2

i have made liveusb of 32bit ubuntu with persistence twice but can only load the os on the computer i made it with. i have tried multiple other pcs to no avail. (it will load to blank screen with cursor on other devices) i burnt the 32 bit copy to avoid compatability issues on public pc's or friends old laptops. recently i burned a copy of quebes with mkusb and when i went to boot up i chose to check this media and install but it never got passed the check telling me to use an other media. it is a brand new usb device and i have tried a sd card in a usb conversion tool and a separate usb stick all to no avail. am i doing something wrong? is mkusb broken? how do i check to see if i am up to date?

edited to add the fact that it (ubuntu 32bit live usb with persistence) will boot to a blank screen on other pcs.. i have been able to get tails to boot on every pc i am having trouble with ubuntu

Dougie Get er done Fuoco
  • 39
  • 3

2 Answers2

2

Please tell me more details, and I will try to solve your problem, to help you use mkusb and if you have found a bug, to fix that bug.

First, check the points described in the answer by @ubfan1.

Second, please tell us more about your system:

  • Which version of Ubuntu did you try to install (only 16.10 or some other version)?

  • 'recently i burned a copy of quebes with mkusb': I guess you mean Qubes.

  • In what computers did you test (brand name and model)?

  • Do those computers boot in BIOS or UEFI mode?

  • What graphics and wifi chips/cards were there is those computers? (Some chips/cards need boot options and/or proprietary drivers.)

Ubuntu 16.10 32-bit: It works for me to create a persistent live drive from the iso file ubuntu-16.10-desktop-i386.iso.

enter image description here

In order to make a 32-bit system boot also in UEFI mode, you need usb-pack-efi, so please install it into the system, where you have mkusb,

sudo apt-get install usb-pack-efi

If you are running an installed system in UEFI mode, it will be possible but difficult to install grub-pc, which is necessary to make a USB pendrive bootable in BIOS mode. A work-around is to create a live help system, that you install into a separate USB drive, for example according to the following links,

mkusb/persistent#Compressed_image_file_with_a_persistent_live_system

mkusb/persistent#Small_9w_systems_with_guidus_alias_mkusb-dus_and_gparted_installed

Qubes: It works for me to clone from the iso file Qubes-R3.2-x86_64.iso to a USB pendrive and use that pendrive to install Qubes.

Notice that mkusb can clone most linux iso files to bootable live-only USB drives, but can only create persistent live drives from Ubuntu (all flavours and current versions) and Debian Jessie and a few linux distros derived from them (for example Linux Mint, LXLE and ToriOS). Furthermore, the Qubes iso file is [an image of] an installer, not a live system.

sudodus
  • 47,684
1

Since the media check failed, maybe the problem was the download?

  1. Did you md5sum check the downloaded iso? See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM Check the number against the listing in the link for your release listed at http://releases.ubuntu.com under the MD5SUMS link. For other releases' hashes, like lubuntu, see: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes
  2. If using a CD/DVD, did you burn the disc as slowly as possible? See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
  3. Did you select the media check before trying to install? https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/CDIntegrityCheck
  4. Did you ever do a "memory check" (perhaps another live-media menu choice) on your PC?

Doing the above can save you a lot of time struggling with a bad install media or hardware problems.

The other machines which don't boot may have different hardware, like Nvidia video, which may require options at boot time.

ubfan1
  • 19,049