Can't make bootable USBs
 

I've been trying for days to figure this out: I am unable to make bootable USBs on any of 3 different computers.
1 Ubuntu Mate
1 Zorin/Ubuntu Mate dual
1 Windows 8.1 laptop

Out of dozens of attempts, I have managed to make a whole 2 (TWO) bootable USBs

I have tried:

dd
MultiBootUSB
MultiSystem
UNetBootin
Universal USB Installer
Yumi (also in Wine)
Rufus (also in Wine)
Startup Disk Creator

and maybe some others I can't remember.

Since TWO of them worked, it's not necessarily me at fault.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

Try E2B (Easy 2 boot) and see if that does something you like.

learn from us old timers read and learn
https://mirrors.kernel.org/slackware...xe-installers/

By make bootable USB do we assume your trying to create a bootable USB drive from an ISO file?

What distribution ISO files are you trying? I would assume the dd command would work on just all ISO files so at the moment I don't have a clue on why you are having problems.

Why did you decide that USB drives not bootable?
How did you checked it?
May be your USB sticks bootable but you can't boot (do not know how to boot fo USB)?

I started out wanting to make a multi-boot USB - so I could investigate different distros more easily.

dd made me a bootable USB for Zorin - as per instructions at

https://opensourceinside.blogspot.ca...inux-with.html

Oddly enough, even though that method supposedly formatted the stick to FAT32, it ended up fat16 - and works, but neither of the other 2 sticks I used at the same time worked. One was Fedora, one was openSUSE. Upon boot both USBs are ignored, giving a normal boot, even if selecting them in the boot menu, so the copy didn't work. And both just showed up as "mtsfdata" in Gparted.

The question is why? I'm leaning towards hardware problems, as the laptop has southbridge issues, the one UM box does odd things, and this box you'll see in another thread about intermittent total USB failure.

So tonight I'm trying E2B (right now, actually) and will run an overnight memtest to check that out. We'll see.

Does the laptop boot in uefi mode or legacy mode? If in uefi mode the iso's need to be 64bit.

A possible better way to test distro's is in a free virtual machine.

Isses.

Multiboot, not all distro's multiboot easily especially in a live to usb deal.

Loader issues, this covers not only grub or uefi grub but how a system might see a usb drive in bios or uefi firmware.

When I make a usb I make a real install just as if it were a hard drive. Use a fast usb 3.0 stick and the bigger you get the more you can put on one. I also use a portable usb3 hard drive for this. Something like $60 gets a decent tester.

I think you're trying to do too much at once. Are you sure gpated actually says, 'mtsfdata'? Just start with one iso file and work on it. The failing USB controller might pose serious obstacles to success.

First you need to determine whether each of the sticks supports booting and that your machines' BIOSs support booting from each stick.

Those instructions in the link posted were a bit misleading.

Unless using the -F option mkdosfs will automatically decide what FAT (12, 16 or 32) to use based upon the file system size. In addition when using dd there is no need to format the drive prior since it will overwrite everything anyway.

Some USB creation tools like UNetbootin that use syslinux as the boot loader need the partition formatted as FAT 32. They do not work will all ISOs. As stated it could also be UEFI issue but depends on the distribution. Usually the distribution website installation instructions indicate which tool works the best.

And as stated multiboot ISO has its own complications and also depends on the distribution.

If you are attempting to create a multi boot USB, you have to set up the disk yourself & add each extra distro & configure the boot loader to boot them all.

Hi PatD,

With respect to your original objective, a multiboot USB, I have had reliable success with YUMI. The downside is that it must be run on Windows (... they have a "work-in-progress" linux version, but I can't comment on it since I haven't tried it).

YUMI makes formatting, and adding distros and tools extremely easy. It's one of the reasons I keep some Windows machines (virtual / native in dual boot setups ..) around ... ;-) ...

Cheers.

Mm. Not necessarily.

Modern 'Puppies' have a hybrid UEFI image that will boot either 32-bit or 64-bit ISOs. Or, if the machine is non-UEFI (i.e., MBR), it will boot appropriately using that method.

Folks scoff at Puppies, but they're as up-to-date as the next distro. All current Pups will happily work on Win10 machines, with all the SecureBoot, FastBoot stuff, as they have an official, M$-signed UEFI 'shim'.

Of course, not very many distros produce 32-bit UEFI-enabled ISO images.....largely because 32-bit is slowly going the way of the dodo.

^^^That, I will agree with. Only makes sense.


Mike. ;)

Yes there are exceptions, but for most distros, 32 bit iso's wont boot in uefi mode.