i recently used unetbootin to install ubuntu 10.04 on my formatted sandisk cruzer 4gb... i had no errors in the installation, but when i boot from usb it says missing operating system... what am i doing wrong?

Ill try to give this a shot. I'm barely knowledgeable.

Basicly your device has to be made to be "bootable" or a bootable device has to cause it to boot.
Seeing how I think you may want to not be tied to a particular computer that means the device.

I think one thing you may want to search google for to get an idea what I'm talking about (its hard to articulate) are some blogs people have made about how they modified their usb sticks to install windows 7 maybe Linux.

If I were you though, here is what I would consider doing. Its tough and if you only have windows on the hard disk (and if windows can't use grub or a like tool) then running grub as I will describe can be risky. I also think your going to need to use grub 1. Be careful you know what device linux thinks your usb is and how to translate that to grub devices. If you screw up, you could toast your windows. You are in territory that your mind, your thinking power will get you what you want. Don't take any steps until you are sure. Or test out the solution with a different hard disk in your computer. Or go to a linux installfest where someone that has experience can help.

The basic plan however, is for you to get yourself booted in the Ubuntu live cd, you are going to have to either set up grub to boot from the usb by issuing commands from the live cd, and your going to want to impliment grub on the usb, but not necessarily your hard disk unless you already have an os that can run grub from it. You are going to probably have to create your own menu.lst file.

Not an easy task. Be careful. Also maybe give some more info about what's installed on your hard disk. It will help us know what options may be available.

Sandisk Cruiser USB sticks usually have a U3 partition (The stick's configured as a CD and a disk) so that you can plug them into a Windows system and the CD section autoboots to give you a launcher to run various U3 applications; Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. I've got a 1Gb one and it's pretty useful in that you can carry your email and browsing favourites, etc about on a stick... No PC required except for the borrowed "host" one
You say you've formatted the stick so I may be talking tosh, if not...

Linux doesn't like the CD partition, which may be causing the problem as it's trying to boot from the "runs on Windows" CD partition and your Distro's on the second partition.

If I'm right, plug it into a Windows machine and check the launcher options. One effectively blows the CD partition away and converts the stick to a disk only. Now you can convert in into a USB bootable distro!

Hope that helps.

Play Bonny!

thanks, but i'm really not feeling "risky" enough to try that. On http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13379...b-flash-drive/ imma try this when i get the chance

be sure to format the stick as FAT32 before make it bootable - this can be causing your problem...

thanks ill make sure

To the OP: Please, for the love of God, do not post in SMS language:

This will definitely make your posts hard to read.

it is formatted as a fat32, and u3 partition is GONE... what is my problem??? still is "missing operating system!

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install...-flash-device/

Try that.