i'd really like to create a liveusb without having to burn the iso onto a dvd. unfortunately, i've been wholly unsuccessful installing linuxmint10 onto a 8gb pendrive from within windows 2000 pro, and would really like some help.

long story short: after making sure, in bios settings, that the pc is set to first boot from flash drives, i tried installing LinuxMint10 onto a freshly reformatted, fat32 8gb pendrive via 'install from windows' on the livedvd iso, which was mounted in "virtual daemon manager 3.47," running in Windows 2000 pro. when that failed to produce a pen drive the pc would boot from, i tried using the 'linux pendrive installer' and 'linuxlive usb creator 2.6,' as well as simply copying all the files from the iso onto a pen drive that had again been reformatted.

none of these solutions were successful, and all i've succeeded in doing is, i've copied the contents of the iso onto the pen drive and somehow added an os selection screen to the boot process...

when i choose to boot into linuxmint from this screen, with the usb drive connected -or not-, a couple lines of code flash across the top and i end up with a command entry screen that displays something like:

grub>

within this screen, entering 'find,' as well as some of the other commands listed when 'tab' is hit, simply creates an 'unknown command' message.

it seems i'm stuck. help?


system specs:
mobo = compaq 07e8h
cpu = pentium 4 northwood
1024mb ram
flash drive = 8gb kingston formatted to fat32

EDIT: I didn't realize that you were trying to do this from within windows, my bad.

Try this

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...ve_USB_Creator
Just substitute the path to your mint.iso for the arch.iso

If you only want the Live system on the pendrive use unetbootin for that. It will install the live system to a FAT32 formated USB device.

Sorry I reread your first post and your pens were probably good, all you need to do is type 'live' and hit 'enter' after the two lines of code on the initial boot.

unfortunately, typing 'live' and hitting enter produces the same 'unknown command' error.

i just tried creating another bootable usb, this time with Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.4.7.exe and 32bit LinuxMint 11 RC, and again appear to have failed. upon boot, a blinking 'underscore' cursor appears on the top left hand side and neither typing nor hitting enter produce any result. the flash drive didn't appear to be doing anything (no light, no blinking) so i let the cursor blink for about a minute before shutting the machine off.

in hopes of discovering what went wrong, here's a dump of the first layer of contents on the flash drive ...

K:\.disk
K:\boot
K:\casper
K:\preseed
K:\syslinux
K:\mint4win.exe
K:\usb-creator.exe
K:\casper-rw
K:\autorun.inf
K:\ldlinux.sys
K:\md5sum.txt
K:\Uni-USB-Installer-Copying.txt
K:\Uni-USB-Installer-Readme.txt
---------------------------------------------------
here are the autorun.inf contents:

[autorun]
open=mint4win.exe --cdmenu --skipmd5check
icon=mint4win.exe,0
label=Install Linux Mint

[Content]
MusicFiles=false
PictureFiles=false
VideoFiles=false
---------------------------------------------------
somehow, that doesn't look right. help?

You say that you are working with Windows 2000. From the Universal USB Installer website:Try unetbootin, that works with Windows 2000.

@tobisgd: darnit... don't know how i missed that.

just tried unetbootin-win-549.exe twice: first with LinuxMint 10 and once more with LinuxMint 11 RC. both installs resulted in booting into a blinking cursor that doesn't respond to keyboard commands.

...so, i still need help :/


here is the first layer of files on the usb ...

K:\.disk
K:\boot
K:\casper
K:\isolinux
K:\preseed
K:\autorun.inf
K:\casper-rw
K:\md5sum.txt
K:\menu.c32
K:\mint4win.exe
K:\syslinux.cfg
K:\ubnfilel.txt
K:\ubninit
K:\ubnkern
K:\ubnpathl.txt
K:\usb-creator.exe
---------------------------------------------------
here are the contents of autorun.inf :

[autorun]
open=mint4win.exe --cdmenu --skipmd5check
icon=mint4win.exe,0
label=Install Linux Mint

[Content]
MusicFiles=false
PictureFiles=false
VideoFiles=false

---------------------------------------------------
here are the contents of syslinux.cfg :

default menu.c32
prompt 0
menu title UNetbootin
timeout 100

label unetbootindefault
menu label Default
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- persistent

label ubnentry0
menu label Start Linux Mint
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append initrd=/casper/initrd.lz file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- persistent

label ubnentry1
menu label Start Linux Mint (compatibility mode)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append initrd=/casper/initrd.lz file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper xforcevesa ramdisk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram rw noapic noapci nosplash irqpoll -- persistent

label ubnentry2
menu label Check the integrity of the DVD
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append initrd=/casper/initrd.lz boot=casper integrity-check quiet splash -- persistent

label ubnentry3
menu label Memory Test
kernel /isolinux/memtest
append initrd=/ubninit persistent

label ubnentry4
menu label Boot from local drive
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit persistent

---------------------------------------------------

the programs used thus far:
LinuxLive USB Creator 2.6.exe
Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.4.7.exe (and a previous version)
unetbootin-win-549.exe

the isos used thus far:
linuxmint-10-gnome-dvd-i386.iso
linuxmint-11-gnome-dvd-32bit-rc.iso


if the problem can't be identified here, my next step is to try the latest version of "LinuxLive USB Creator," although a previous version has failed to produce a bootable install.

UPDATE: alright, the unetbootin install is now kind of working (albeit kinda slow)...

what i did was, i unplugged ALL the hdd and that finally brought up the unetbootin screen upon boot, with the option to start linuxmint or check the integrity of the dvd, etc.


booting into linuxmint actually took a surprisingly long time -about 2 minutes (is this normal for a usb2.0 pendrive?), with no indication that anything was happening, aside from the blinking underscore cursor.

the install works, but it just feels slow somehow. is this normal, and is there a way to speed everything up? would it be faster if i installed to a hdd (i'd really like to avoid that if possible)?

i'm about to reboot with hdd reconnected. basically, each time up to now, when i got to the blinking cursor, i waited for about a minute without doing anything. this time i'm going to wait up to 5 minutes. if that doesn't load linuxmint... well, i'll come back here and inquire about it. and if it does boot into linuxmint, i'll come back and let y'all know the problem has been resolved.

UPDATE: strangely, shutdown takes much longer with the liveusb, compared to a livedvd or windows install. after more than a minute, a message appears indicating 'the cd media can be removed,' and the screen goes black, without the pc actually shutting down; the power button has to be held down to shut down.

with a boot hdd connected, the underscore cursor displays for about 4 minutes, then the broken os boot selector screen appears. very strange. i am 100% certain the bios is set to load an os from usb, but it seems that as long as an hdd with an os is connected, in a slot where the os will load, the system refuses to load unetbootin. other than moving the boot hdd around (which is not the ideal solution), i don't know how to work around this problem.


PS: also, for some odd reason, scrolling with the clickwheel on the mouse is kind of flaky with the liveusb; sometimes the screen doesn't move up or down, and if it does it's quite slow. very strange.

If you want it to work faster ( and have persistence ) just plug in another usb stick and install from your LiveUSB to the other usb stick.

That way you can install additional programs retain your configuration changes.

Another thing is you can use grub on a cd or install to hd and chainload the usb. That may make your boot time faster.

@andrew: is there no way to do a full install on a pendrive without needing 2 pendrives or burning the iso onto a disk?

the last time i tried installing directly onto the pendrive -with the iso mounted in a virtual drive in windows2000 (which is actually the first thing i did)- that gave me a broken os boot selector screen that i still don't know how to get rid of.

i definitely want greater speed, so i think my next step will be trying to install onto the usb by booting into my old linuxmint 6 livecd and mounting the iso from there.

if that doesn't work... damnit, i just might have to burn the iso onto a disk.

-actually, is it possible to upgrade to linuxmint 11 from a linuxmint 6 install? that might make things a lot easier.

EDIT: whoops; don't know how i quoted the wrong guy and then managed to skip right over his post i guess i'll try installing grub onto the usb first.

Hi,

Try win32 image writer from the page https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer. When you open it up, it usually defaults to pull only *.img files, but you could type *.iso and select the linux mint iso. I have had success with many isos with this little program.

You might want to try formatting the pendrive using HP formatting tool, which can be downloaded from here. http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...mat-Tool.shtml

Thanks,
Balaji.

why shutdown takes much longer with the liveusb, my compute is i3 one it took around 3-5 mins