A real easy way is to use the dd method that I mentioned. Just be very sure you set the "of" (output file) to the correct drive so as to not overwrite your main hard drive or anything else.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

I tried something similar to what you recommended with the dd command earlier on my 4 Gigabyte thumb drive. I looked like it copied everything over okay, only the system would not boot off the drive, and reported there was no operating system when the boot process finished.

I did not used the bs and conv options. How do they affect the process?

Try it again on your 8 gb stick, And use the commands I gave you including the bs and conv. Don't change anything accept for the iso name, and of course be sure that you have the "of" pointing to the correct drive.

Also I've done this with live cd images. I have not yet done this with DVD images, but give it a try.

Also unmount the stick before doing the dd. Drives should always be unmounted when using dd.

It's not a clean way of using a memory stick, but I've found it to be so easy and quick for doing live CDs.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

I unmounted the 8 Gigabyte drive and then ran the dd command. One thing I noticed is in my previous attempt to use the dd command on the 4 Gigabyte drive I typed of=/dev/sdb1 instead of of=/dev/sdb.

However despite using the new form of the dd command I could not get the drive to boot. Instead of an error message about the operating system missing the system reported this error:

I am wondering if I downloaded a bad image of the DVD iso. I am trying to download another image. I'm also downloading an image of Fedora 13, as I my real desire is to upgrade to Fedora 15, which I burnt a DVD for, and I cannot upgrade directly from 12 to 15. I don't want to burn any more DVD's, so I want to figure out this USB flash drive stuff and use that from now on whenever I need to upgrade.

It may be that to make a DVD work on a memory stick, is harder than getting a live CD to work.

It's too bad that fedora does not work well with updating via it's own software. I tested out Fedora 14, and told the software to update itself to 15, and it it failed and just made a mess of itself. I ended up reformatting that drive, and used it to test out something else.

Also out of curiosity, try booting that pen drive on another computer and see if it boots up.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

I don't have another machine that I can try to use at this time to see if the USB stick will boot.
I reformatted the stick and used unetbootin to install a Fedora 13 image on the it.
I was able to boot off the stick. However when I was prompted to select the partition that contained the installation, the USB stick did not appear in the list. I pressed F2 and selected the /dev/sdb. This caused a installation to abort to a command prompt.

I gave up on that. I used unetbootin to install a different Fedora 14 ISO I had downloaded. When I tried to run that installation it got into the setup program. However, instead of prompting me for the boot loader it also could not find which partition had the installation software. I pressed F2 again and selected /dev/sdb.

The installation then asked me to insert my driver disk into /dev/sdb and press OK to continue. I'm asn't sure how to provide a driver disk. I assume that the installation could not find the driver information on the current disk, otherwise it would not be prompting me for the driver disk. I simply pressed OK anyway, not knowing what else to do, and I got this error:

I do not know how to resolve this problem. The only other thing I can think to do is maybe try downloading the netinst.iso I saw on the sight. Perhaps I can get that work. I've never tried anything like that before.

If that doesn't work, then I'm thinking I will have to try burning some DVD's

best option
 

I think its better use command:
sudo update manager -d
Or else use ubootin app n make ur pendrive bootable.

I don't understand your reply.

What is sudo update manager -d supposed to do?
I've already used unetbootin to make my pendrive bootable, that is the only way I've been able to get close to attempting to install anything, only I keep running into errors that prevent a succesful install.

Hi, just as a side question,

have you run the memtest86 suite of ram tests to be sure your memory is good enough?

I have not run the memtes86 suite. I don't know if this is suppose to check my RAM or the memory on the pendrive. The drive is brand new, I just bought it a couple of days ago, so I would think it should be good. I have not had any problems with RAM either.

Looks like you may have to burn a DVD.

I downloaded Fedora 15 DVD (I forgot to get the 14 instead), and did the dd method, but it would not boot, so the dd method that I presented must only work on live CDs and not with DVDs. I know it works on the fedora live CD because I've done it.

Also here is how you can find out the progress when dd is running:
# pkill -USR1 ^dd$
run in a second terminal will give a status report in the dd terminal.
It won't stop dd or mess anything up, it just causes dd to give out the status info.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

Look at this page:
http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options#formats

Notice that it gives you two download options.
Notice what option says it is bootable via usb, and what option does not say that.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

I gave up on trying to boot and install Fedora 14 from an USB drive. I took the first image I downloaded and burnt another DVD. I was successfully able to go through the upgrade process.

However the system is not booting up properly. I can get to a command prompt. I cannot boot into X Windows. I want to make sure the system works before upgrading to Fedora 15.

I don't know if I should continue with this thread to address the new problems with trying to boot into Fedora 14, or risk trying to start a different thread, perhaps in another forum.

You might have been better off upgrading to 13, then 14, then 15.

Fedora seems to be bad about not upgrading right.

What happens when you try to start X?

Mandriva Linux has XFdrake that allows you to easily readjust the X graphical settings. If Fedora has a similar thing, which it probably does, set x to a real low graphic standard with a generic driver, and see if x boots up.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com