re: unetbootin problems

[siologen]

Hello all,

First time kubuntu 16.04 user, previously zorin os.

A few niggles, one of which is unetbootin does not seem to work, nor does startup disk creator. So I now cannot create live usbs for friends or to try out other distros

Anyone found similar problems, or a way out of this?

[Qqmike]

There have been reports from time to time, even at the official Ubuntu help site(s) about such issues. Many of us here quit using the canned packages. Instead, we use the Linux command called dd. With dd you can write the iso directly to a flash drive, bit by bit. You do not need to format the flash drive first. (If the flash drive is already format, that's OK, too, just use dd to write over it; or give it a fresh format, say a FAT32, but it won't matter as everything on the iso will be written to the flash drive, including the formatting and boot-control files.) Just apply dd to the iso. My brief how-to on this:

Building a Kubuntu live USB flash drive installer using dd
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...712#post378712

If you are not familiar with dd, observe the caution. It is often not-so-affectionately referred to as the "data Destroyer": you must get the target right, the output file, the "of=..." part of the command.

[siologen]

re: qmike reply

There have been reports from time to time, even at the official Ubuntu help site(s) about such issues. Many of us here quit using the canned packages. Instead, we use the Linux command called dd. With dd you can write the iso directly to a flash drive, bit by bit. You do not need to format the flash drive first. (If the flash drive is already format, that's OK, too, just use dd to write over it; or give it a fresh format, say a FAT32, but it won't matter as everything on the iso will be written to the flash drive, including the formatting and boot-control files.) Just apply dd to the iso. My brief how-to on this:

Building a Kubuntu live USB flash drive installer using dd
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...712#post378712

If you are not familiar with dd, observe the caution. It is often not-so-affectionately referred to as the "data Destroyer": you must get the target right, the output file, the "of=..." part of the command.

Thanks, I've tried but it also won't complete,no matter what usb I use, fat32 formatted or otherwise. Bit disappointing really as unetbootin worked without problems in Zorin OS. Beginning to regret trying kubuntu out if something like this will not work.

[Qqmike]

I've tried but it also won't complete,no matter what usb I use, fat32 formatted or otherwise.

Oh, it will complete. We do it all the time. dd has no progress reporting as it runs (there are ways to get progress, but that's not the issue here). And it may take a long time on some machines/setups. You will not see any output until it finishes, and then you will get the final progress report--#bits written, errors, etc.

[siologen]

I tried, but got a non bootable usb....so it seems I am stuck on kubuntu, thanks again, but pulling my hair out is useless. I will ask a friend to send me a live ubuntu usb in the post.

[Qqmike]

OK. You know, if you have a machine that boots by UEFI, you need 64-bit Kubuntu; and then re-boot with the USB, enter your firmware/UEFI/BIOS setup, select the UEFI version of the USB that shows up in your boot menu(s), and boot that way.

[siologen]

Thanks again for all advice. I am just stuck with creating a usb for any other distro with unetbootin using Kubuntu 16.04. Sorry for any confusion.

[Qqmike]

using Kubuntu 16.04

Ah, yes. Many of us are still using the Kubuntu 14.04 LTS, waiting at least 2 more months before trying 16.04. Who knows why, but it sounds like a quirk in 16.04. Now, to be clear: Unetbootin may have problems no matter how/where you run it, from 14.04 or from 16.04 or from Ubuntu. You can google that and see. But the dd method would most certainly work fine in Kubuntu 14.04. We're pretty friendly around here, come back if you want to mess around some more with Kubuntu . Perhaps someone else who is running 16.04 could jump in on this, too.

[siologen]

Thanks again, I will try dd with a fresh download of ubuntu for now and report back with a screenshot of the output in terminal?

Cheers and beers again

[Qqmike]

I will try dd with a fresh download of ubuntu for now and report back with a screenshot of the output in terminal?

Sounds like a plan. And maybe others with fresh eyes or some specific 16.04 experience will drop in and have a look, too. I'm no expert -- I just know how to run dd to get this job done!

[siologen]

Thanks for all the support through the thread, I also have a sneaking suspicion there is something off with the way kubuntu 16.04 handles usb mounting, it does not seem to mount the drives automatically like ubby/zorin....but we shall see. Thanks again!!

[GreyGeek]

I'm beginning to suspect that your 16.04 installation was done with an ISO that wasn't check summed, and neither was the LiveCD. The dd command on my six year old laptop running Xerus never fails to create a bootable LiveUSB. However, the dd method doesn't create a persistent LiveUSB.

The problem with UNetbootin is explained here.
If you don't want to use dd then using the tools that come with Kubuntu is explained here.

As far as auto-mounting USB sticks and CDs/DVDs, my installation does it nicely, which is another reason why I suspect a faulty ISO or burn.

[siologen]

I downloaded the .iso from the kubuntu site. So it has to be the real one.

This is the output of dd:

root@alexander-905S3K-9305SK:/home/alexander/Downloads# dd if=ubuntu.iso of=/dev/sdb1
2902112+0 records in
2902112+0 records out
1485881344 bytes (1,5 GB, 1,4 GiB) copied, 267,212 s, 5,6 MB/s

[Qqmike]

The output of your dd for ubuntu.iso looks ok and "normal" to me. Your dd uses the default block size, bs=512 (bytes). Output is about 1.4 GiB, and the time in seconds looks reasonable. I assume you renamed your Ubuntu iso to be ubuntu.iso (in your Download folder).

[GreyGeek]

I downloaded the .iso from the kubuntu site. So it has to be the real one. ...

You misunderstand. The question isn't "Is the ISO the real one?". The question IS "did the ISO download correctly without errors? That is determined by using md5sum to determine if the checksum matches that given on the download site for that ISO."
And, when you burn it to a DVD did you use the "Validation" option to validate that the burned DVD has the same checksum? Or, if you burned it to a USB stick, did you check the stick?