Ubuntu – command-line alternative to usb-creator-gtk

bootcommand linelive-usbusb-creator

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?

Best Answer

  • 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.

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