10.10 live usb hangs att syslinux start

**TV-VCR** · October 31st, 2010

Using a multitude of different programs, including the one the official site recommended, it always hangs at this screen with a blinking cursor:

Code:

SYSLINUX 4.02 2010-07-21 EDD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
_

Ugh, how do I get past this? What's going wrong here? I checked the md5sum of the iso and it matches up with the official one.

Edit: I know the flash drive isn't at fault, because I've used it as a live USB for 10.04 and several other distros.

**mörgæs** · November 1st, 2010

Have you tried creating the USB stick with the latest Unetbootin?

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

**oldfred** · November 1st, 2010

There seem to be several issues:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1589852
http://my.opera.com/toman/blog/setti...n-new-hardware
After some fiddling around with the syslinux config files and still not getting it to boot properly, I found a deceptively simple workaround for this: Just type "help" on the BOOT prompt, and when you get the help menu, just hit enter. The system will now boot!

Maverick images burned to usb key on lucid fail to boot - different syslinux version
ui in /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
http://trentscott.com/2010/10/07/fix...erick-meerkat/
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/608382

**danerben** · June 19th, 2011

Been having the same problem on HP ProBook 5310m and two other machines. tried all of this, nothing worked (Unetbootin & usb-creator in 10.04 & 10.10, Universal Usb Installer in Windows 7, different ISOs, replacing vesamenu.c32 on the USB drive with /usr/lib/syslinux/vesamenu.c32, editing the hell out of syslinux.cfg). I think it is an issue with syslinux and the solution is to use a different bootloader than syslinux - gonna try.

**KingWilliam** · October 19th, 2011

I have been having the exact same problem from my HP. I think it is a problem related to the fact that HP sees the USB stick as a "Bootable floppy".

Anyhow, I found a workaround. I just did a dd of the entire iso directly to the unmounted USB drive. That is:

Code:

dd if=ubuntuisofile.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M

Remember to make sure replace sdX with the correct drive letter (sdb in my case), and that the USB drive is not mounted.

It might take some time to write the data so be patient. You will notice when it is finished. Afterwards your USB drive should boot Ubuntu on your HP machine.

fyi, dont believe all the other info about removing UI in the syslinux config, or typing help or something. Those are for similar cases that look a little different from this one.

Let me know if this helped you out!

**serge_o** · January 6th, 2012

Hey KingWilliam.

Me too

I have an HP 110-3000 netbook and the same story hier, hangs at "syslinux" nomattawhat, unetbootin/startup disk creator/ nothing works.

your workaround worked for me! Thanks a lot!

I think that we can now conclude that it is a HP related problem.

however, I think that this is ubuntu problem too. because now it looks like this : a simple user makes a normal usb stick with a recommended program (startup creator is an official ubuntu tool, featured in their USB HOWTO on ubuntu.com) and nothing works.

I think this is the Ubuntu people should be more flexible and change either the startup disk creator or syslinux.

I think I would find time and maybe do it myself and offer my solution to them.

Originally Posted by KingWilliam

I have been having the exact same problem from my HP. I think it is a problem related to the fact that HP sees the USB stick as a "Bootable floppy".

Anyhow, I found a workaround. I just did a dd of the entire iso directly to the unmounted USB drive. That is:

Code:

dd if=ubuntuisofile.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M

Remember to make sure replace sdX with the correct drive letter (sdb in my case), and that the USB drive is not mounted.

It might take some time to write the data so be patient. You will notice when it is finished. Afterwards your USB drive should boot Ubuntu on your HP machine.

fyi, dont believe all the other info about removing UI in the syslinux config, or typing help or something. Those are for similar cases that look a little different from this one.

Let me know if this helped you out!

**bubu74** · March 11th, 2012

Hi! Got the same troubles on an Acer Aspire One Netbook. Nothing worked and it keept freezing on the usb right after this msg

SYSLINUX 4.02 2010-07-21 EDD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al

But i got it to work by formatting the stick to ntfs. Was very suprised and after installing i tried with fat32 and again freeze. Maybe this helps..... bye

**ctg60** · March 25th, 2012

My HP sometimes doens't list newly build ubuntu USB memory as boot device, some time does.

**Podcaster1** · June 5th, 2012

I was having this same problem on a usb key with Ubuntu 12.04LTS live (Created using the linux iso and startup disk creator). I then found simply by pressing the F9 key (HP Dm3 computer) to allow me to select the usb device to boot solved this problem. This may not be the fix for all, but I'm sure it will be for someone.