Kernel panic when booting from USB

Question

I downloaded ubuntu-11.04-desktop-amd64.iso and used Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.6.3.exe to format my USB stick und put the ISO on it. When I tried to install from it, I've got a kernel panic just like here, except for the version number (mine was 2.6.38-8-generic #42-ubuntu). My ISO image seems to work, as I installed it into a VMWare player without problems. Booting Linux from USB works surely too, as I did it some time ago with an older Ubuntu version.

I can imagine things to try out, e.g., write the image again, try another version, pray, look for patches, etc. However, I'm looking for a time-efficient solution, something what most probably works. An advice of the sort "wait two weeks until it's surely fixed, then download again" is acceptable, I'm determined to switch to Linux, but it can wait a bit.

Answer 1

Regarding the USB Installer issue. What is the overall capacity of the USB stick that you're trying to use? I ask this because I've been fiddling with this issue for the past three or four hours trying different things. And finally I think I've come up with something.

Then I started thinking about the File Systems and how it's logic works when determining the difference between a USB Flash Drive and a USB Hard drive. So with my 5gb USB Stick everything worked out cherry. Then going through the same exact steps and attempting it on my 16gb USB stick I would get the "Panic!".

Even though when mounting a USB device, whether or not it's a flash drive or a external hard drive, is referenced by the user the same way the way the File System manages the amount of space has to be different (especially when your trying to use Fat32). Try mounting it on a smaller partition something ~5gbs or so. I tested this on 5 different larger USB sticks and 5 different smaller (under 8gb) USB sticks and the results stuck all the way through.

Let me know if you end up testing this out. Because I had this problem for a while with multiple different distro's (Google the kernel panic with any distribution, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Fubuntu, Mandriva, Puppy.. Pepperment... you get the idea). So I've, in my own mind at least, ruled out it possibly being the developers.

**EDIT**

Wanted to confirm all the USB devices that I used to attempt a FROM USB (five total) that I used them with that, after creating a smaller (4gbs is what I decided to go with) partition for the installer to be placed on all the devices that failed now work without an issue.

Softwares tested: Lili Live USB Creator, Pen Drive Linux, Unetbootin, & dd linux consol tool.

**EDIT**

Federico Cinelli
CINELLI Motorsports LLC
Stay true.

Answer 2

I have not successfully used a usb installer yet, but there is another way: install directly to the usb drive. I can't tell you exactly what you need to do (since I can't look at a live cd for reference right now), but basically you boot into a live cd, then use your usb as the "hard drive." This is an option somewhere in the advanced intsall options, but you won't see a thing that says usb. It will just show the name of your flash drive.

I'd unplug your main hard drive before you do this, in case you make a mistake.

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

Doing a full install to USB, (as above), will not give you the Ubiquity installer needed to install from the USB, unless you install Ubiquity CD Installer from the Ubuntu Software Center.

If Universal installer doesn't work for you, try Startup Disk Creator from the Live CD or extract usb-creator.exe from the Ubuntu iso* or try Unetbootin. I have heard of many people having problems with Universal.

*7zip is a good tool for opening iso files.