Howto make USB boot drives

[sudodus]

@P-I H,

Thanks for those details.

I made a quick test with Ubuntu 20.10 installed in my test computer, a Toshiba with Intel i5 (generation 3), in UEFI mode and with US English. I did not see any sign of a crash, neither in a terminal window nor in /var/crash.

So it is difficult for me to troubleshoot the problem. Maybe it depends on some combination of your hardware and the drivers for it and mkusb. It would be interesting if you can find some more details of what can cause the crash and what can make the system avoid the crash (for example by running various versions of Ubuntu live in the Asus-B450 and some other computer).

[sudodus]

mkusb version 12.6.7, 12.6.8, 12.6.9

- mkusb 12.6.7 . guidus: skip parameter if %f is '%f' (for hippo hirsute) - mkusb 12.6.8 . dus-live: mkcmd_runcmd: ... wait for the buffered data to get flushed ... - mkusb 12.6.9 . dus-persistent: .. grub_n_iso & probe_source: identifying 20.04.2 & 21.04 .. probe_source: usb-pack_efi auto-set for 21.04 & 20.04.2

Improvement in version 12.6.7

- guidus.desktop, when initiated from the menu in pcmanfm-qt, did not start correctly, complained:

%f is neither an iso file nor an img.{gz,xz} file

fixed by editing the shellscript guidus: if statement to skip parameter if %f is '%f' makes it work also in hippo hirsute

Improvement in version 12.6.8

- Better information about flushing the buffers:

"Please wait for sync until 'Done' is written.
If there is a progress window,
wait for the buffered data to get flushed
so that all data are transferred to the target device."

Improvement in version 12.6.9

Modified structure of the iso files of 20.04.2 & 21.04 makes it necessary to add a new way to identify these versions of Ubuntu. At the same time using usb-pack_efi is selected automatically for these new versions. The modifications were made in dus-persistent (and mkusb-plug may need some corresponding modification).

---

Unstable: You get/update this new version of mkusb from the unstable PPA via the following commands

sudo add-apt-repository universe     # this line only for standard Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/unstable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mkusb           # to install
# sudo apt full-upgrade          # upgrade to current version (with all other upgrades), only for installed systems

sudo apt install mkusb guidus dus mkusb-common  # to upgrade all mkusb basic components including dus

sudo apt install usb-pack-efi    # for persistent live drives that work in UEFI and BIOS mode with 32-bit iso files

You get only the version dus (alone or with guidus) via one of the following commands (if you don't care about mkusb-11, mkusb-nox, mkusb-bas)

sudo apt install dus
sudo apt install guidus

You get only the version mkusb-plug via [the update command and] the following command,

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mkusb-plug

Alternative way to get mkusb: There are tarballs at

- help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/gui/tarball with only dus and guidus (mkusb version 12),

- help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/plug with only mkusb-plug.

---

Stable: mkusb version 12.6.9 is in the stable PPA. The policy is to test mkusb for a long time and in several environments before it is uploaded to the stable PPA (unless there are minor tweaks or bug-fixes).

You get/update this version via the following commands

sudo add-apt-repository universe      # this line only for standard Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mkusb            # to install
# sudo apt full-upgrade           # upgrade to current version (with all other upgrades), only for installed systems

sudo apt install usb-pack-efi     # for persistent live drives that work in UEFI and BIOS mode with 32-bit iso files

You get only the version dus (alone or with guidus) via one of the following commands (if you don't care about mkusb-11, mkusb-nox, mkusb-bas)

sudo apt install dus
sudo apt install guidus

You get only the version mkusb-plug via [the update command and] the following command,

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mkusb-plug

Usually there is drive space enough to install all the following mkusb packages explicitly:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mkusb guidus mkusb-plug usb-pack-efi

Please notice that if you have already installed mkusb-plug or dus/guidus from a tarball, you had better remove that version when you install via PPA. The advantage with the PPA version is that it gets updated/upgraded automatically along with other program packages that are installed from the Ubuntu repositories.

[P-I H]

I have played with Opensuse Tumbleweed. This iso is 4.3 GB and perhaps this is the cause of the problem with the udev crash. Mkusb's terminal window shows that the copy is ready, but in the other window tthe copy goes on, but very slow. At first in 0 Mb/s. After a while the the copy will finish and the terminal window shows that you have to hit enter to finish. In case you are interested I can provide some screenshots.

[sudodus]

I have played with Opensuse Tumbleweed. This iso is 4.3 GB and perhaps this is the cause of the problem with the udev crash. Mkusb's terminal window shows that the copy is ready, but in the other window tthe copy goes on, but very slow. At first in 0 Mb/s. After a while the the copy will finish and the terminal window shows that you have to hit enter to finish. In case you are interested I can provide some screenshots.

Yes please

[P-I H]

Will take some time. I have to change computer. Now I'm setting up a new gnome installation in Tumbleweed.

[P-I H]

Pictures
1- Other window at start at 15-28-19
2- Terminal window 100% at 15-29-51
3- Other window whe terminal window shows 100 % at 15-30-05
4- Other window when almost ready at 15-32-27
5- Terminal window after almost ready at 15-32-46

[P-I H]

The two last pictures
6- Other window when finished at 15-34-30
7- Terminal window when finished 15-34-52

[sudodus]

Thanks @P-i H

[sudodus]

@P-i H,

The screenshots show what I would expect:

- pv will show 100%, way before the buffers are flushed (syncing).

- Instead of simply waiting in silence, there is output showing how the buffers are flushed.

The sequence above is particularly obvious, when there is a lot of RAM and a fairly new version of Ubuntu

- Finally there is cleanup after writing and after that you can finish mkusb-dus.

-o-

I think there should be the same output from mkusb-dus also when there is 'nothing wrong'.

Are these screenshots connected to the problem you saw, that usr_bin_udevadm crashes just before the mkusb script is ready?

In that case, is there any output showing it except the crash info in /var/crash?

Edit: Maybe there should be some explaining text in the window showing how the buffers are flushed. Please suggest what should be written to explain better, what is happening

[P-I H]

I thought it might be connected to the problem. When you make a boot usb of over 4 GB it takes quit a long time before Done is written.
The terminal window is the main window and perhaps a text like this should give a better understanding
"Please wait for sync until 'Done* is written and the dus-live window shows a ready transfer"
I will install Ubuntu 20.10 on another computer and see if I get the crash.