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I am trying to install linux on my laptop, a Toshiba Satellite C6550-S5200. I did it once but something happened so I removed it then I had to destroy all data on hard drive so now I have nothing on it. Well I got a iso file burned to a CD and to a flash drive. With the flash drive I get.

SYSLINUX 4.06 EDD 4.06-pre7 Copyright (C) 1994-2012 H. Peter Anvin et al

With the CD it will start booting it but somewhere loading it up, the dots turn all orange and stay that way and my CD drive turns quiet.

Oh and some more info the images work because I tried loading them up on another pc and it worked just fine.

I manage to get the CD to boot I just had to let me pc boot up first then insert the CD and have it boot the CD then. Once I get done installing ubuntu it works fine but I have to leave the PC on 24/7 for if I turn it off the PC will freeze 5-10 seconds after booting back up no matter how I install it.

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  • 1
    ok, try this. When you see a keyboard symbol press any key, select your language, and then navigate to kernel settings and select "nomodeset".
    – codesmith
    Oct 4, 2012 at 1:44
  • Should i be using USB or CD. I just did USB and hit alot of keys and nothing.
    – Raymond
    Oct 4, 2012 at 1:53
  • Make sure your selecting to boot from USB in your bios. This may help you: askubuntu.com/questions/162075/…
    – balloons
    Oct 5, 2012 at 0:20
  • this is a perfect guide... ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132
    – codesmith
    Oct 5, 2012 at 1:42
  • 1
    crap I forgot about this, I will say that my bios is set up to boot up from usb.
    – Raymond
    Oct 11, 2012 at 22:25

15 Answers 15

8

I ran into this, too. The issue I found was that my 16 GB USB was formatted as NTFS. I tried changing the block size and reformatting with Windows Quick Format, but what solved the issue was to reformat as FAT32. Ubuntu boots just fine, now. Too bad I can't use NTFS, but the difference will be minor.

6

If you have access to a Windows machine, make one using Rufus. I have had trouble with unetbooting and live creator, but rufus seems to work every time.

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    Thank you! I could easily make a bootable Debian pendrive with Rufus, while Unetbootin and LinuxLive failed... don't know why you got downvoted. Mar 15, 2014 at 13:15
  • It is a mystery to me as well. I am trying to be a good member here but apparently I suck at it. :p
    – AtariBaby
    Mar 15, 2014 at 18:33
  • Why the downvote? This solved my issue with the frozen SYSLINUX screen.
    – André
    Oct 22, 2014 at 22:50
  • 1
    For future visitors: I was having the same problem, Rufus helped me when I selected DD image option. Aug 5, 2016 at 11:00
3

If you are using a Sandisc USB stick, the problem often is the U3 partition.

use http://u3.sandisk.com/launchpadremoval.htm to remove it (from windows)

2

This is HP related problem. I've got the same issue with Linux Mint 12 rc. It boots from the USB fine on Lenvo thinkpad or Dell Latitude but on HP doesn't work. What is strange that I've got another pendrive with XP like live linux based on Ubuntu 10.04 and this boots just fine on HP. Tested on different HP machines.

both were created using the same Unebootin.

And today I found the solution. You need to go into BIOS setup (for HP usally f10 during startup), go to "System Configuration" tab or similar and to Boot Options. Setup the highest priority for USB Hard Disk (should be before USB CD-ROM - the best is to give USB CD-ROM the lowes priority eg. seventh). Also USB Hard Disk should be before USB Floppy.

Hope this would work for you either.

1
  • It is present on Acer too, so it is not just HP related.
    – inf3rno
    Jan 17, 2017 at 17:55
2

The only solution to your problem is Try again until it works!

To start with,there is a bug report about the problem you are facing at Launchpad.

The boot fail may be a result of many reasons.You could try:

-> Check if the .iso image you downloaded is healthy.

-> Format your USB drive and try burning the .iso file again

-> Use onother burning program

4
  • I downloaded version 10.04 and this has installed absolutely fine. Are there any major advantages to pursuing the latest version or would I be better of just sticking with this older version now that it's working? I'm completely new to linux so don't really know the difference between the various versions.
    – Oli
    Jun 21, 2012 at 11:12
  • It's okay,we all started as new users you know :) Of course it is recommended to use the latest version of any operating system not only because there are major updates and bug fixes as well as new features.Additionally, the 12.04 release is an LTS release,which means that it is supported until April 2017.You can see a full list of when your support ends(meaning that your linux system will not be able to be updated) here wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases . Additionally, you can have a look at all the ubuntu releases here releases.ubuntu.com .
    – dlin
    Jun 21, 2012 at 11:41
  • If you think ubuntu is too complex and hard for you to use,i would recommend trying PinguyOS which is a distribution based on Ubuntu which contains a couple of tweaks and modifications to suit users that are making their first steps to linux. pinguyos.com
    – dlin
    Jun 21, 2012 at 11:42
  • This was exactly my problem. I just wasn't patient enough. It is weird though, sometimes the first step would hang....I'd restart and the first step would complete immediately. But once I got past the account setup it wrote to disk and I just wasn't waiting long enough.
    – chovy
    Jul 4, 2016 at 3:15
2

Try using the unetbootin program in ubuntu to make your USB bootable with ubuntu. Use your bios settings to select the USB device to boot afterwards.

EDIT: Since I initially wrote this answer, I powered up a bit in knowledge. Word around the internet frowns upon unetbootin. Here is a list of random reasons:

  • no proper UEFI support
  • apparent issues with systemd
  • actually had some personal problems when making live cds of some more esoteric distros (like the late crunchbang)

If you have access to a Windows machine, like the other answer by AtariBaby, Rufus is your best bet. It supports variuous partition schemes and boot particularities.

If you have access to a GNU/Linux/Unix distro or toolset, use dd. It's probably the best way of cloning drives or burning images to them. User densmorea or reddit puts it better and gives a few links to tutorials on using dd.

I'll also post the links here for future reference and alien explorers:

1

I was having a similar issue, loading form usb key would stop on 'syslinux 4.04....'

I reformatted the usb key Startup Disk Creator on another computer and loaded the contents from iso I downloaded and it works for me, seems like the usb formatting was incorrect.

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I suggest making a bootable USB by using a tool called mkusb. I had the same error and mkusb managed to install ubuntu without problems.

Similar problem and solution discussed here.

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  • this question is 3 years old... I expect the asker already got it or gived up ;)
    – cmks
    Mar 18, 2016 at 22:15
  • :D yeah, I guess so, but as you can see then I had similar problem that took me here and I would have liked to see an answer like this here :)
    – Andres
    Mar 19, 2016 at 9:08
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I use the UNEtBootin tool for that.

Three steps:

  1. Download the tool and install.
  2. Start the programm and select the distribution you want (Fedora, etc.) and do not forget to select the correct drive (eg. f:) to install the os
  3. Select ok. it will download the os for you and put it on the stick. Reboot on the usb stick and let the installation proceed.

PS:
Your computer sometimes might get into trouble finding your USB stick.
If this is the case, reformat the USB stick in FAT32 and retry.

0

Did you test the MD5SUM of the .iso image used to create the live USB flash drive? (See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM, and note that if you are trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, the relevant MD5 hashes are not yet at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes, so you'll have to use http://releases.ubuntu.com/oneiric/MD5SUMS.)

If that does not check out, then redownload the .iso image and try again (make sure to MD5 test the new .iso image, too).

If that checks out, and you are sure you are writing the USB flash drive using a correct procedure, then try writing it without any persistent storage. If that doesn't work, try writing it with the Universal USB Installer instead of UNetbootin, as described in Step 2 at http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download (click "Show me how").

If none of that works, you should make sure it's possible to boot from the USB flash drive on another computer (such as one belonging to a friend) to verify that it is physically OK, or try a different USB flash drive (if you have one), or try burning the .iso image (slowly, to minimize the chance of errors) to a CD or DVD.

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Impatience could be the problem here - it takes a very long time for ubuntu to leave that screen.

Failing that, there are a few things you could try:

You could make a new USB. That would eliminate the USB as the problem, leaving ubuntu or the computer as the problem, if the computer still fails to boot.

I noticed that at the end of the message you get a pre1. This could mean you are running an unstable, prerelease version of SYSLINUX. You could look for an older version of ubuntu and attempt to install that. (Try 10.04 LTS.) This should determine whether the error is ubuntu 12.04 or the computer (if it works with 10.04, then the problem is ubuntu.)

From there I can attempt a few different things, but first run these tests and tell me what happens.

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  • It should not take a long time to leave the SYSLINUX screen. It should take up to several seconds, or perhaps a bit longer on very old machines. It will take noticeable longer when booting from a floppy disk, but still not more than thirty seconds or so. If this takes a long time with uncorrupted installation media on any hardware believed to be undamaged, this should be reported as a bug. Please note that this would not be the same as any bug about how it never proceeds from that screen. Jun 20, 2012 at 21:46
  • I left it for about 10 minutes and it just stayed on this screen. It's not an old machine, it's a brand new notebook.
    – Oli
    Jun 21, 2012 at 11:10
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One possible solution is to create your bootable USB using either Unetbootin, which works well on both Windows and Linux. Furthermore, if you are on linux you could try the dd command: sudo dd if=path/to/your/iso/here.iso of=/dev/sdb where /dev/sdb is the path to your usb drive. BE CAREFUL, if you write the path of your harddisk as the output you will ruin your hard disk data!

To discover the path of your USB disk type sudo fdisk -l in a terminal or open Disks (Ubuntu 12.10) or Disk Utility (previous editions).

dd will take some time so please be patient.

0

I solved this issue by using fdisk to create a new partition table:

fdisk /dev/sd??
o
w

I then used gparted to create a new fat32 partition, and finally the default startup disk creator to create the startup disk

0

I was on an HP EliteBook that I bought recently. My issue was fixed by:

  1. Hitting escape upon startup to get to the BIOS menu.
  2. Selecting "BIOS options" (F10, for me)
  3. Going to the "Advanced" tab
  4. Selecting "Boot Options"
  5. Switching the "Boot Mode" from "Legacy" to "UEFI"
0

SYSLINUX Message appeared to me, too. Write client: Win7, ultra iso

Found solution: Rufus.

It told me about the missing files to write the ISO (which ultra didn't) - and downloaded them automatically. Now it works.

These are the specifications for Rufus:

enter image description here

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