How Come You Can't Install Linux From a USB, Like You Can From A DVD?
 

I see two ways to install Linux listed. Install from a CD, or a USB. When you install Linux from a CD, you DL the iso, burn it to a CD. Done. That CD will boot up, install or run a Live OS.

With a USB, you'd think you would DL the iso to a USB, done. That CD will not boot up, install or run a Live OS.

That made me curious, how come you can't boot up a USB like you can a CD?

I see instructions for USB that you have to DL one of four different programs, go through unclear, a lot of times doesn't work, procedures.

I've never had a distro that after you put it on a CD, you have to do a bunch more stuff to make it work. One distro has 12 to 17 things you have to do to make the USB work.

I'm asking because I've fixed computers all over town for 22 years, used Linux off and on for 15, and I can't get a USB to work. CD's work every time.

Question; How come you can put an iso on a CD, and it will boot right up, but on a USB, you can't (because you have to do a bunch of stuff after to make it work)?

How Come You Can't Install Linux From a USB, Like You Can From A DVD?
 

You can.

Hmmm, I burn the iso to the USB stick using the dd command. Then I may have to tell the bios to boot from usb

I can't remember the last time I used an optical drive for installing linux...maybe 6 years ago? Nothing but USB for a long time now.

Simply put Windows allows one to write a .iso image to a CD or DVD which will create a bootable filesystem. However, Windows does not provide a way of putting that same image onto a USB stick to create a filesystem. Linux does provide that in the shape of dd or, my preferred choice, dcfldd. Under Windows you need a tool like unetbootin top do the same.
So, the issue is a Windows one not a Linux one.

No, you can install Win-doze from a stick, too. (But, who would want to?) ;)

Listen to yourself

You left out the burn to usb part in your head. Crap like that happens to me sometimes also. I blame it on moonshine.

Because you have not learned how yet. I am guessing you have a Windows 10 computer because you say so in your profile so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQfCvoAEY7w

Using dd. Previously mentioned. Requires a linux box and since you sound green to me. Kinda dangerous for a green user. So having said that. Good luck with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74A6pVrv0CA

I know you say you have been using linux 15 years. Longer than I have been using Linux. Just letting you know a hybrid iso is required for dd to work. Most isos are hybrids now, but it does not hurt to make sure before you begin.

Many Linux distributions are downloaded as a hybrid ISO format which can be burned to a CD/DVD or simply copied to a USB flash drive with "dd". Those which are not in that hybrid format need additional steps to make a bootable USB drive. I've never looked into what the issues might be that keep the hybrid format from being more universal.

Fedora and Centos use hybrid ISO's, simply dd to the target device and you're done. In addition, the resulting usb will boot on either legacy or uefi and uefi+secure mode. Just today I was installing Fedora 24 on a recently obtained older Dell laptop. D/L the iso. On another machine dd the iso to the usb flash drive. On the laptop, activate the computer boot menu and there is a choice to boot the usb drive in both the legacy section and the uefi section of the computer's boot menu.

No, sorry. I tried to do it in Linux Mint. Salix lists a long list on what has to be done. DVD's do not have a long list of what you have to do to make a DVD work.

Since it didn't work, I tried using UNetbootin. I put the distro I wanted in the box, clicked to start. Noting happened. I unmounted the USB, took it out, closed the program. When I plugged the USB back in, empty, and my computer doesn't recognize it.

I can see it in "Discs" from the 'start' menu, but nothing happens when I insert it into the USB slot. After all this, I tried it in Windows 10. Wish I could install Linux distros with USB. I hate having all these DVD's around.

Thank you for the help,

Chris.

I recently successfully installed Ubuntu Mate using a USB and Unebootin. Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly what I did, and am now trying to figure it out, as I'm down to my last DVD. But anyway, it can definitely be done. I used a tutorial I found. Maybe you should Google a bit, I'm sure the answer is out there.

Exactly what iso are you wanting to install to a USB? Then we can help you.

Aside for the complexity of writing the image to a usb, the issue I find most often is how one boots to the usb flash or hard drive. The newest getting more common way is that you have a uefi bios and there are issues there. A DVD seems to be more easily seen as a uefi boot device on some systems.

Almost every distro can run from a usb. Rufus, live creator, and Unetbootin are helpful.

Using the distro's help pages on how to create a usb is also a good start.

1 to many to list.
2 Distros help page is worthless. that's why thousands of people all over the world are having problems. It doesn't work. Very few DVD problems. That is a wonder.
3 Every distro can't run from my usb. It's not even recognized by my computer now.

Chris.

I do all of my Linux installations from flash drives these days. It's a fairly routine process once you know what to do.

Do you have more than one flash drive that you can try to use for an installation?

If you've got a Linux system installed, maybe plug in the flash drive, run lsblk, and post the output here, then at least folks here will have something to work with to start helping you.

You can use the lsblk command to find out the name of your flash drive. If I plug in a flash drive here (using Ubuntu 16.04 at the moment) and run lsblk, I see the following:

In this example, the flash drive is sdb and the partition on it is sdb1. The first run of lsblk is with the flash drive mounted; the second run is with the flash drive unmounted.

I want to know the name of the flash drive because I like to use the dd command to copy the .iso to the flash drive. I've used unetbootin many times in the past, but unetbootin doesn't always work. In my experience, dd always works.

I don't know how to help you if you're only using Windows because I haven't used Windows at home in years, and anyway I've forgotten a lot. But since you say you are able to install Linux from a CD or DVD, maybe do that, then use the Linux system to create your future Linux installation flash drives. I think it's probably a lot easier to use Linux for that.

Using Linux. Got this with my 32GB USB Plugged in;

I bought this new USB drive just to put Linux on it. When I tried to format it to Fat, I got this;

Error creating partition on /dev/sdd: Command-line `parted --align optimal --script "/dev/sdd" "mkpart " " ext2 1MiB 32010911231b"' exited with non-zero exit status 1: Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sdd appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 58509312 blocks) or continue with the current setting?
Error: You requested a partition from 1049kB to 32.0GB.
The closest location we can manage is 17.4kB to 2054MB.
(udisks-error-quark, 0)

Thank you for the reply,

Chris.

Oddly enough most people I see nowadays seem to have installed from USB, so it's obviously not that difficult.
If, rather than just moaning, you mentioned what exactly your issues are then it's likely they could be resolved. One thing which occurs to me now is you haven't bothered to state whether you know how to boot from USB at all -- i's usually not difficult but, also, not as obvious as is made out. Of course, that's not a Linux issue either which is why it didn't occur to me at first.

Chris, I think you might want to run fdisk -l and post the output here. Actually, like this:

For example, I ran it here with one of my flash drives plugged in. Of course you would use /dev/sdd instead of /dev/sdb. This particular flash drive I'm looking at already has Linux on it (it has GParted Live on it):

I dont even know where to begin.

you say thousands of people in the world have problems. where did you get this data from ?

you say with extreme confidence that booting with usb simply doesnt work ? we know this is not true, we all do it.

I hate cd/dvds, its just fscking toxic non-recyclable plastic crap of this world which just piles up, so I switched to usb booting a long time ago.
But I sure did a lot of googling and reading before attempting to boot from usb.

You say you have 15 years of linux experience and cant get a usb drive to work ? sorry I dont buy that.

Did you check md5sum of iso to verify iso is correct ?
Did you check usb port is working ? Did you enable boot from usb in bios ?


The advantage of usb is you can reuse it , burn to it many times. with cd you make a mistake you have to throw it away, it becomes unusable.

Also your error clearly states a gpt problem with your 32gb pendrive. Did you google / search issues regarding that ?


You can start by telling which OS you are using to burn the iso on the usb, which software etc.

If you are using windows , maybe this link can help you : https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desk...ick-on-windows

make sure you enable the format option.

Hope this helps.

Why don't we start a new thread?
That would be some specific distro and your hardware values then we might guide you to a working usb.

Uhm, no it doesn't. It lists a single command.

https://docs.salixos.org/wiki/Install_from_a_USB_stick

My 2cents: 'belief'=reality!
 

It's an emotional/philosophical issue:
One's 'belief' *'creates'* whatever is 'SO' (for them)
That's the essence of 'reality'. Tons on the web:
"The Secret" (famous philo./book/DVD);
"Science of Mind" (no, not infamous ...tology);
"Power of [Negative] Thinking"; MKS; etc...

I believe I can't write, so I can't [no, almost always, "can't" is a lie: it's "won't"!]
"And SO it IS".

It's literally a two step process in Mint:
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744
And it's a one step process with Salix:
https://docs.salixos.org/wiki/Install_from_a_USB_stick
Sounds like you've got some learning to do Chris.

Many of us here have been installing from USB for years now.

Let's be sure to help the OP and not pick on them. Tough being a newbie.

Not directed at anyone.

OK, OP: instead of worrying about how you 'burn' a usb, just load easy2boot onto a usb thumb drive.

With EASY2BOOT You copy your ISO into the right folder on the USB, run a script to defragment the USB (because booting from a fragmented ISO generally fails, and when it works it is still very SAD), and there you go. Want to add another ISO, just copy it over and run the script again. When you add the new ISO and run the script, you do not even have to be on the same PC with EASY2BOOT, it lives on the USB device. Elegant, easy, wonderful.

This works for most Linux ISO images, Windows ISO images, FREEDOS (with restrictions), BSD and FreeBSD, but not (so far) with Kolibrios. The EASY2BOOT web pages list tons of ISO images that work some that do not, and many that work but you have to use the right parameters or make the right choice on boot.

BTW: installing Windows from a USB is something of a hoot. Not elegant (it is still windows) but faster than from DVD.

I carry a set of USB drives around at work every day, and am ready to boot offline AV distros, install images, live-CD diagnostic and disk preparation images, rescue images, or whatever I need on short notice.

Life is good. Better if you find the right tool for the job!

Maybe you missed this? :

To put a distro onto a pendrive, use dd. All distros should now work like that, if not, use isohybrid on the ISO image first, & then dd it to your pendrive. (You only need to do a lot of other things if you try to use another program to load the disk image.)

Likely your problem is the fact that legacy boot isn't active, or the from usb option is not being used in the computers BIOS, & on some you will have to use the BIOS boot menu when starting up.

I always recommend AntiX as a distro, so easy to use, & so many options for those who know how to use them. :)
http://antix.mepis.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://antix.freeforums.org/

If you need more help, ask. ;)

KolibriOS works both as .ISO and .img file with E2B for me???

Download the ISO to wherever you are working, I recommend doing that already in Linux, and then use the dd command and the drive letter of the USB as the of= argument.

This was cited back in post #3.

I have never had a problem making a boot-able USB for Linux with the simple exception that I did a bad thing originally such as used a 64-bit image for a 32-bit machine, or something odd to that effect.

The first time I tried booting from USB, it didn't work. I then partitioned the drive, downloaded to the free 4GB partition, and then it worked.

I'm not sure I understand "Downloaded to a 46G partiton..."? How does one "download" something to a partition in such a way as to make it bootable?
Are you using Plan 9?

Installing Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 i386 on my single core atom n270 touchscreen netbook later on.

I already did this on one I am going to sell, also later on. It is single core n270 atom also.
Minus the touchscreen capabilities though.

Usb install was done using the dd command. Already covered in this thread. These netbooks have no internal drive. USB or SD is the only way.

I am doing this out of laziness. It is just easier to set up a interface for my new Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge phone to a piece of hardware not being regularly used. Just sitting on the shelf. Than jumping through hoops with mtp and linux tools.


Since I am being a regular Window Manager Linux user with SpaceFM and Rox File Manager with udev for mounting things. Like I said. Computer user laziness syndrome.

IMHO, optical discs are becoming obsolete these days.

I prefer to do net installs. When doing a net install it fetches the latest kernel and packages during installations.

What I meant to say is, I burned the downloaded Ubuntu Mate to the newly partitioned 8 GB USB, but specifically to the 4GB partition, which had nothing else on it. My computer was then able to recognize and boot from it.

Yes, and although I must admit to preferring to have a nice collection of DVD's with Linux operating systems on them, I agree it's a good thing. Less plastic polluting the world.

I'll have to check into net installing. First time I've heard the term (from one newbie to another. I know it says I'm a Member, but I'm pretty sure I'll be a newbie for the foreseeable future).

Debian offers a net install image. Arch's iso is sort of like a net install and slackware offers a net install as an option as well.

Between that post and yours, I got it to work also. I do like Kolibrios, it is SO FAST! If only it ran FireFox!

Got the USB to be recognized. "Burned" ROSA, everything seemed to work good, until I tried to boot. Got "missing operating system" scrolling down the screen indefinitely. Went through the whole Unetbootin process until it was done.

Chris.

Apologies if you have already but, please, list the full details of this machine. Without people using them nobody will know whether they are intentionally broken or not.

Greetings Chris!

It sounds like you are trying to install Rosa Linux (a Russian Linux distribution), is that correct? http://rosalinux.com

Did you see the instructions here? http://wiki.rosalab.ru/en/index.php/ROSA_Installation

Do these instructions mention Unetbootin? If not, why are you using Unetbootin??