Installing a distro on a USB flash drive

[capt-zero]

Okay, here's the problem. I've been trying to install DSL onto a Usb drive (SanDisk Cruzer 8GB) for a week or so with no luck. I have tried the method in the live cd tools many different ways following their onboard instructions and keep getting told the files on the USB are corrupted. I've tried two different brand new Cruzer disks. Trying from another tack, in Kubuntu 12.04 precise, I have used Kde Startup disk creator. It generally tells me I need to erase the disk, so using the button provided I attempt to erase the Usb. Howeveer it starts the process, goes on for a long time and doesn't appear to do anything. The light on the stick flashes and I get the revolving spheres that says it's busy, but I have left it for up to two hours and it never seems to finish. The next time I skipped this step and reserved a GB of space on the USB, clicked the create a startup disk and then get an error message: An uncaught exception was raised: [errno 13] permission denied: '/media/9d08-7053/boot'
As I said, I've been all over the web trying to find a solution. Unetbootin completes apparently successfully, but then my computer can't find a bootable USB when directed. I've been trying to load some bootable distro to this USB for several weeks now with no sucess. I've tried many different partition methods described in this forum and others. None of the instructions is real clear about what kind I need, some say Fat32, some say ext3 or 4. Actually they are very emphatic that it should be done their way, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I bought these flash drives with this project in mind. Any help out there?
If it makes a difference I am using a Emachine 3300+ with a 32 bit AMD 2400 processor at 2 Ghz with 1Gb memory.

[Snowhog]

There is a know issue with the SanDisk Cruzer USB's - they have a program/utility on them called U3, and it has to be removed before you can use the device in Linux. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743527

[capt-zero]

Snowhog,
I appreciate your response. I've checked both cruzers and found no U3 files. The only files on them are related to Knoppix, the distro DSL is based on. However , to be sure, I went into KDE partition manager and wiped both drives into one unallocated 8gb partition. After that they didn't show up at all in Dolphin. I started Unetbootin and attempted to copy the DSL.iso. Unebootin told me I had to format the drive to FAT32. I went back to Kde partition manager and did so. Once again in Unetbootin I attempted to copy the .iso. Unetbootin then said the flash drive wasn't mounted and I needed to reinsert it for it to be mounted. I repeated this process several times. Every other program recognized the drives as mounted, except Unetbootin. By the way, throughout all of this I have also tried Imagewriter. I have yet to get Imagewriter to recognise ANY iso file after repeated installations and removals of same.
Okay, having fresh, unformated flash disks, I rebooted into DSL from a live CD. Following their instructions from their tools section, I recieved the same errors I've recieved every attempt at this, namely: Mount:'wrong fstype, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda2, or too many file systems'.
Now, this may seem a question better suited to a Knoppix or DSL forum, but I am convinced this problem's source is not the particular distro I'm trying. This has occured with every distro I've tried, except Backtrack, which did manage to load a corrupted live iso that wouldn't run.

[vinnywright]

Snowhog is right .....MOST SanDisk Cruzer USB's have U3 systems on them it's a virtual cd drive on the start of the disk and you wont be abell to install a live usb on it .

however you can use u3-tool to work with it .......I have loaded a cd image (.iso) into it and had SOME bios's recognize it as a cd drive and boot it .

you can use u3-tool to remove the vert. cd drive as well ..............but do yourself a favor and just go get some other flash drive's that dont have U3 systems on them (read the package well)

VINNY

[Snowhog]

Thanks vinny. IF I remember correctly, you MUST use the u3-tool to remove the virtual cd drive on these sticks, that formatting alone doesn't remove it.

[vinnywright]

Thanks vinny. IF I remember correctly, you MUST use the u3-tool to remove the virtual cd drive on these sticks, that formatting alone doesn't remove it.

that is correct Snowhog.......... formating the flash drive only formats the "drive" space and dose nothing to the virtual cd drive portion of it

VINNY

[woodsmoke]

Hi
As might be noted in another thead I am presently typing this on a Kubu which is installed on an 18 gig Sandisk.

I deleted all of the "files" on the disk but could not remove the U3, although I did not try to remove it with Knoppix.

I then "just installed" Kubu on it, Kubu saw it as " a drive ". The size of the partition is 13.9 gig. I assume that the discrepancy is the U3 system.

SUGGESTION:

If you have not done so, one of the critical things about installing to a USB drive is to unplug all usb plugin type devices, such as a printer, etc. before attempting the install.

[dibl]

For some Sandisk Cruzers, you can "dd" the MBR and nuke the U3 installation:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd bs=512 count=1

where the connected USB device is /dev/sdd.

But for some models, that still does not get the U3. I have 3 or 4 Cruzers, and one them still has the U3 system on it -- I can't seem to kill it. The others are clean, however.

[ardvark71]

There is a know issue with the SanDisk Cruzer USB's - they have a program/utility on them called U3, and it has to be removed before you can use the device in Linux. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743527

Hi all...

You learn something new everyday! I'm glad I saw this thread because I was going to buy a SanDisk drive here in the near future. I'll stick with PNY. ;-)

Thanks!

[The Liquidator]

Kingstons seem to work well for me

[capt-zero]

Dibl,
Your script worked, at least it worked somewhat. Both of my sandisks accepted the script and loaded a 512k something anyway. I tried all of the KDE methods with the same results mentioned before, except I can now at least copy iso files directly from Dolphin to the flash drives. However, I went back to the DSL live CD and tried using the tool there. It claimed success, but the drive still won't boot from my computer. When I choose 'removable drive' from my f10 at startup it says 'no bootable usb found. I'm not sure if my computer is recent enough to recognise new USB drives or not. I saw one post that said you could set the bios to "force FDD", but I could find no comparable setting in my bios.
At least it looks as if I'm getting somewhere with this. After 'dd'ing the MBR is there another step to creating a bootable USB I'm not aware of? I'm new to all of this, but I've got my dander up now and am determined to make this work.

Thanx,
capt-zero

[dequire]

Snowhog,
I appreciate your response. I've checked both cruzers and found no U3 files. The only files on them are related to Knoppix, the distro DSL is based on.

You won't see the U3 files unless you install the USB stick in a Windows partition.

[Snowhog]

Which is why you have to install and use the u3-tool package if you are going to do it in Linux.

[capt-zero]

Snowhog,

You mention you have to install and use the U3 tool package if you're going to use it in linux. What do I install it to? Do I need to go to Windows to do this? I've managed not to enter that sinkhole on my system for three weeks now. I've been looking at that HD space covetously and would like to just wipe it.

Thanx for your help,
capt-zero

[dibl]

After 'dd'ing the MBR is there another step to creating a bootable USB I'm not aware of?

Probably.

Use GParted, format the entire stick as a single partition with FAT32 filesystem, and set the "boot" flag on the partition. THEN install the OS, and if you need to use Grub to boot it, install it on the stick. Some bootable USB routines use other booting systems.

Or, you can get fancy and follow this.