Can't get UNR 9.10 to load - .iso to .img. problem?

A couple of weeks ago I put the Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 .img file on my USB and tried it on my AA1 (110 16GB SSD, Linpus installed) without installing it on the SSD. Great. Really nice. I want it. I could have installed it then but I thought that, with Koala 9.10 coming soon, I'd wait for the new release and install that one.

So, today's the day, but (to jump to the end of the story) I can't get it to load on my AA1. The error message is:

FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2/6/31-14-generic/modules.dep: No such file or directory.

Clearly there's at least one file missing. Possibly more. That might be all you need to know for a diagnosis, but I'll recreate the steps I took. I'm somewhere between a Linux novice and an expert - closer to the former. I can follow instructions, but I don't know the innards of the file systems. I've probably done something wrong along the way.

I downloaded the Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 .iso file onto my Windows XP PC and checked the MD5sum - fine.

I had previously used Win32DiskImager.exe to put the 9.04 image onto my USB, but this wasn't possible with the .iso file, so I downloaded unetbootin-windows-377.exe and used that to put an image file onto the USB (the same one - overwriting the previous 9.04 image). The distribution I chose in unetbootin was Ubuntu 9.10 Live - there was no UNR option.

When that was done I exited unetbootin (without rebooting the PC) and removed the USB drive. I put the USB drive into my AA1, switched it on and changed the boot order to USB. I got a menu that had as its first line:

Try Ubuntu Netbook Remix with
(I'm assuming that's a truncated line that should have gone on to say something like 'without installing')

The next line is 'Install Ubuntu Netbook Remix'

I chose the first line. I got a couple of lines saying something like 'Install casper/initrd.gz' (something longer than that, but that's all I can remember) Then a couple of error messages flashed up quickly and disappeared, followed by the Ubuntu logo + 'dot moving along a line' for a long while, and then a screenful of error messages, all saying the file mentioned above wasn't there. Finally, the built-in shell (ash) was loaded with a prompt of (initramfs).

I could do nothing but turn the machine off at that point.

So, either there's something wrong with the distribution or (much more likely) I'm doing something inappropriate. Can anyone help? I'm hoping that the current .iso file of the UNR available for download will soon change to (or be accompanied by) an .img file, as that worked for me last time.

Graham

[Edit] I've just been looking on ubuntuforums.org and one person there (SorApp) said:

"I had to burn the .iso to CD first and then create the usb image from the burned CD instead of the .iso. Works. Major pain, though." So maybe it's not something I'm doing wrong.

 

Format USB drive, load Ubuntu again using unetbootin. Looks like MBR have some leftovers from previous installation...

 

OK - good idea. I'll try that. In the meantime I tried creating a CD from the .iso file, then using usb-creator to put an image onto my USB (I had to format the USB drive before doing that).

Sadly, it didn't work. This time there were no error messages. After starting from the menu (incidentally I got the same truncated line as before) he program just stopped doing anything and I was left with a blank screen.

Graham

 

You can also create a usb stick with unetbootin from the iso you downloaded, using the disk image option . That produced a fully functional USB stick with the netbook remix for me .

 

Re: Can't get UNR 9.10 to load - .iso to .img problem?

Thanks - but that's what I did in the first place.

I've since tried it again, this time formatting the USB (twice, just to be on the safe side) before using unetbootin. I then tried it with my AA1. It failed both times and - weirdly - failed in different ways each time.

I might try putting the old 9.04 image on my USB again, just to test whether there's anything wrong with the USB. Other than that, I'm not sure what I can do except maybe wait and see if an .img file for 9.10 is released. People in other Ubuntu forums are saying that would be a good idea, but I don't know whether it will happen.

Graham

 

I've been having a similar problem, I can get it all to work and the at some point during the install it crashes and goes back into the Live USB mode. Then the partition is still there and I have to delete that partition in order to be able to use that space again as it doesn't recognise it fully is I try to reinstall over the top but I guess that's because it isn't fully loaded.
Downloaded the .iso again and tried a few more times even on different USBs so have no idea why it still won't work!

 

I really can't figure out what's going on.

I can put the 9.04 .img file onto my USB drive, using Win32DiskImager on my Windows PC, transfer the drive to my AA1, boot up and it just works (running 9.04 from the USB drive. I've not tried a full install. Linpus is still on my SSD).

I've burned the 9.10 .iso onto a CD, and I can boot from this to my 'big' PC that normally runs Windows. It works (again, running from the CD). UNR 9.10 runs.

But if I then use usb-creator from this CD to create a 'Live' file on my USB drive and boot up my AA1 from that, it doesn't work. I don't get the language choice screen - it goes straight to the Ubuntu start menu, with a truncated first line: "Try Ubuntu Netbook Remix with" (when booting from the CD on my PC I got both the language screen and the full first line). If I choose 'Try..' I get the black & white 'wheel' logo for a few seconds, then a blank screen.

OK, so try another way. I've got the .iso file on my PC, so I tried the Windows version of unetbootin to put the files onto my USB drive (I should add that I format the USB on my PC, using ordinary Windows FAT32 format after right-clicking the drive, in between these operations). When I put that in my AA1 I get a unetbootin menu, but no "Try Ubuntu Netbook Remix, etc, menu. It gives me the 'wheel' logo in colour for a while, then the timer in the centre of the screen and stays like that until I hit a key or the power button.

Am I doing something wrong with the USB drive? Does it need some kind of special formatting before I use usb-creator or unetbootin? Is my Linpus installation interfering with the bootup process (though it doesn't when I boot from the USB after putting 9.04 on from the .img file)?

I have a feeling I'm missing out a step that may be obvious to someone with more experience, maybe so obvious that, if you know what you're doing, you can't imagine not doing it.

Anyway, I'm stuck. the only other thing I can think of doing is installing 9.04, then installing a whole six months' worth of updates, then following the update procedure to put 9.10 on. But that's very long-winded and probably needs some more specialist knowledge.

Anyone got a 9.10 .img file?

Graham

 

Have you tried another pen drive??

 

I did try another drive. At first (using usb-creator a couple of times) it still didn't work.

Then I reformatted for the umpteenth time and tried unetbootin again. Lo and behold, this time it worked. I did nothing differently from the other times I'd tried unetbootin, absolutely nothing. But this time it booted into UNR 9.10.

So now I'm in the middle of installing it fully onto my AA1. So far, so good, but there's a way to go.

Graham

 

For the folks having problems with their USB flash drives: When you're reformatting, are you just recreating the FAT partition, or are you also setting up a VFAT or FAT32 filesystem on the FAT partition? I've had some issues in the past regarding reformating USB flash drives; those issues have disappeared since I started actually placing an emptty vfat filesystem on the FAT partition. Cause and effect? No guarantee, but perhaps worth a try

 

Thanks for that. I'm sure that my problem was related to the bootup software on the USB drive, but I've no idea what the key issue was.

The first USB drive I used held 16GB and Windows gave me only one choice, FAT32, when reformatting. The various attempts I made with this drive didn't work.

The second USB drive I tried held 1GB. When I first reformatted it, I selected FAT32 from the choice of FAT or FAT32. usb-creator didn't give me a setup that booted correctly.

I then reformatted the drive as FAT, and again usb-creator didn't give me a setup that would boot correctly and load UNR.

Finally, I reformatted the 1GB drive again (still using FAT) and tried unetbootin once more. This is what worked.

I'm sure there's a lot I don't know about making bootable USB drives (and I have a feeling that I've not fully understood what you were saying about recreating the FAT partition). For a clean install of Ubuntu, though, I feel I shouldn't have to become expert in this.

Graham

 

agreed!