Installing from USB on netbook - still boots from hdd
 

Hi all

I used unetbootin to make a bootable usb with PeppermintOs and then reset the BIOS to boot from 'removable'.

It would not boot - went straight to the (grub?) menu offering mint, and mint safe recovery which is from the hard drive.

First USB did not work, so bought a new one (4gb) and that did not work so borrowed a 1GB from a colleague. This did not work either.

I have tried two different ISOs (having done the MD5sum on them as directed).

I have tried fat 32 and ext formats (using gparted to format it as I don't know any other way) and from there I can see that it says boot, lda).

When I disabled HDD from BIOS, the USB was read but then the message was that no boot device found, replace with proper boot device.

I also tried using the start-up disc creator.

Each time I have tried it on my desktop PC too, having set up the BIOS and I haven't been able to boot with them there either. I know that the netbook will boot from USB as that is how Mint 9 got installed on it.

In desperation I even tried creating the USB from windows. Even that didn't work.

Whilst I have a working copy of MInt 9 on the netbook, this is not vital, but I so want to try peppermintOS on it.

Can anyone please, please help?

Caddi

It seems pretty clear that the method you are using to create the bootable USB device isn't working, so the first step would be explaining your process for making it. Are you following some kind of guide? What are your exact steps?

I'd like to know what the bios says about that usb flash drive. Boot to bios with the flash in. Does it show up under hard drives or under removable media?

I had a similar experience recently. Only one of all the USB keys I tried would boot. And I wasn't game to overwrite that key just in case.
Eventually had to boot that (with another also plugged in), and try and remove the boot key at an appropriate moment, and fool the loader so the key I really wanted would be found and installed. Worked about one in 5 goes.
Never did find the problem, but now I feel I can overwrite the "good" boot key.

When I tried:
# cfdisk /dev/sdf (make a FAT16 bootable partition)
# mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/sdf1 (make the filesystem)
# dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdc
# mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom
# mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 cd-image.iso /mnt/cdrom
# mkdir -p /mnt/usb
# mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb
# cp -r /mnt/cdrom/* /mnt/usb
# mv /mnt/usb/isolinux/* /mnt/usb
# mv /mnt/usb/isolinux.cfg /mnt/usb/syslinux.cfg
# rm -rf /mnt/usb/isolinux*
# mv /mnt/usb/memtest86 /mnt/usb/memtest
# umount /mnt/cdrom
# sed -i \
-e "s:cdroot:cdroot slowusb:" \
-e "s:kernel memtest86:kernel memtest:" \
/mnt/usb/syslinux.cfg
# umount /mnt/usb
# syslinux /dev/sdc1
I edited /etc/mtools/mtools.conf on my host commenting out SAMPLE FILE (It is the first time I use syslinux)



When I reboot the PC and choose the flash memstick in BIOS, "boot error" appears on the screen. I tried with a ext3 bootable partition (I use mke2fs -j), when I reboot the PC and choose the flash memstick in BIOS, the computer boots to hard drive. What can I do?

This is a little off topic, but anyone know how to make Readhat boot from a USB?

This is called thread-hijacking and is bad manner. Open your own thread.

@guthan: the same, but one question: Why do you format sdf1 and the copy your disk to sdc1?

Have you tried unetbootin, check the link below:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

I wondered about that, and also why this:

when you have formatted sdf1? How many flash drives do you have or are you using? and are you plugging them to different ports each time?

I am not using a guide. I did think I knew what I was doing, but clearly not. :[ I am sure that you are right - I seem to be making the same mistake repeatedly.

First I downloaded the ISo and did the MD5 checksum from the terminal and it matched the one on the website.

Then I took the USB flashdrive (a 2 gig one) and formatted it using gparted. To do this I had to unmount it. Originally I formatted it as ext 3, but when I couldn't get it working I used fat32.

I then took the pendrive out and put it back in to remount it.

Then I went to unetbootin (from the gui menu - I don't do much in terminal). I select the option of ISO rather than distro and navigate to the appropriate ISO (Peppermint-Ice-07142010.iso) and check it is the correct drive (sdg1). This takes a little time (2 minutes or so). Then the programme suggests a reboot or quit.

SO at this point I have rebooted - on my desktop, which I know will boot from USB. I go into BIOS and set it to 1st boot - USB-CDROM, 2nd boot CDROM, third boot HDD. No CD in the drive.

Save and exit.

On boot the message Boot from CD displays for a very short time and then boots straight into the Grub menu from the Hard drive.

I have tried to press enter when the Boot from CD message displays but to no avail.

Interestingly, when I went into gparted to check that I had it set to FAT32, it reports that the flag is boot. Also it sees it as sdc not sdg. Is this part of the problem, do you think?

I hope this is enough info.

Caddi

Just gone into unetbootin again and it now says sdc1? I don't know why!

First I would try to boot from USB-HDD or Removable, not USB-CDROM. If that does not work, boot into your OS and and run, as root fdisk -l and post the output here.

My way of making boot USB keys:
It has so far worked perfectly every time.

No option to boot from USB-hdd, USB-fdd or USB-zip.

ouput from fdisk-l

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x09230922

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5809 46660761 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 5810 19457 109627498 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 19270 19457 1510078+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 5810 7025 9767457 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 7026 19269 98349898+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb7bd84ab

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 304 2441848+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 305 428 996030 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 429 14946 116615835 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 2002 MB, 2002780160 bytes
62 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 3844 * 512 = 1968128 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0002a835

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 1017 1954643 b W95 FAT32



Make of that what you will. Vienna!
Caddi

OK, you installed your files with unetbootin to sdg1 but your USB-stick is sdc.
Do you have a cardreader with inserted media or something?
Can you change the install-medium to sdc1 in unetbootin?

Thank you. There is no option to change the install medium. It went to sdc this time.

I removed all my other USB devices (barring mouse and keyboard) so USB is now definitely sdc. Redid the same procedure - still no joy.

Sorry, then I have no idea anymore.