Howto: Create LiveUSBs from Windows using a GUI (UNetbootin)

[omelette]

I finally managed to find something that works with ISO's - Winsetup. I have just spent 10min searching for a link to the site where it is being developed so people may download the latest version, and failed - but note that version most sites link to does NOT work! The exact version I downloaded that works is;

WinSetup-1-0-beta6.7z

[littlebigman]

Hello

After reading this article, I downloaded UNetBootIn to transfer the Kaspersky Rescue CD ISO image onto a USB key.

After rebooting, after a few seconds, I'm stuck with the following error message:

Determining root device: Could not find the root block device in .

Does someone know if something needs to be done when burning the image using UNetBootIn, or do I need to pass some switch to the command line when booting up the kernel?

Thank you for any hint.

[Nisal]

really nice utility thanks alot for this )

[dadepfan]

Hello all!

I may have misunderstood what a live USB is and what UNetbootin is used for...

First, I have an Acer Aspire EasyStore H340 home server (with two 1TB drives), that came with Windows Home Server, and I wanted to convert it to run Ubuntu Server. I spent several days just trying to get this headless device to use a monitor and let me into the bios (involved changing jumpers on the MB!).

Having finally done that, I downloaded ubuntu-10.04-server-amd64.iso to my desktop PC and used UNetbootin to create a LiveUSB on my 4GB USB flash stick. My intent was to have something I could boot to and use to install Ubunto server onto the Acer Aspire. I wanted to replace everything on the server with Ubuntu, and have the server boot into Ubuntu when turned on. I did not want or intend the USB stick to be required for the server to boot.

The installation seemed to go OK, but took a very long time and downloaded MANY files. I assume that is standard. During installation, I choose my 1TB SATA hard drive as the location of the installation. Towards the end of the installation, a question about an existing OS (Vista) being detected and setting up a boot menu appeared. There did not seem to be any way to just eliminate Vista from the boot process, so I selected 'Continue'.

So now, the server will not boot unless the USB stick is plugged in AND it has to be 1st in the boot order in the bios setup (this seems to be the case with this computer & bios no matter what is booting). I believe that Ubuntu is actually installed on the 1st SATA drive, but the system will not boot from there,

So, how can I make the 1st SATA drive the actual boot device (with the USB stick not present and not in the boot list)?? I am fairly new to Linux, and do not have a working knowledge of the file system and all the utilities, so please respond with "take me by the hand dear Lord" language

Also, installation had me create a user name and password, but did not tell me how to log in as root.

Thanks,

Dave

[djmerk]

I finally managed to find something that works with ISO's - Winsetup. I have just spent 10min searching for a link to the site where it is being developed so people may download the latest version, and failed - but note that version most sites link to does NOT work! The exact version I downloaded that works is;

WinSetup-1-0-beta6.7z

AVG scan in XP turned up 5 spyware.

Careful in Windows folks.

[mailman1175]

This is a little out there, but since this thread is linked as a "support forum" directly from Unetbootin's sourceforge page, I'll give it a shot: What font does Unetbootin use?

Here's the deal: I'm trying to install Unetbootin on OS X via Wine. It's been reported to work. When I run Unetbootin.exe, though, the dialog box has no lettering at all. The only reference I've found to this is someone suggesting that the font used by Unetbootin isn't recognized by Wine, and must be installed. They didn't say which font it is, though, and I've been unsuccessful thus far in my googling.

Any help?

[tuxcantfly]

This is a little out there, but since this thread is linked as a "support forum" directly from Unetbootin's sourceforge page, I'll give it a shot: What font does Unetbootin use?

Here's the deal: I'm trying to install Unetbootin on OS X via Wine. It's been reported to work. When I run Unetbootin.exe, though, the dialog box has no lettering at all. The only reference I've found to this is someone suggesting that the font used by Unetbootin isn't recognized by Wine, and must be installed. They didn't say which font it is, though, and I've been unsuccessful thus far in my googling.

Any help?

Firstly, I am almost certain that UNetbootin would not work on Mac OS X via Wine - Mac OS X and Windows have different bootloaders, and I don't think syslinux works via Wine.

That said, UNetbootin doesn't request any specific font to be used; your system default is used. Thus, if you have the Microsoft Truetype Core Fonts installed, which you can get for non-Windows OSes at http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/ (fink, macports, or whatever package manager you used to install Wine should probably have installed them), then you should have whatever system font Wine defaults to.

If you're not getting text displayed, it's probably a Wine rendering issue, not an issue with missing fonts.

[mailman1175]

Firstly, I am almost certain that UNetbootin would not work on Mac OS X via Wine - Mac OS X and Windows have different bootloaders, and I don't think syslinux works via Wine.

That said, UNetbootin doesn't request any specific font to be used; your system default is used. Thus, if you have the Microsoft Truetype Core Fonts installed, which you can get for non-Windows OSes at http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/ (fink, macports, or whatever package manager you used to install Wine should probably have installed them), then you should have whatever system font Wine defaults to.

If you're not getting text displayed, it's probably a Wine rendering issue, not an issue with missing fonts.

Hm. I actually used an install script (osxwinebuilder) to build from source. Fink had a missing dependency that couldn't be filled (arts-shlibs).

I've seen several reports that Unetbootin/Wine works on OS X. I may hit up an OS X forum or two and see if I can figure out how they got it working.

[cnymike]

I am late to the party and not very smart either so please have mercy.

Just acquired an Acer Aspire-One netbook. I have just read Mark Gibb's column in networkworld about installing Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition using Universal USB Installer onto a USB flash drive. So I bought an 8GB PNY flash drive and installed Ubuntu 10.04. Every thing was fine. I was able to boot into Ubuntu on my ACER no problem. Loved the interface, seems fast, etc etc.

During installation I specified 4GB persistence

Problems arose when I attempted to Update Files on the USB drive. First error that appeared was the Grub-pc cannot find a device for /, /boot and /boot/grub

I continued and towards the end of updating, which took several hours by the way, I got the error "sorry the package "linux-image-2.6.32-24-generic 2.6.32-24.41 failed to install or ugrade. There was some other info such as, "E: linux-image-2.6.32-24-generic: subprocess insstalled post-nstallation script returned error exit status2, E; linux-image-generic: dependency problems-leaving unconfigured, and E: linux-generic: dependency problems-leaving unconfigured.

I guess my question is what did I do wrong?
What can I do to allow the USB flash drive to be updated successfully?
Can a LiveCD (USB drive) be updated using the Ubuntu update feature or is the USB drive only to be used for evaluation and not updated until Ubuntu is installed on the HD of the machine?
Am I too stupid to be attempting to do this at all?

Michael

[pwebster25]

CNYMIKE-
Ubuntu 10.04 NBE should work great on your Acer Aspire One. That is what I am typing on right now. I think we will need to understand a few things:

• Did you install Ubuntu on the Acer hard drive using the flash USB drive or did you just run the Live CD? It sounds like you might have been just running the live cd from USB.
• Was it still running from USB when you did update?
• How big is your hard-drive?

You can run some updates while using the live cd (USB) and you can even install some new software but this is really only installed in RAM and goes away when you reboot. The live CD is really for trying it out.
If I understand that you were just trying it out with the live cd then what you need to do it really install ubuntu on the Hard-Drive.

You will need to choose this option when it boots from your USB. You can also choose install Ubuntu while you are actually running it from the live cd. I'm not sure but I think it might be in favorites.

The install process is quite straightforward. You will need to choose whether to use the whole hard drive or whether to install Ubuntu next to whatever else is on there (Windows?). This would dual boot the machine.

It sound like your live USB device may be a bit gummed up now. I would suggest you delete the partition on that and then remake your live USB stick before doing your install again.

Have a good time. I have had a great experience with 10.04 on my AAO netbook (10").