# Solved: Problem booting with linux USB flash drive



## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

Update:

Now I've obtained the instructions for making a boot CD to boot the USB for a computer that can't boot from a USB. Here: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/make-a-usb-boot-cd-for-ubuntu-9-10/
But the last step is to burn the cd image. But the instructions say to use a live CD to make this usb boot cd and I only have one CD drive. Can I follow this procedure in the link above using my installed ubuntu?

Update:
I got the USB ubuntu drive made. Now I just need to contact my computer tech support to change the BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive.

Update: The post below is my progress on this problem.
http://forums.techguy.org/linux-unix/874539-error-making-ubuntu-usb-flash.html

Hi, I'm new to linux and I've got ubuntu 9.10 installed on my only HD along with windows home xp sp3. I'm impressed with ubuntu. I want to run it from a flash drive so I don't use my hard drive. Also I don't know the difference between xubuntu and kubuntu and ubuntu. 0) Briefly, what is the difference? I followed instructions to make a knoppix bootable USB flash drive prior to finding ubuntu. Here is the link to the procedure I did to make the knoppix bootable USB flash drive: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-510/

The USB flash drive is not recognized on boot even though I changed the boot order to "removable" for the first boot priority. I have some questions: 1)Is my BIOS incapable of booting from a USB flash drive since I had no option in BIOS except "removable" that didn't work that seemed to be what I needed to have to boot from a flash drive? 2) Is xubuntu the version I need to run from the flash drive instead of ubuntu? 3) Do I need a flash drive faster than 30 MB/sec to feasibly run the ubuntu O/S from the flash drive such as a 200x or 480 MB/Sec flash drive? 4)How many MB/Sec is 200x speed on a flash drive? 
I could not locate a flash drive with good reviews such as the OCZ Rally 2 Turbo 4GB or the Lexar Vault 4GB. I checked newegg and tigerdirect and CDW. 5) Do you know where I could buy one of these flash drives online or a comparable one?

6) Is there a topic here I'm overlooking for my goal of running the ubuntu O/S from a flash drive?

*My Questions from above:*

0) Briefly, what is the difference between xubuntu and ubuntu and kubuntu?

1) Is my BIOS incapable of booting from a USB flash drive since I had no option in BIOS except "removable" that didn't work that resembled what I needed to have to boot from a flash drive?

2) Is xubuntu the version I need to run from the flash drive instead of ubuntu?

3) Do I need a flash drive faster than 30 MB/sec to feasibly run the ubuntu O/S from the flash drive such as a 200x or 480 MB/Sec flash drive?

4)How many MB/Sec is 200x speed on a flash drive?

5) Do you know where I could buy one of these flash drives onlineor a comparable one?

6) Is there a topic here I'm overlooking for my goal of running the ubuntu O/S from a flash drive?

*System:*
Dual boot:
Windows XP Home SP3
Linux UBUNTU 9.10
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 5200+ 2.61 ghz
BIOS: Phoenix Award Workstaion Version: 5.73.22.16.00
Motherboard: ECS NFORCE4M-A
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
Hard Drive:320 GB IDE 
RAM: 2 GB


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## arochester (Jan 17, 2007)

Can you update the BIOS?

Have a look at:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813135028

Scroll down to the comment: Doesn't support Linux. You will need to add to the boot line: acpi-off


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

Thank you. If it's simple I probably can, otherwise I don't know the steps.


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2007)

You may need to enable USB for DOS or legacy USB,or
something similar to enable the bios to see the drive.
I have one computer that sees it as an addon controller.

The different distributions use different desktop software.
Any of them should run.
Ububtu use gnome desktop and uses the most system memory.
Kubuntu uses the kde desktop and uses less memory.
I don't remember which xubuntu uses.

I have run it on a slow drive no problem.

Don't know the drive specs,sorry.

You can find drives on www.newegg.com.

Don't use that script.
You can make a bootable drive from inside ubuntu easy.

Boot to ubuntu and click system/administration.
Run the create usb startup disk program and follow the instructions.

You can set it to the amount of space to use to save files and changes.
The main reason to run from a flash drive would be to keep from
making changes to you computer.
Portablility is also a good reason.


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

Thanks! I believe I'll be able to do it as you said from ubuntu already installed on the desktop.


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

I failed to succeed in making the usb ubuntu flash drive from ubuntu installed on my hard drive. During making it from the administration menu in ubuntu, copying files to the flash drive was halted. I posted another post but shorter to explain this problem.


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

I got the USB ubuntu drive made. Now I just need to contact my computer tech support to change the BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi ripvanwinkle27,

If all else fails, and you determine that your BIOS does not allow you to boot from a USB flash drive (I'd recommend >2GB USB), there are two alternatives that might help.

The first and preferred way is to note the manufacturer of your motherboard, and visit the web site of the motherboard manufacturer. There, search for BIOS updates to your motherboard's firmware. If you are lucky the documentation on the motherboard will tell you whether or not the motherboard supports that feature.

You should be able to find out the manufacturer of your motherboard by issuing the following two commands from a Linux Live CD or an installed Linux:
$ sudo -i
# dmidecode | more
The first page of output should show the manufacturer and the motherboard model.

For example, when I run the dmidecode command on my computer:
[email protected]:~# dmidecode | more
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.3 present.
84 structures occupying 2898 bytes.
Table at 0x000FD3E0.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 20 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: Intel Corp. <- this is the manufacturer of my motherboard
Version: CV92510A.86A.0338.2004.1012.1817 <- this is the version of my motherboard
Note: the model of my motherboard is: D925XECV2
Release Date: 10/12/2004 <- this is the date of the BIOS firmware release that I have installed
Note: I have visited the Intel website and seached for firmware updates to my motherboard model and I have downloaded and burned the latest version firmware to CD, but have not yet followed the instructions to install it.

I would advise you to acquire the manufacturer's product guide for your motherboard - I got mine with my purchase from my computer's vendor from whom I bought it (PCsforeveryone.com).

The next approach, if the above one is not available, is to follow the procedure from pendrivelinux.com: Use a Boot CD to Boot from USB Category.

Note: How to Create a USB Boot CD that can be used to boot a Xubuntu 9.10 USB flash drive on computers with a BIOS that does not natively support booting from USB. A Boot CD created via this process works by loading the Initial Ram Filesystem along with any USB drivers from the CD. Because the USB drivers are made available from the Boot CD, the system will then attempt to find, decompress and load the final Xubuntu squash filesystem and casper-rw persistence file (if it exists) from the USB flash drive.

Note: You do not need to use Xubuntu 9.10 - i.e. you could use Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD.

-- Tom


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

Thanks! That is very helpful to me. I will try the Linux commands and check the motherboard web site. Thanks!


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

Hi Tom,

I tried the commands but didn't get what I expected:

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 128 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: Not Specified

Version: Not Specified
Release Date: Not Specified

ROM Size: 64 kB

Characteristics:
BIOS Revision: 0.0
Invalid entry length (0). DMI table is broken! Stop.
[email protected]:~# 

I'm sure I've got the motherboard book.
I'm not sure what to make of the results of the command I issued in ubuntu.

-Ryan


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

Hi Tom,

I've gotten the instructions for making a CD to boot from a computer that does not support USB booting. However, the final step is to burn the CD image. But I only have one CD/DVD drive. If the live CD is in the drive I can't burn the CD to help me boot the USB. Can I do the instructions for making a boot cd from my installed ubuntu?

-Ryan


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

arochester said:


> Can you update the BIOS?
> 
> Have a look at:
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813135028
> ...


I'm not sure how to do that. I'm new to Linux. I updated my progress in the first post message. Thanks for your help and if you have any other suggestions I would appreciate it too. Thanks.

I'm able to dual boot and choose ubuntu linux and it runs.


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

Thanks for the help everyone.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

ripvanwinkle27 said:


> Hi Tom,
> 
> I've gotten the instructions for making a CD to boot from a computer that does not support USB booting. However, the final step is to burn the CD image. But I only have one CD/DVD drive. If the live CD is in the drive I can't burn the CD to help me boot the USB. Can I do the instructions for making a boot cd from my installed ubuntu?
> 
> -Ryan


Hi Ryan,

Here's the way to do it even though you have already solved the problem:
Use a Live CD of knoppix. It has a cheat sheet for the boot: command, i.e. when you see boot: issue the following command to to boot it up and release the CD:
boot: toram
This causes knoppix to create a large ramdisk and copy the complete CD there. A ramdisk is a virtual hard disk that you OS creates by setting aside a certain amount of your RAM. This is only for computers with 1GB or more RAM.

Then burn the CD .iso image with K3b.

-- Tom


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## ripvanwinkle27 (Dec 1, 2008)

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi Ryan,
> 
> Here's the way to do it even though you have already solved the problem:
> Use a Live CD of knoppix. It has a cheat sheet for the boot: command, i.e. when you see boot: issue the following command to to boot it up and release the CD:
> ...


Hi Tom,
Thanks!
Ryan


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