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I tried to make a bootable Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on my KINGSTON Flash drive. But somehow it always fail to boot.

I obtain the *.iso from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop, and I use unetbootin on my windows 7 to create the bootable flash. After reboot and choose to boot from USB Flash Drive, I got the following message:

Boot Error
_  <-"I can type stuff here"

I try another method and create the bootable using universal USB Installer, this time after I reboot and choose to boot from the USB Flash Drive this following message show up:

SYSLINUX 4.06 EDD 2012-10-23 copyright 1994-2012 Peter Anvin et al
ERROR: No configuration file found
No default or UI configuration directive found!
Boot: "I can type stuff here"

I tried to rename the isolinux folder, isolinux.cfg and isolinux.bin into syslinux folder, syslinux.cfg and syslinux.bin. But the same thing as above still occur.

I haven't tried ubuntu at all (or any other linux in that matter). I decided to try ubuntu after recently my windows 7 blue screen on me quite frequently. But I can't make any decision before I try the ubuntu at least once. Therefore I am grateful for any help.

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  • Did you ever used your same flash drive to install Windows? (like making it bootable using Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool and install Windows from it.)
    – Kushal
    Jul 31, 2013 at 8:31
  • I haven't. I bought the drive especially to install Ubuntu last night.
    – junda
    Jul 31, 2013 at 10:10
  • See if instructions given in my answer helps or not.
    – Kushal
    Jul 31, 2013 at 10:12

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I've faced this issue several times when I've used my flash drive to install Windows and then make it bootable to install Ubuntu. In this case, all that your flash drive needs is marking it as Active. Follow instructions as below.

Go to Windows and Open command prompt as Administrator.

Now, run diskpart command which will open within command prompt.

View list of drives connected.

list disk

You should see output something like below.

Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
--------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
Disk 0    Online          465 GB      0 B
Disk 1    Online         3820 MB      0 B

Where Disk 1 is your Flash Drive (notice it by size). Now select that disk. BE CAREFUL THAT YOU SELECT YOUR FLASH DRIVE.

select disk 1

Now list partitions that the drive has.

list partition

Output should be something like as follows (showing only single partition ideally):

Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
-------------  ----------------  -------  -------
Partition 1    Primary           3819 MB    64 KB

Select that partition.

select partition 1

Now mark it as active.

active

You're done! run exit and close command prompt.

Now you can create it bootable again, from Ubuntu ISO and try if it boots to Live Desktop. I'd suggest you to use Universal USB Installer to do that.

Hope that helps.

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  • Thanks, I'll try this immediately and will report here afterwards.
    – junda
    Jul 31, 2013 at 10:12
  • 1
    I follow your instructions but unfortunately it still didn't work. But in frustration I borrow 4 USBs from my friend and make bootable on all 4 of them and voila, one of them work wonderfully. Probably my drive is the one at fault. I also try to make windows 7 installatoin in it and it also fail epically.
    – junda
    Aug 1, 2013 at 4:26
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Check the iso file

Start by checking that the iso file was downloaded correctly. See these links,

help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes

Checking the iso file and the boot drive - detailed tips

If you can get the iso file via torrent, it is more likely to be downloaded correctly, because checksums are used in the torrent process.

Cloning is a reliable method to create a USB boot drive

These kinds of problems need not be encountered, if you clone the iso file to the USB flash drive. There are tools for that purpose in all operating systems.

All current Ubuntu family iso files (versions that are currently supported) are hybrid iso files. It means that they can be cloned to a USB flash drive or burned to a DVD disk and a bootable device will be created.

Linux

  • dd (simple, powerful but dangerous)
  • The Startup Disk Creator in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and newer versions (but not in older versions)
  • Disks (alias gnome-disks)
  • mkusb

Windows

MacOS

  • dd (simple, powerful but dangerous)

Recommended extracting tool in Windows

According to the [old] question in this thread, two extracting tools have failed. Now (2017-05-24) the recommended extracting tool in Windows is Rufus, and it works with all current Ubuntu iso files.

General recommendations and tips

help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

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