Ubuntu live usb boot error
I just created a bootable Ubuntu usb drive using Unetbootin, and found that it does not boot properly. On bootup it shows the following error.
SYSLINUX 6.03 EDD 20150813 Copyright (C) 1994-2012 H. Peter Anvin et al Boot Error
The problem is with the way, the iso is written to the usb drive by tools like Unetbootin. To fix this, the iso has to be written directly to the drive. There are 2 ways to do this -
Method 1. Write the iso to usb using dd command
Use the lsblk command to find the usb device name.
$ lsblk -d NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sda 8:0 0 111.8G 0 disk sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk sdc 8:32 1 15.1G 0 disk sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
Its sdc here, so the device path would be /dev/sdc
Now run the dd command to write the iso file to the usb drive.
$ sudo dd if=ubuntu-15.10-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=1M
Now the usb should boot fine.
Method 2 - Use Gnome Disks
The other alternative method is to write the iso file to the usb drive using the "Gnome Disks" utility program. Its free and available in the Ubuntu repositories.
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-disk-utility
Now run it from the Applications menu of your desktop or from the command line with the following command
$ gnome-disks
Click the Menu icon on the top left and click "Restore Disk Image". Select the Ubuntu iso disk image and write it. Now the usb should boot fine.
