[GLLUG] Bootable USB Stick

Chick Tower c.e.tower at gmail.com
Thu Nov 5 21:47:25 EST 2015


I wanted to upgrade a disto on my IBM ThinkPad T41, but it appears that 
the CD/DVD drive no longer works.  I tried setting up grub2 to boot the 
.iso file for the live/installation CD, but that hasn't worked yet. 
Then I thought I'd make a bootable USB stick, using an 8GB one that I 
don't use much and is still pretty new.  However, that's not going well, 
either.  Even when I select during boot to boot the USB drive, nothing 
happens for a while and then the normal grub2 menu pops up.  Has anyone 
had much success creating a bootable USB stick?

I tried using dd to copy the .iso file to the stick, but that doesn't 
work.  I tried unetbootin on Manjaro Linux, but that doesn't work.  I 
consulted the Arch wiki and found this page

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_flash_installation_media

It says unetbootin doesn't work, but it's directions on editing the 
incorrect file don't help me because mine doesn't look anything like the 
example on that page.

I haven't tried the method of copying the files from the mounted .iso to 
the mounted USB stick, but it might be the one that works.  Now I think 
I'll just mount the hard drive in my ThinkPad T42 and install it there 
before returning the hard drive to the T41.

Does anyone have any advice for creating a bootable USB?  Is it possible 
to create one using a distro that is not related in any way to the one 
in the .iso file?  I don't want to use Win7 to do this, so please don't 
suggest that unless it's the only way.
-- 

                                Chick


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