Hi all,

I had problems running the binary package of unetbootin 3.04 on my debian testing - it said "bus error" and crashed. I compiled from source and this one worked, so I used it to copy debian testing image to a USB flash drive (SanDisk 8GB Cruzer), but my PC couldn't boot from it - there was a "disk error" or something. So I booted my WinXP and used the Windows version of unetbootin. This time booting from the USB drive started fine but stopped and complained it couldn't mount file system (can't remember the exact message). So I tried openSuse 11.1 images (both KDE and Gnome), both failed saying CD was not found. I also tried Parted Magic, and again it didn't boot. The only distro that worked fine was ubuntu 8.10. Your advice will be appreciated.

TIA

Hello, I've seen a few threads around the net of yours and I was wondering if you ever found a work-around? I am having a problem with Unetbootin myself, one in which I can't click effectively on the icon of the program.

Since the date of your posting above version 3.07 of Unetbootin has come out, potentially alleviating the error you spoke of. Also, there are manual methods of installation should the automated ones not work. An Easy Peasy Wiki page concerns this.

You said that on some attempts that you had made it as far as copying files to a USB stick but then came across errors, could the ISO be corrupt, have you run tests to determine the integrity of the ISO image that you presumably downloaded for the purpose of this thumb drive install?

Hello,

I'm afraid nothing has changed so far. I tried additional images (like Debris and ubuntu alternate install CD), but none would work except plain ubuntu. At first I too thought it was a corrupt ISO file, but I checked some of them using MD5 or just burned them to a CD and installed them, and there wasn't any problem.

I'l try the new 3.07 release and will post results here.

Thanks

Tried 3.07 with openSuse Gnome live CD: boot process starts, then halts with a message saying "Couldn't find live image configuration file". It's the same as in 3.04.

Should Unetbootin persist in failing to meet your needs, as I've heard others describe it, the process of installing manually can be done within GNU/Linux but it can also be done under Microsoft Windows. A recent MaximumPC article describes installing Ubuntu on netbooks using a method that is likely more broadly interpretable.

I have not tried manual installs yet myself but I am gravitating towards the concept.

As a side note, some distribution are gaining built-in install applications for the purpose of putting their own distributions on thumb drives. These programs are accessible through drop-down menus from within the graphical user interface. Ubuntu has Create A USB Startup Disk, Fedora has Live USB Creator. You and I both run Debian, it would be great if we had a similar application.

I tried the procedure described in the link You provided with the openSuse image and it failed the same way as in unetbootin. This is very strange. Is it possible that my flash memory is bad? I'll try and find another one and re-check.

Unless you meant you have a spare close at hand it looks like you are in the market for a new flash drive. By no mere coincidence to my recent interest in wanting a thumb drive size OS, Linux Format's cover story for the January 2009 issue is Linux In Your Pocket, an article in which, to paraphrase Paul Hudson, one should note that...

-Reliability, purchasing from a company with inroads to manufacturing memory is wise. The periodical went with Corsair Flash Voyager for their quality of materials.

-Speed, here Hudson indicated that some flash drives such as those with Corsair's GT designation are made with parts that, he believes, operate faster than the standard fair. Making such drives particularly appealing to anyone needing to install an entire operating system on the device and not merely backup a few files.

With that said, such a drive as the Corsair Flash Voyager GT is expensive! I only note it here by example of the Linux Format article and as an optimum choice. Plus, we'll all likely be buying new flash drives when USB 3.0 based products start coming out in the first quarter of 2010. The standard will have an estimated, “top speed of 5 Gbps [or] 10 times faster than the current USB connection,” says Jeff Ravencraft, chairman of the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, as interviewed in January 2009's Laptop magazine.

I'm not familiar with the ways in which such devices can stop working. However, can you write and retrieve any data to or from the drive at all? A small file perhaps?

It seems to work well - I can copy files to and from it, no errors or problems.

I'll take a flash disk (1GB M-Systems) from work and try it later at home.

I had no problems using unetbootin. I used it under xp and then Ubuntu.
But I could not download the iso file for Ubuntu. Hence I got a working DVD of Hardy. Copied the contents into a folder. Used a program called Folder2Iso to convert that folder into iso image and then used unetbootin to write the image to my Kingston 4GB flash drive.

Hello linuxlover.chaitanya, I think my main problem in my thread isn't with Unetbootin but with my general lack of knowledge with the GNU/Linux OS, I need to spend more of my computer time learning the underpinnings of it's design and then I might be able to problem solve better.

I'm glad to hear about your success story! It seems most people have a fairly trouble free experience with this installer. Aside from exotic distributions that it does not directly support, upon occasion, or one asking the program to retrieve the ISO for itself, again results have varied based on what I have read.

The M-Systems flash disk didn't work any better. Both openSuse and ubuntu alternate install failed to boot or start installation.

There's only one more thing I didn't try, and that is using unetbootin on a different PC. Will try that tomorrow and see what happens. If this will fail too I'll give up and buy an external CD drive.

Hello yoav_by, I see that you may have had exposure to the Open Suse forum relating to the 11.1 Live USB thread and error message "Couldn't find live image configuration file" so I note it here only for third parties reading along who need the initrd modifying work-around that was found.

It's too bad we're down to final options, perhaps someone with greater insight into such things will enter the discussion or the ever increasing quality of this operating system will prevail.

OK, doing all this on another computer didn't improve the situation, openSuse Live CD still won't boot from flash drive. I give up.

Thanks