Is there a command-line alternative to usb-creator-gtk?
Solution 1
Identify device (
/dev/xxx
) and unmount device-
Device should be in FAT32 if not:
sudo mkdosfs -n 'USB-LABEL' -I /dev/xxx -F 32
Mount the iso file and copy content to USB device:
sudo mkdir /media/iso
sudo mount -o loop /path/to/ubuntu.iso /media/iso
cp -a /media/iso/. /USBMOUNTPOINT/
Make the device bootable:
sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools
syslinux -s /dev/sdd1
Rename the isolinux
directory to syslinux
and copy config:
mv /media/xxx/isolinux /media/xxx/syslinux
mv /media/xxx/syslinux/isolinux.cfg /media/xxx/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
Reboot your pc and change the boot-order in bios to USB. Now your ubuntu usb flash drive will booted up and you can install it.
Solution 2
mkusb-nox wraps a safety belt around dd
It is possible to use dd 'naked', but I would discourage you to do it, because it is risky.
dd if=file.iso of=/dev/sdx
dd is very powerful and does what you tell it to do without any questions, even if you tell it to overwrite your family pictures. A simple typing error is enough ...
mkusb-nox is a tool, that works in text screens and terminal windows (nox: no X graphics).
It uses dd under the hood to clone the content of a hybrid iso file to a target block device (USB drive, memory card ...). Most current linux iso files are hybrid iso files. You can say that mkusb-nox (as well as mkusb with a GUI) 'wraps a safety belt' around dd.
mkusb-nox uses an extraction method to create install drives for Windows.
See these links,
Edit: It is also possible to use mkusb version 12 in text mode
- with the text mode interface (menu) dialog
with a plain command line text interface
What is the proper way of creating installation media from Ubuntu iso?
Related videos on Youtube
Joe
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Joe over 1 year
I'm trying to create a bootable USB stick of ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso using usb-creator-gtk on my ThinkPad X220. Usb-creator-gtk appears to work OK, but the resulting stick fails to boot either of my laptops. I tried two different USB sticks. Boot just shows a blinking cursor.
If I mount the USB stick, I see it has 729M of data on it.
One more clue: After usb-creator-gtk exits, the activity light on my USB drive continues to blink for a minute or so, and even after that's done, /media/XXXX-XXXX and /tmp/tmpXXXXXX remain mounted. I have been manually umounting them before pulling out the stick.
Is there any way to get debug output from usb-creator-gtk? Or is there a straightforward command-line alternative to usb-creator-gtk that would offer more debugging options?
UPDATE: In syslog, I noticed the error:
usb-creator-gtk[xxxxx]: segfault at 4 ip xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx sp xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx error 6 in libdbus-1.so.3.5.7[xxxxxxxxxxxx+xxxxx]
Turns out this is ubuntu bug #875758.
Is there an alternative to usb-creator-gtk? Ideally, a bash recipe that would help me isolate the problem and work around it?
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Admin over 12 yearsHave you tried unetbootin - I find this far better that the default in Ubuntu: unetbootin.sourceforge.net
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Admin over 12 yearsAlso copying the ISO image to USB drive (not partition) with
dd
should work. -
Admin over 12 yearsThank you, fossfreedom. Unetbootin worked where usb-creator-gtk failed.
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Admin over 12 years@Stefano - not really - I dont think it answers the question directly. The OP seems to have disappeared - possible this question could be considered as abandoned?
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Admin about 12 yearsWhat to do with questions that describe known bugs? this has been reported on Launchpad and as such is now closed.
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Admin over 10 yearsReopened Reopened
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Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com almost 10 yearswill the USB have persistent storage?
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Lucas almost 10 years@CiroSantilli no, but you can manually create a casper-rw file (see pendrivelinux.com/how-to-create-a-larger-casper-rw-loop-file) and enable it by adding
persistent
to the kernel command line insyslinux/txt.cfg
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Sandeep almost 8 yearsI tried this, but booting fails with boot error.
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diyism over 6 yearsmkusb-nox is great! It's better than usb-creator-gtk
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sudodus over 6 years@diyism, I'm glad that mkusb-nox works well for you. Thanks for the feedback :-)