Alternate install via USB

[apparle]

My Optical drive is not working so I can't use it.
I want to perform an alternate install.
Is there any way I can do it through USB drive.
I can boot through USB flash drives, my mother board supports that.

I DON'T want to install kubuntu on the USB drive

I just want to install kubuntu on the HDD through it

[marcsRX]

Re: Alternate install via USB

yes you can.


http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-ins...usb-stick.html

[josefko]

Re: Alternate install via USB

I would prefere more modern method - install unebootin from Kubuntu repository and copy ISO to bootable USB with it. You can find unebootin for Windows on web too. It has very simple graphical interface and the whole operation is very easy. Nice way to install Kubuntu on netbooks.

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: Alternate install via USB

In my and others' experience, unetbootin (not unebootin) will not work with the alternate install CD. That installer is very non-portable - it insists on a CD. A few people have reported success with mounting things manually, but I could not get it to work.

Even if you get it to access the install data ("CDROM") with manual mounting, the installer uses links in the filesystem of the CD, which don't work in vfat. Someone reported success renaming /dists/hardy to /dists/stable, but the karmic installer reported something to the effect of 'can't find name of distribution'. Yet this method with vfat made it the furthest - it actually started copying install files and such. Some research in the USB stick guides might help.

So I tried formatting the USB stick with ext3, but then I could not get the installer to access the data ("CDROM").

Here's what I tried, in case you want to try it. If you find a method that works I'd love to know it.

#First, make sure you KNOW which partition is 
#your USB stick so you don't damage your hard drive
fdisk -l

# In these examples I will use /dev/sdx1 as the USB device
# Insert stick and unmount it
umount /dev/sdx1

# Zero out the partition table - this seemd to help
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx1 bs=512 count=1

# format it (here I use ext3 but you can also try vfat
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdx1

# Unplug and plug in USB stick so it gets mounted

# Use unetbootin to place distribution files on USB drive
# (I used ISO file)

# Boot computer with USB stick
# If you get a boot: prompt press Enter
# If that doesn't work and it says it can't find the kernel, enter:
ubnkern initrd=ubninit
# you can also try
ubnkern initrd=ubninit ro root=/dev/sdx1
# but I don't think it matters

# Press enter and it should boot into the installer

# At the language selection screens, press Ctrl-Alt-F2 for a console:

mkdir /cdrom
mount -t ext3 /dev/sdx1 /cdrom

# you can also try a link here but it didn't seem to help
ln -sf /cdrom /dev/cdrom

# Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 and continue the installation

# If using vfat it will get pretty far until it complains about
# not finding the dist name or something like that

# If using ext3 it will say it can't read the CD files
# (even though they are accessible in /cdrom)

More reading...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...n/FromUSBStick
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...st/157384.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=978888

Edit: I should add I was using karmic alpha4 alternate install CD in this example. And unetbootin did work with the desktop installer of karmic (used vfat for that).