Having trouble creating USB.

[thebarisaxkid]

Hey all,

I am currently undergoing some trouble with creating a bootable USB. I am in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meekrat and I want to move to Debian 5 Lenny. When I try the built in StartUp Disk Creator, it takes longer than it usually does with other distros (about 1% every 3-7 seconds). Not only that but towards the end of the write, it gives me an error:

Installation Failed
Could not move syslinux files in "/media/2C5B-9FFE": [Errno 2] No such file or directory. 
Maybe "/tmp/tmpw4Jree" is not an Ubuntu image?

So I try this in the terminal to make the USB instead:

sudo dd if=Downloads/debian-506-alpha-CD-1.iso of=/dev/sdb

if=... being where my iso is located and of=... being the device I want it on.

However, when I restart, the BIOS tells me that there is no boot sector on the USB device, and boots into my OS. I tried this with Arch Linux before and it worked.

I also tried UNetBootin, but that was an epic fail. After it downloaded the files to the USB, it told me to move the iso to the USB or /(root) of my hd. I did it on my USB, as I could not see how it would work if I placed it on my HD. However, when I booted into the USB, it searched for the ISO but did not find it at all. (I clicked and dragged the iso to the USB, could that be the problem?)

What should I do? Is there something that I can add to the dd if=... of=... command to make the drive bootable?

Or should I try a different program? Any reccomendations will be accepted.

Big thanks to everybody!!

[Foxheadz]

Move the .iso to the / part of your computer. Then open unetbootin and select it from there and then continue making the startup disk

[12apennachi]

Move the .iso to the / part of your computer. Then open unetbootin and select it from there and then continue making the startup disk

unetbootin is the best and you don't need to move the iso. you can navigate to the home folder and go from there

[Foxheadz]

It's quite good but i find that the selecting of iso(s) could be made better. And dude you might not want to go around with that signature

[ajgreeny]

The ubuntu startup disk creator is only for the ubuntu family of OSs. No others will work, so debian will never be successfully made that way.

Unetbootin is the way to go.

[thebarisaxkid]

I tried the second option in the Unetbootin, but it gave me an error saying "invalid kernel image"

I noticed when I pressed tab on the "Default" boot option, it shows that kernel initrd (or whatever it is called) is pointing to ubninit. Shouldn't it be pointing to something like 2.26.2.6-26?

How can I fix this, do I just type in the right kernel name? What is the kernel name?

And dude you might not want to go around with that signature

But it is true... (Well, maybe windows is better than Mac)

[Foxheadz]

Hmm maybe you have a corrupted iso i would try re downloading it. Also i was talking about the other guy:that command wipes your hard drive

[thebarisaxkid]

The ubuntu startup disk creator is only for the ubuntu family of OSs. No others will work, so debian will never be successfully made that way.

When I looked at the description in the repository, it said that it works for Debian and any other Debian-based distros.

[thebarisaxkid]

Hmm maybe you have a corrupted iso i would try re downloading it. Also i was talking about the other guy:that command wipes your hard drive

Hmm, I'll try that.

Yea, I would take off that signature right now, or else he gonna get his **** wooped.

[Foxheadz]

Also have you tried just burning the iso to a cd/dvd?