fail to install ubuntu server 14.04 64bit LTS from USB drive

Question

I created a bootable USB using Startup disk creator (in ubuntu desktop 12.04 32bit), from an iso image of Ubuntu server 14.04 64 bit, when I want to boot another computer using this usb drive, The computer boots up, the installation process ok, it gets through the selecting the language, then it shows me the error that it can't mount the cd-rom to continue the installation, I tried several times with others USB devices but it shows me the same error. How can I get this work ?

Answer 1

This is how i got it to work.

When it gets the CD-ROM error, move the install USB stick from one port, to another USB port on your PC. Then retry.

This worked. I don't know why.

Not only that but I was reinstalling 14.04 later that night, and the CD-ROM error did not happen again. The 2nd install went without a hitch.

Yes it worked for me also.

Answer 2

Problem is that the new image isn't meant to be used with unetbootin or any of the normal USB creators.

Just use dd like:

dd if=ubuntu-14.04.2-server-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=16M

(obviously, replace /dev/sdb with the path to your USB key, but don't use any partitions (i.e. don't use /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2, etc -- just the whole device)

Answer 3

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2253860 has an answer.

Here are the steps that I took to get it to work

1. When you get the error, Alt+F2 to a second console.
2. Find out which device your USB stick is (tail -n 100 /var/log/syslog)
3. If the device is busy, umount it (umount /dev/sd[abcdef]1)
4. Then mount it to /cdrom (mount -t vfat /dev/sd[abcdef]1 /cdrom)
5. Alt+F1 to get back to the install console, and try detecting again

Answer 4

With the installation CD ubuntu-14.04.2-server-amd64.iso I ran into the same issue, for me it was as easy as running: umount /dev/sdc1

My tail -n 20 /var/log/syslog showed that the installer tried multiple times to mount /dev/sdc1 but since it was already mounted to /media that obviously failed.

With the above command I unmounted the USB-CD-Drive and the following attempt to automatically mount succeeded right away. After Alt+F2 just check what is currently mounted by issuing mount in the command prompt.

Answer 5

The steps here:

1. At the third screen (don't wait until the next screen), hit Alt+F1, Enter
2. Type: df -h to get information where is USB flash disk located/ mounted. in eg.: "/dev/sda1" mount as "/media"
3. Type command mount -t iso9660 /media/ubuntu.iso /cdrom -o ro,loop
4. Then hit alt+F1 to back at main screen of installation
5. Finish. Now you can continue your process installation as usually.

The source is here...

Answer 6

I solved this by using anther iso image !! I changed this image ubuntu-14.04.2-server-amd64.iso and used this one ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso, and it worked like a charm using the same startup disk creator and the same USB. finally I think this is a bug in that version of ubuntu server, because I'm not the only one who get this error.

Answer 7

Ran into this problem as well with ubuntu-14.04.3-server-amd64.iso. Unmounting the /sda/ drive from /media and remounting it as /cdrom worked but I ran into installation error further down the line when it was trying to extract files for the install. The USB drive I was trying to install from was created with Linux Live (LILI) USB creator. I recreated the usb installer with Universal USB installer from PenDriveLinux and everything worked perfectly.

Answer 8

mkusb works in and with Ubuntu Server as well as Ubuntu Desktop

• mkusb version 12 alias dus works in text mode, so you can use it also when running Ubuntu Server via its console or remotely via ssh.

  

• mkusb version 12 alias dus works in graphics mode in standard Ubuntu (Desktop).

  

  

• mkusb uses dd under the hood to clone linux hybrid iso files to a USB drive or memory card. This is a reliable method to create a boot drive, and all current Ubuntu iso files are hybrid iso files, including mini.iso and the Ubuntu Server iso files.

• dd is straightforward, very powerful but also very dangerous. You can easily overwrite valuable data by writing to the wrong drive. mkusb wraps a safety belt around dd.

• Install mkusb with the following command lines

  If you run standard Ubuntu, you need an extra instruction to get the repository Universe. (Kubuntu, Lubuntu ... Xubuntu have the repository Universe activated automatically.)

  sudo add-apt-repository universe  # only for standard Ubuntu
  
  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa  # and press Enter
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install mkusb mkusb-nox usb-pack-efi
  

• Lean alternative in Ubuntu Server: install only mkusb-nox

  mkusb-nox is a command line tool, that also wraps security around dd, and that does not want to install a lot of extra program packages, only pv.

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa  # and press Enter
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install mkusb-nox
  

  Run mkusb-nox for example with the following command line

  sudo mkusb-nox ubuntu-16.04.1-server-amd64.iso
  

  The manual provides more details,

  man mkusb-nox
  

Links

• help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

• 

• alternate link to the quick start manual

• mkusb-nox quick start manual

Answer 9

Install GRUB2 on USB to boot Ubuntu Linux ISO

Another benefit is you can setup the GRUB2 to boot from different ISO. [See Multi-ISO below]

Steps See pendrivelinux for details

Install GRUB2 to USB (assume the USB drive is on /dev/sdx1 partition)

1. sudo mkdir /mnt/USB && sudo mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt/USB
2. sudo grub-install --force --removable --boot-directory=/mnt/USB/boot /dev/sdx
3. cd /mnt/USB/boot/grub
4. wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/grub.cfg [1]
5. download the iso you want and rename it to /mnt/USB/ubuntu.iso. Make sure it's named ubuntu.iso and not the original ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-i386.iso

Note: If you are using a 64-bit ISO, then you need to modify the grub.cfg. See [1] below for detail

Done. You should be able to boot your machine with the USB.

[1] Here the content of the grub.cfg

set timeout=10
set default=0

menuentry "Run Ubuntu Live ISO" {
 loopback loop /ubuntu.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu.iso splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

64-bit ISO's vmlinuz is named vmlinuz.efi. so line 6 of the grub.cfg will be

 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu.iso splash --

Multi-ISO

1. Put your ISO (e.g. ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso) in /mnt/USB/
2. Add a menuentry to grub.cfg with the correct ISO name

menuentry "Run Ubuntu 16.04.1 Live ISO" {
 loopback loop /ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}