Problems with USB Karmic Install

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Hi all,

I built a file sever today for a client/friend of mine and want to load ubuntu on the thing via a usb install. I've managed to create everything with usb-creator, but when i boot to the USB one of two things happens:

1. It hangs before the startup menu (just says something something "ISO Linux" something something).
2. I get to the menu and select "Try without making changes...." Then it looks like its booting but then just hangs before the desktop can be displayed (by hangs, I mean that I can move the mouse around, but the cursor is just the ubuntu hourglass and there is no activity on the flash drive).

I've tried both versions of Karmic (32 and 64 bit) with the same results. The weird thing is that Jaunty loads up fine via usb.

I ideally want to load the karmic server edition on to the pc (downloading now) but with all these usb issues i don't know if its worth it.

Was just wondering if anybody had similar issues and if there is a fix around (tried searching the forums, but cant search for "usb" because the string is too short).

EDIT: Also would like to know which file system I should format the flash drive with. At the moment I'm using FAT32 - is this correct?

 

[kingrob]

Best to use FAT16 on the USB sticks, but it depends on the age of the hardware.

Been struggling my ass off to get a Dell Poweredge server to boot off a 1) USB stick 2) USB hard drive.....and in the end just got myself a Samsung external USB DVD-writer. The install DVD booted first time and the pain stopped immediately.

Now I have CentOS 5.4 64-bit server running like a champ on the server. Love it.

 

[kingrob]

Oh, and the external USB DVD-writer can also boot any netbook.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Hi, just an update: Finished downloading Karmic Server and created bootable USB (took for ever for some reason), but it works 100%. Used usb-creator and formatted the flash drive with FAT32. The file server is up and running and boots, from when I power on, in 10 seconds flat! The MSI mobo I'm using POST's really quick - I was already in Karmic server on the MSI and my Gigabyte board had only finished POSTing in the same period.