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I recently downloaded the Lubuntu 12.04 LTS ISO for Power PC (I want to install it on an old iBook G4), but when I go to select the ISO in Startup Disk Creator, it just remains blank in the Source disc image (.iso) or CD: area.

Here is the screenshot from before (and it looks the same afterwards) selecting the ISO.

screenshot of startup disc creator

As you can see, the ISO is on the desktop separate from any other ISOs, IMGs, etc.

I read this question: Startup Disk Creator is not showing the ISO image, but that didn't help. Neither did Startup disc creator not allowing any iso to be loaded or Why isn't Startup Disk Creator working in 12.04?.

Two of those are 12.04 and one is 12.10, so they are both not my version, if that changes anything.

Does anyone have any clue why this is? I am going to attempt it with Unetbootin and if that fails, manually via the terminal and dd.

Community
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RPiAwesomeness
  • 9,941

10 Answers10

72

Yes, It is irritating that the .iso files are NOT being identified, certainly a bug.

Rename the .iso file to end with .img, and the usb-creator-gtk(startup disk creator) would identify it.

mv something.iso something.img

Filed https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1931493

Sun
  • 832
11

Not a solution but as an alternative, you could try unetbootin:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

It recognized any kind of bootable iso I've tested, even FreeBSD and other *NIX.

If you don't like installing it from the bundle in the website, you can add this ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gezakovacs/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unetbootin
Sadegh
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animaletdesequia
  • 8,552
9

I found a "fix"

Startup Disk Creator looks in the Downloads directory by default. If finds any ISOs it sticks and will only let you use that ISO with the highest number and Ubuntu in its name. I solve this by moving ALL the ISOs from my Download directory in another directory. Startup Disck Creator can't default to any ISO so it comes up blank. It will then let you select ISO's from other directories as normal.

My exact process is:
1. Move all ISOs from ~/Downloads to ~/Downloads/ISOs
2. Run Startup Disk Creator, Source table will be blank
3. Click Other...
4. Open ISOs from any location as normal (in my case ~/Downloads/ISOs)

Hope this helps

This is only based on my computers running 12.04.4. Your mileage may differ.

The Beanless One
  • 99
4

Another option is to use the "Disks" application (a.k.a gnome-disk-utility, a.k.a. gnome-disks) which comes preinstalled with Ubuntu running Gnome (17.10 and up). I've just managed to create a bootable disk for Manjaro like this

  • Start the application from Dash ("Disks") or from terminal (gnome-disks)
  • In the list of drives, select your USB
  • Click any existing partitions on the disk
  • Click on the cogs icon
  • Click on "Restore partition image"
  • Select "Image to restore" and browse to your .iso file
  • Click on "Start restoring..."
Zoltán
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4

It appears that the "Startup Disk Creator" doesn't allow you to select corrupted .iso files.

To check if your .iso file is not corrupted, match the output of:

md5sum <downloaded>.iso

with the corresponding has here. If there's a mismatch, you're file is corrupted.

user3490458
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4

I am trying to create a bootable usb to install windows10 in my friends computer but this unetbootin does not serve my purpose. The usb made bootable by unetbootin is not detected by windows.

I found the solution here. For quick turnaround I paste the solution here

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:colingille/freshlight
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install winusb
Community
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sankycse
  • 76
3

This worked for me and is just an addition to the answer given by @S471 above.

Two simple steps to be followed :

  1. Rename the .iso file to end with .img file.

  2. In Startup Disk Creator, to be able to allow it to detect a .img file, change the default option, i.e from CD Images --> Disk Images in the bottom right corner dialog box.

  3. Now, you will be able to select the .img file,click open and select make startup disk to initialize mounting.

This works cleanly.

p.s-wanted to post this as a comment in @S471's answer.

kedarb
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2

With mine, it didn't see .ISO, but it did see .iso. However, it still wouldn't open until I renamed it to .img

uniquegeek
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2

I can hardly believe it, but in 2024 this is STILL broken in version 0.3.5ubuntu18.04.2.

An .iso file in Downloads was visible for the file picker, but simply could not be chosen. After renaming it to .img everything worked fine.

Ethan Arnold
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0

I have used this creator now in 2025 and it still has the same problem. For instance, I wanted to create a bootable usb for Rocky-8.9 and it didn't recognize any of ISO files. So what I did is I renamed one of the files and called it as Ubuntu-Rocky.iso and put it in Downloads then I ran usb-creator-gtk which in the end made the startup disk-creator to recognize it. When I checked how the usb was named later and it wasn't named as Ubuntu-Rocky, but Rocky, the desired name.

Inna Ermilova
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