Ubuntu 12.10 won't boot from usb - isolinux.bin missing or corrupt

Question

This was an official 64-bit download from the Ubuntu site, so it's kind of sad to see even that's not working.

I made a bootable Ubuntu 12.10 USB stick with USB Image Writer (mintstick) on Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon and then shut down after ejecting the drive. When I put the drive back in and boot from it, a message shows briefly: 'isolinux.bin missing or corrupt,' before going black and booting to Mint.

I have tried Unetbootin instead of Mint's USB Image Writer but the USB drive does not show. Unetbootin has not worked for me in the past anyway whenever creating live USBs.

USB is formatted to msdos. Did not tamper w/ partitions, etc. in GParted, Disks, etc.

I have seen this issue asked once before on this website and other times across the web, but no one gives a good answer other than it's probably a bad download. If so, it's pretty disappointing because this is the official Ubuntu.com download link.

Any ideas? Are there any other alternate download mirrors besides the official one (that don't take hours to download)?

Solution 1

I came across this problem(isolinux.bin missing or corrupt) recently. The flash disk is made by dd, the iso file is of 12.04.3 64 bit. I fix this by change BIOS setting: change

USB Flash Drive Emulation Type

from 'auto' to 'hard drive'. Hope this helps.

Solution 2

You may need to use the following command

sudo dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/sdb

instead of

sudo dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/sdb1

Solution 3

I just came across this problem when trying to install any OS onto a Toshiba Satellite. I was finally able to get it working after disabling Fast Boot, changing from UEFI to CMS boot, and also using dd (from my kali mchine) after setting the file system type of the USB to fat32, and dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sda (after repeated failed attempts doing it on /dev/sda1)

Solution 4

I faced the same issue. But the solution was rather different from the answers already given (e.g. without changing BIOS settings or using extra-tools).

I've created USB-stick via dd command:

sudo dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/sdb

And got during boot:

isolinux.bin missing or corrupt

The stick I've used was not blank but contained some partitions before (as far as I can remember one of them was ISO9660 because I used the stick as Live-USB for past distribution). Those partitions were automatically mounted by file manager (Nemo) when I plugged the stick (dd command haven't complained about that).

I've unmounted those partitions and wrote linux.iso again. And got success on next boot from the stick.

View more solutions

Comments

[david6]

This likely relates to the bootloader not matching the kernel being loaded by Ubuntu 12.10. Have you tried with 12.04 LTS? Have you checked the download, using MD5 checksum?

[Sadi]

In case you have download problems, you can try jdownloader instead of looking for alternative sites, which might be risky.

[dsomnus]

i had same problem. had to convert iso to img before using dd as described here: lewan.com/blog/2012/02/10/…

[scottro]

This solved the same issue for me when booting a Dell 1950 server. Thank you.

[smwikipedia]

This doesn't help for me.

[kenneth558]

accuya's answer solves that error on Dell R200 for me

[pevik]

Well, it wouldn't work for me as I have two partitions on USB. First for live CD/DVD, second (larger) for data.

[artfulrobot]

me too, also on a Dell server (T100)

[Tim Abell]

Works on dell sc1430, thanks. After hitting F11 on boot you now have to click HDD instead of usb!

[Johann]

This is no longer true as most distribution ISOs are run through isohybrid already: help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/isohybrid

[Danny Broadbent]

This was also the solution for Dell PowerEdge R410 (server)

[RJalaliFar]

Works on Dell Poweredge 1950

[code_monk]

worked for me on an MSI Workstaion

[Vimos]

Worked on Dell R710

[Ahmed Hussein]

This worked for me. Thank you

[Kostas Filios]

Worked for CitrixHypervisor-8.2.0

[Sean Lynch]

Worked on a Dell R610 also

[Dominic Pixie]

Still applies in 2021. First command took 30 mins to create USB and wouldn't boot. Second approach took 5 mins and booted no issue. Bios changes had no affect.