistence, but guess it's useful in some circumstances according to what I have read online. I don't understand what those circumstances are, though.

[sudodus]

I suggest that you stay away for persistence while testing how to make your computer boot from a USB pendrive.

Later on you can make a persistent live system, if you want a portable pendrive with your own tweaks and your own data. The following link describes briefly

1a. live system,

1b. persistent live system

2. installed system

Try Ubuntu (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, ...) before installing it (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2230389)

[brian-mccumber]

When I was installing Ubuntu on my computers, while I still had Windows running on them, I used this tool - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ - to make a bootable USB drive after I downloaded the Ubuntu iso and tried to burn it to three disks before I found that my iso was corrupted during the download. I re-downloaded the Ubuntu iso and used that utility from the link and did not have any problems installing it on both my computers from the usb drive.

[tapasray]

Thanks, @sudodus. Will do as you advise.

Thanks, @Brian. That programme is the first one I tried. Have tried one torrented file and two or three downloaded ones. Will try again.