Error when installing: "unable to find a medium containing a live file system"

Question

Error message:

(initramfs) unable to find a live medium containing a live file system

I got this error while trying to install Ubuntu 10.10 from a bootable USB stick on to Asus X64J series laptop. After getting this error the installation fails to start.

I have used the same USB stick on some other laptops and the installation started as usual. Any help will be appreciated.

Solution 1

Try changing the following:

• Switch from a USB 3.0 socket to 2.0
• Try using a USB hub
• (If booting from a USB stick) try using a different USB stick

I'm using 10.04 Ubuntu on Asus 1015PEM, but reports of this affecting 18.04 and newer versions of Ubuntu are still occurring.

Solution 2

Here is what I found looking around for this error message:

Data integrity

Check that the hash of the ISO you downloaded matches the official one. Also try different USB sticks or DVD burners, there may be data corruption on the stick or wear on the drive mechanics you want to rule out.

Related:

• Community Help Wiki: How To MD5SUM
• How to download Ubuntu over an unreliable connection

Hardware issues

To rule out hardware issues you can try a different computer, if available. Remember that you can usually install Ubuntu by installing the target harddrive in another computer and complete the installation there, which may be the quickest workaround in such a situation.

Cause analysis and general advice

The cause of the issue seems to be that the USB or SATA device isn't available or detection is too slow at the time the kernel takes over during the boot process, so that it can't find the image of the live OS to load. Similar to the recommendation in the data integrity section above, try burning optical installation media when you are unable to boot from USB and vice versa. If that's not possible because your computer only has USB 3.0 ports and no internal optical drive, try booting from an integrated SD card reader. Also look out for available firmware updates for your computer that may fix the issue. If you are trying to install from an ISO of an older release, then please try the latest ISO.

As a last resort you can try to use the minimal ISO, which doesn't seem to load another filesystem except initrd but requires a working Internet connection for installation. I would recommend this for Intel Macs from Apple that have this issue.

Hardware issues on laptops and desktops

There seem to be issues on laptops from Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Sony and may be other manufacturers. Non-custom built desktops may also be affected and as far as I am aware this is specific to modern AMD processors.

Try changing the firmware settings (BIOS/UEFI) for SATA (set to AHCI mode) when using optical media or use another (non 3.0) USB port when using USB, this seems to work in most cases.

Hardware issues on Gigabyte mainboards

There apparently was or still is an issue on some Gigabyte mainboards with the IOMMU on AMD platforms (Intel calls this VT-d).

I found the following post on the forums (1, 2):

Turns out the IOMMU needs to be enabled in the BIOS. This problems seems to be exclusive to Gigabyte boards.

As well as this answer here on AU:

Gigabyte UEFI boot issues - The partition size of the created USB Installer device needs to be under that of 4GB. Others found UEFI/BIOS update solved issue of 4GB FAT limit.

Solution 3

I recieved the same error, “unable to find a medium containing a live file system”, when installing from a SATA DVD drive. Installing using USB 2.0 stick worked though.

Solution 4

The content of the USB may have been corrupted. I had this about some months ago. If you have a second PC with Ubuntu try to create a new bootable Live USB from System --> Administration --> StartUp Disk Creator.

Solution 5

ya you should first make the default booting device to usb drive. i think you have chosen unetbootin for burning which is not useful i myself faced same problem. use multi boot iso which is good...

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Comments

[Admin]

Same problem but changing USB socket didn't help. What did work was to unplug/replug the thumb drive while the "UBUNTU...." cycle (system looking for file system I assume). System found thumb-drive and install continued normally.

[Admin]

switching usb socket when the ubuntu logo was up worked for me!

[Admin]

@steven thanks for the trick ;) I replugged the pendrive during the Ubuntu load step and it took me out of the misery(although it showed some error exists).. But, still the track pad doesn't work which I guess can figure it out once I have the OS installed.

[Dan Kelly]

c'mooon... it should be already booted to able to display any error about live file system. otherwise it would continue to boot from HDD and if HDD doesnt have a OS it would say some error other than live file system

[Dan Kelly]

I am not burning anything since I use an USB stick

[Admin]

It should have been a solution for me, but Acer Aspire All-in-One BIOS is short of configuration options. I solved the issue by setting "USB Emulation" to "HDD".

[Alex]

Having no USB2.0 ports, disabling USB 3 in BIOS worked for me.

[Mygod]

@Alex But I don't have that option in my BIOS! What should I do?

[Mygod]

@Alex I switched to a USB 2.0 device and started it (not in compatibility mode) and it worked. I have no idea why. :-P

[Alex]

@Mygod, glad you got it going!

[fchen]

this helped. For me it's opposite, my usb disk was 3.0 and I had to plug it into the 3.0 socket for it to work.

[bdutta74]

Even in June 2018, for Lubuntu 18.04, I had the same issue, and I had to plug my USB2.0 pen-drive into a USB2.0 port at the rear of the mATX cabinet, since front ones (for me, at least) were USB3.1 ones.

[Patoshi パトシ]

i have the taichi x399 and there are NO usb 2.0 ports. what do i do?

[Salman Muhammad Ayub]

I am installing Ubuntu 18.04 form the usb stick. I am still getting this error...

[BogdanBiv]

Hi Salman, this error means that either your PC tried to boot from another disk than your desired USB stick OR that the data read from the stick is somehow corrupted. 1. This is an old question, try to open your own. 2. Try to use your phone to take a photo of your screen when you select the boot device and upload that into your question. 3. Try to write your current ISO to another USB stick OR try to write another ISO to your current USB stick;; OR try to boot the same stick in another computer / another USB port ? 4. Try to verify the ISO written on the stick (dont know how)

[Salman Muhammad Ayub]

Thanks for the prompt response. I tried another usb stick and that worked fine, thanks :)

[Brent Bradburn]

There must have been some confusion about compatibility standards.

[TOPKAT]

Was the IOMMU stuff for me !! You are a god !

[Greg Hilston]

@Patoshiパトシ Same here, with the ASRock Z390 Taichi

[gene_wood]

I had this problem today with Ubuntu 20.04. This fix of putting a USB 2.0 hub in the chain worked. Is there a bug that relates to this issue on Launchpad?

[Stefan]

I simply switched USB port (still USB3)...