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I am having a problem trying to use Startup Disk Creator with my 8GB USB stick. The USB stick has just been formatted, but Startup Disk Creator shows that there is no free space on the drive, although I can use it just fine. I am not sure whether the problem comes from when I used the drive previously with Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool to install Windows on another computer? When I press 'Erase Disk', it shows the message below: 

org.freedesktop.DBus.Python.gi._glib.GError: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/service.py", line 707, in _message_cb
    retval = candidate_method(self, *args, **keywords)
  File "/usr/share/usb-creator/usb-creator-helper", line 239, in Format
    block.call_format_sync('dos', GLib.Variant('a{sv}', {'erase': GLib.Variant('s', '')}), None)
gi._glib.GError: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.UDisks2.Error.Failed: Error synchronizing after initial wipe: Timed out waiting for object
karel
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CESILICON
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7 Answers7

14

Actually, there is another way to create bootable USB drive with the "Disks" utility. All you need to do is "restore disk image" using the iso file as the source image and you're good to go.

If you need more help...

  1. Open "Disks" utility.
  2. Choose the USB drive from the side.
  3. Press the little "stop" ( ■ ) button.
  4. Delete all file systems with the minus ( - ) button (WARNING: THIS WILL DELETE ALL THE DATA ON THE USB DRIVE!).
  5. Press the "two gears" button and select "Restore Disk Image".
  6. Under "Image to restore" choose your downloaded iso file.
  7. Press "Start Restoring" and you're done.

The whole process should not take more then 10 minutes.
GOOD LUCK :)

Note: some OSs like Windows won't be able to use the USB drive until you format it again.

karel
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D-MAN
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4

You can try to erase/format disk with: 1. Gparted or 2. Disk Utility 

sudo apt-get install gparted

sudo apt-get install gnome-disk-utility

UPDATE: You will probably need to unmount all partition(s) in Gparted (or in Disk Utility) and then delete them all and create one. Also you can do a startup disk in Unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Ruslan Gerasimov
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4

I saw the same problem. Here is how I solved it:

  1. If needed, install the dosfstools

    sudo apt-get install dosfstools

  2. Find out which disk needs to be reformatted. This will show a list and one of those in the list will be the USB drive you would like to reformat. In my case it was /dev/sdb1.

    fdisk -l

  3. Reformat the USB drive with something like this (NOTE: THIS WILL DELETE ALL DATA ON THE DRIVE)

    mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdb1

Also you may have to unmount the usb drive first with the following:

 `umount /dev/sdb1'

You should now be able to return to the Startup Disk Creator and build the Ubuntu boot drive.

Snap Shot
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2

I had a problem because the options listed under "Gear" button and "Two Gears" Button are not the same.

If you use Disk Utility like me - the option to change the file system is not accessible via "Single Gear" Button in the upper part of the window. It can be accessed with "Two Gears" Button in the middle of the window.
"Single gear" button allows only formatting in the same file system.

radinho
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1

I formatted the 2GB USB disk with the Disk Utility with the option "fill with zeros". That worked for me!

Andrés Oviedo
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1

I got this working by creating a new MSDOS partition table, one primary partition spanning the whole disk, and a new partition formatted as FAT32.

(Without success, I also tried no partition table, a blank MSDOS partition table, and a single ext4 partition before arriving at the solution above.)

durette
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0

This is caused by a regression bug in Startup Disk Creator which has turned into CD-ROM creator. Since 16.04 they have been writing the USB stick as a iso9660 CD-ROM instead of a USB stick. See my answer here for the fix.

USB Startup Disk Creator Block Size Problem

Kat Amsterdam
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