[ABANDON] My experiences writing an ISO to USB stick -- Help!

[gold_finger]

"Compatibility Support Module". My BIOS apparently calls it "Legacy". It is OFF.

The fact that you even have an option to turn "Legacy" mode OFF proves you have UEFI firmware. There is no question about it. Problem is that the manufacturer is still calling it "Bios" when in fact it is UEFI firmware.

A usb stick would not be able to boot at all in UEFI mode (which yours did when it was working) if the firmware on the machine wasn't UEFI.

There is ZERO doubt about it -- your machine is using UEFI firmware!

Sometimes various programs have problems creating working bootable USB's. Sometimes they have a problem with particular brands of USB's. Other times it could be some other reason. Easiest and most reliable way has already been suggested -- use the dd command. As noted just be careful to give proper designation of USB device in the command so you don't wipe-out data on your hard drive.


P.s.
I've never used MintStick myself and don't have any idea why it would set sector sizes to 2018. Seems to me that should read 2048. If MintStick isn't working for you, forget it -- just use dd.

[markfilipak]

"Compatibility Support Module". My BIOS apparently calls it "Legacy". It is OFF.

The fact that you even have an option to turn "Legacy" mode OFF proves you have UEFI firmware. There is no question about it. Problem is that the manufacturer is still calling it "Bios" when in fact it is UEFI firmware.

I've tried it ON and OFF. When OFF, USB sticks are not recognized. When ON, USB sticks are recognized, but the boot fails -- if made via 'unetbootin', there's no message , just a black screen; if made via 'mintstick', I very briefly get "Error: File '/boot/' not found", then the black screen. In either case, the files are on the USB stick and appear to be normal.

A usb stick would not be able to boot at all in UEFI mode (which yours did when it was working)...

A USB stick has never booted since installing Mint. With Win7, sure, but with Mint, no. (Note: Win7 is on my old hard disk -- no longer in the machine.)

...if the firmware on the machine wasn't UEFI.

There is no UEFI mode. "Legacy" is "USB Legacy" and it only configures USB ports, not hard disks. I know this is confusing.

There is ZERO doubt about it -- your machine is using UEFI firmware!

How do you know this? I'm also getting hard disk corruption, and Mint's periodic full file system check on boot has never completed. That can all be explained if Mint thinks it's running on a system that supports EFI, but the system does not have EFI, no?

Sometimes various programs have problems creating working bootable USB's. Sometimes they have a problem with particular brands of USB's. Other times it could be some other reason. Easiest and most reliable way has already been suggested -- use the dd command.

This one?
dd if=~/Downloads/linuxmint-18-cinnamon-64bit.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M status=progress

[markfilipak]

I tried
dd if=~/Downloads/linuxmint-18-cinnamon-64bit.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M status=progress
It fails also, same result as making a USB stick via 'mintstick': "Error: File '/boot/' not found".

If I run 'gparted' I get:

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Libparted Warning
    The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2018 bytes, but Linux says it is 512 bytes.
    [Cancel] [Ignore]

I click "Ignore" and I get:

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Libparted Warning
    Partition(s) 1 on /dev/sdb have been written, but we have been
    unable to inform the kernel of the change, probably because it/
    they are in use.  As a result, the old partition(s) will remain in
    use.  You should reboot now before making further changes.
    [Cancel] [Ignore]

Rebooting will have no effect, but I'll do it and be back to finish this post.

[gold_finger]

If I run 'gparted' I get:
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Libparted Warning
    The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2018 bytes, but Linux says it is 512 bytes.
    [Cancel] [Ignore]

I don't have a UEFI machine myself, so can't duplicate anything you're doing but that block size of 2018 is weird to say the least. Don't know if it's just not reading things correctly or what. For now I would ignore whatever GParted is saying and just concentrate on getting a working USB stick.

I left a few suggestions on your other post here: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=233236&start=20#p1237587. To summarize:

• If not already doing so, use the per-session boot menu instead of the boot priority list in main UEFI/Bios settings menu to boot the USB stick in UEFI mode.
• Try a different brand of USB if you have one available. Believe it or not, that sometimes is the cause of problems. Why? I don't know.
• Worst case -- update the UEFI/Bios firmware to a newer version which may make booting USB's easier. (You've got a relatively early version of UEFI, so it may be rather buggy compared to newer versions.)

[gold_finger]

One more thing.

Try recreating USB one more time by doing the following (confirm that it is still called "/dev/sdb" first):

Make sure it is unmounted. Use terminal command to unmount instead of Nemo -> Eject (which is slightly different than an unmount). If it's mounted, it will likely be mounted under "/media", or "/media/yourusername".

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sudo umount /media/<usb-stick>

Then do:

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sudo wipefs --all /dev/sdb

And finally:

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sudo dd if=~/Downloads/linuxmint-18-cinnamon-64bit.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress && sync

[fabien85]

Hi,
+1 on everything that gold_finger wrote. Just adding my two cents.

The fact the firmware speaks about legacy means that it is indeed UEFI. It just doesnt tell it, it's implicit.
To date, firmware interfaces are completely non standardised, and can often be messy and difficult to understand. That makes it difficult to help someone with their firmware settings unless you own the same machine (or at least a close model).
Also, with the transition to UEFI, firmwares can be buggy. It's getting rarer these days, but can still happen e.g. if the computer was bought with win7 or win8 installed, and the firmware was never updated. Happened to me for instance. Look if you see a "BIOS update" on the site of your manufacturer for your motherboard model. Exact motherboard model is important : applying an update for a different model may brick the computer.

Try alternatives :
- other USB stick, as suggested by gold_finger
- other USB port
I had the case where the computer could not boot properly on one of the front USB port, but same stick would work perfectly on the other front port, or on the back ports. Also writing an ISO with that port would have various success/failure.
- other computer
Both to write the ISO (related to USB port failure above), and to try to boot the stick. If it's windows you have access to, use Rufus to write the ISO.

Also in the firmware interface, put USB at the top of the boot order. It happens that firmwares fail to check some boot entries when they are after a failing one. (e.g. in your case, boot entry #2 is CD, the firmware sees there is no CD, marks this as a fail, and then marks all other entries below as fail, or some similar bug).

[markfilipak]

I'm writing a unified thread to consolidate the other threads...

But first, I have some interesting results using the 'gdisk' command (as suggested by 'slipstick' here: viewtopic.php?p=1238177#p1238190.

Note that '/dev/sdb' is the USB stick. I wrote 'linuxmint-18-cinnamon-64bit.iso' (as 'root') to it via this script:

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#!/bin/bash
umount "/media/mark/Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit";
wipefs --all /dev/sdb;
dd if=linuxmint-18-cinnamon-64bit.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress && sync;

Now to the result of the 'gdisk' command:

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mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # gdisk /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan:
  MBR: not present
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with corrupt MBR; using GPT and will write new
protective MBR on save.
Warning! Main partition table overlaps the first partition by 64 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

Command (? for help): ?
b	back up GPT data to a file
c	change a partition's name
d	delete a partition
i	show detailed information on a partition
l	list known partition types
n	add a new partition
o	create a new empty GUID partition table (GPT)
p	print the partition table
q	quit without saving changes
r	recovery and transformation options (experts only)
s	sort partitions
t	change a partition's type code
v	verify disk
w	write table to disk and exit
x	extra functionality (experts only)
?	print this menu

Command (? for help): w
Warning! Main partition table overlaps the first partition by 64 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.
Warning! Secondary header is placed too early on the disk! Do you want to
correct this problem? (Y/N):
----- at this point, I escaped out (Ctrl-C) -----

This is really scary, but remember, it is just a USB stick and I can trash it many times with no Sorrow, but I'd like to get it right instead of fumbling around and wasting still more of my life. Anyone familiar with this issue, and with 'gdisk', please help.

PS: One last note: The writing via 'dd' produced results identical to the time I wrote the USB stick via 'mintstick'. 'unetbootin' wrote a better looking USB stick -- at least it was all one partition.

The bottom line is this: None of the USB sticks would boot. 'dd' and 'mintstick' USB sticks showed "Error: File '/boot/' not found." 'unetbootin' did not fare that well -- black screen, no message.

[markfilipak]

To take the philosophical approach, in a sense, my problem is a gift to the Mint project. I can help a lot, but I need guidance.

I can boot from DVD now -- I successfully created (with help of course ) a Mint 17.3 running on DVD.

I'm going to need a raw sector editor to examine the embedded hard disk (which is also in trouble) and to examine the USB stick (which will not mount, even via the boot-time automounter). The good news here is that I'm an engineer and I've used raw sector editors many times. More good news is that I understand partition tables, MBRs, and partitions ...and LBA (which is actually easier than CHS, which is what I 'grew up' on). The bad news is that I'm clueless regarding EFI and GPT -- never seen either of them.

I'm going to need an experienced guide.

I'm going to need reliable, low level documentation.

Other than that, Life is good.

[fabien85]

Here is what I get with a live USB of LM18 Mate

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$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdc
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8

Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: not present


***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory. 
***************************************************************

Warning! Main partition table overlaps the first partition by 32 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
33 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

However, the USB stick is perfectly bootable.
I booted it successfully on a Mac and a PC. And I successfully ran "check the integrity of the medium", that you get on the grub menu when booting it.

So, as said previously in the case of gparted earlier in this thread, just dont worry, these are not indications of anything.
Live USBs have tricks so that they can be booted both in Legacy and UEFI mode. So they are NOT formatted correctly like a hard drive. And that's perfectly fine.

[austin.texas]

In spite of your assurance that " The machine does not have an EFI BIOS", I tend to agree with the observation by gold_finger "The fact that you even have an option to turn "Legacy" mode OFF proves you have UEFI firmware."
There are a couple of ways to verify UEFI vs. Legacy.

Identifying your boot mode in Linux is relatively straightforward. The simplest way is to check for the presence of a /sys/firmware/efi directory. The mere existence of this directory indicates that the computer has booted in EFI mode. Its absence suggests a BIOS-mode boot...

Your results show the efi directory, indicating that you have booted in UEFI mode.

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mark@mark-Lenovo-V570 ~ $ ls /sys/firmware
acpi  dmi  efi  memmap
mark@mark-Lenovo-V570 ~ $

Another test, which produces more detailed information about the EFI implementation, is to check the kernel ring buffer for references to EFI. You can do this as follows:
Launch a terminal and enter:

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dmesg | grep -i EFI

The result on a BIOS-based computer should be few or no lines of output. On an EFI-based computer, though, the output will be extensive:

These quotes are from Identifying Your Linux Boot Mode by Roderick W. Smith (forum member srs5694).

For reference, on my non-EFI computer I get:

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 ~ $ dmesg | grep -i EFI
[    0.000000] clocksource: refined-jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 7645519600211568 ns
[    2.076920] tsc: Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 2999.957 MHz

[austin.texas]

- 'multisystem' I couldn't figure out the web site presentation -- far too cryptic.

MultiSystem works great, and is not that difficult to use.
I do agree that the posted instructions might be a bit hard to follow, so I will try to simplify it:
Your USB flash drive must be formatted FAT32, with one labeled partition (the label cannot contain any spaces). If you try to use a drive with no partition, MultiSystem will install one and label it "Multisystem".

Installing MultiSystem:
Enter the following commands in a terminal, one at a time.

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sudo apt-add-repository 'deb http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot all main'

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wget -q -O - http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot/multisystem.asc | sudo apt-key add -

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sudo apt-get update

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sudo apt-get install multisystem

In my Mint Cinnamon, MultiSystem appears in the Menu under Accessories.
When the program starts it detects the USB drive, and you can drag .iso files to the small window at the bottom of the MultiSystem screen, or use the disk icon to browse for files.
To delete .iso files from the USB drive, click on the eye icon, shown here:

MultiSystemScreenshot1.png

MultisystemScreenshot2.jpg

TUTORIAL en Español (Spanish)

[markfilipak]

Here is what I get with a live USB of LM18 Mate

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$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sdc
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8

Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: not present


***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory. 
***************************************************************

Warning! Main partition table overlaps the first partition by 32 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
33 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

However, the USB stick is perfectly bootable.

Clue #1: I've never been able to boot to USB stick. The best I've gotten is a very brief, single-line message: "Error: File '/boot/' not found." I presume that the message is from 'grub'. That you can boot to USB stick is, methinks, the first big difference.

I booted it successfully on a Mac and a PC. And I successfully ran "check the integrity of the medium", that you get on the grub menu when booting it.

Clue #2: Speaking of file checks, the periodic full-file system check (every xx-th boot -- I don't know the value of xx but I estimate 20<xx<40) has never run to completion, though I've given it 1-1/2 hours. On those occasions, I have to force the computer off. When I turn it back on, I get a 2-line menu. I presume the menu is from 'grub' -- I just let it boot normally.

Clue #3: My BIOS shows every indication that it is a BIOS, not EFI. The BIOS setup menu is a BIOS setup menu -- I posted it to this forum here: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=233236#p1237481. There is no EFI switch and no mention of EFI whatsoever. This is my surmise: For some reason, the Mint installer thought that the firmware is EFI. Or perhaps 'grub' sees something that usually indicates EFI in most cases, but is wrong in this machine. Perhaps this discrepancy is then ignored by 'grub' (or 'fixed up' on-the-fly) and, therefore, I can boot to my embedded hard disk. But thereafter, utilities like 'mintstick' or 'dd' or 'enetbootin' are using the (bogus) EFI info to prepare new, live boot media (which then fails to boot). Perhaps the utilities like 'fdisk'

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Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 934D1C36-6153-4D02-ACB3-A942134C291F

Device       Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1     2048    1050623    1048576   512M EFI System
/dev/sda2  1050624    2050047     999424   488M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3  2050048 1953523711 1951473664 930.5G Linux filesystem

which indicate EFI are merely reporting that (bogus) information and don't really test the hardware/firmware. This all is my surmise -- I don't know internals.

So, as said previously in the case of gparted earlier in this thread, just dont worry, these are not indications of anything.
Live USBs have tricks so that they can be booted both in Legacy and UEFI mode. So they are NOT formatted correctly like a hard drive. And that's perfectly fine.

I can't boot to USB stick... perhaps the "tricks" are part of the problem... perhaps the "tricks" are papering over what is really bogus information (that other utilities are not papering over) -- again, I don't know internals, so this is just a surmise, but my surmise does fit the symptoms, don't you agree?

Clue #4: '/dev/sda2' is unclean

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mark@mark-Lenovo-V570 ~ $ sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda2|egrep 'Last checked|Maximum mount count|Mount count|Filesystem state'
Filesystem state:         not clean
Mount count:              1
Maximum mount count:      -1
Last checked:             Sun Nov  6 01:12:52 2016
mark@mark-Lenovo-V570 ~ 

and WharfRat has advised me here: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=233176#p1237165

What do you make of this:

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mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # smartctl --scan
/dev/sda -d scsi # /dev/sda, SCSI device  <<---
/dev/sdc -d sat # /dev/sdc [SAT], ATA device
mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # smartctl --scan-open
/dev/sda -d sat # /dev/sda [SAT], ATA device  <<---
/dev/sdc -d sat # /dev/sdc [SAT], ATA device
mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # smartctl --scan
/dev/sda -d scsi # /dev/sda, SCSI device  <<---
/dev/sdc -d sat # /dev/sdc [SAT], ATA device
mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # 

[austin.texas]

Please post the result of the Boot Info Script.
Boot Mint and install boot-info-script:

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sudo apt-get install boot-info-script

Then run the script:

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sudo bootinfoscript --stdout | pastebin

Post the resulting URL link that displays in the terminal.

[markfilipak]

I'm endeavoring to keep up with the suggestions, but my responses are running a little behind and suggestions are interleaving with my responses.

Thank you all so much for helping.

- 'multisystem' I couldn't figure out the web site presentation -- far too cryptic.

MultiSystem works great, and is not that difficult to use.
I do agree that the posted instructions might be a bit hard to follow, so I will try to simplify it:
Your USB flash drive must be formatted FAT32, with one labeled partition (the label cannot contain any spaces).

No spaces. Sure, that's the way it was in Windows, and in DOS before that. But hold on. I've taken the defaults for all the utilities I've run. But when running... 'mintstick' (or maybe 'unetbootin') I recall seeing the default name as "USB stick" or something like that. If 'name' is the label, then this may very well be a problem.

Austin (...been to Houston, but not Austin), I will respond to the rest of your kind suggestions, but first, I'm going to run my script (viewtopic.php?f=46&t=233094&start=40#p1238255) and see what the resulting disk label is.

How should I 'read' the disk label? (I'm afraid to use 'gparted').

[markfilipak]

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mlabel(1)                                                              General Commands Manual                                                             mlabel(1)

Name
       mlabel - make an MSDOS volume label

Note of warning
       This  manpage  has  been  automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation, and may not be entirely accurate or complete.  See the end of this man
       page for details.

Description
       The mlabel command adds a volume label to a disk. Its syntax is:
       mlabel [-vcsn] [-N serial] drive:[new_label]

       Mlabel displays the current volume label, if present. If new_label is not given, and if neither the c nor the s options are set, it prompts the  user  for  a
       new volume label.  To delete an existing volume label, press return at the prompt.

       The label is limited to 11 single-byte characters, e.g. Name1234567.

       Reasonable  care  is  taken to create a valid MS-DOS volume label.  If an invalid label is specified, mlabel changes the label (and displays the new label if
       the verbose mode is set). Mlabel returns 0 on success or 1 on failure.

       Mlabel supports the following options:

       c      Clears an existing label, without prompting the user

       s      Shows the existing label, without prompting the user.

       n      Assigns a new (random) serial number to the disk

       N serial
              Sets the supplied serial number. The serial number should be supplied as an 8 digit hexadecimal number, without spaces

See Also
       Mtools' texinfo doc

In 'mlabel [-vcsn] [-N serial] drive:[new_label]', what is 'vcsn'? Is it the literal characters: 'v'-'c'-'s'-'n', or does it stand for something? Also, what is 'drive' -- literal or replacement string?

UPDATE:
I ran my script (runs 'umount' 'wipefs' 'dd') to write the Mint 18 ISO to USB stick ('/dev/sdb'). It is not bootable. Very brief message: "Error: File '/boot/' not found", then black screen.

Nemo is too dumbed down to be useful here. Nemo shows 'Properties' > 'Volume: 'Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit'' and 'Properties' > 'Location: Computer///:'. I don't think these are the actual label & mount point. The device (e.g., '/dev/sdb') is not shown at all.

[austin.texas]

You are wasting your time worrying about that. Those instructions ("the label cannot contain any spaces") do not have anything to do with anything, except that they come from somewhere in the MultiSystem instructions. So that pertains to MultiSystem - nothing else.
And, you will notice that the next sentence is: "If you try to use a drive with no partition, MultiSystem will install one and label it "Multisystem"."
So, you either create a FAT32 partition with a simple label, or you create no partition, and let the MultiSystem program create one for you.

By the way, to apply a Label to a partition is supremely easy using Gparted. Just right-click on the partition in Gparted > Label
To list any Labels you have on any partitions, run the command:

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blkid

OR:

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lsblk -f

[markfilipak]

... By the way, to apply a Label to a partition is supremely easy using Gparted. Just right-click on the partition in Gparted > Label

'gparted' apparently 'silently' 'fixes' what it doesn't like. I will not run 'gparted'.

[austin.texas]

... By the way, to apply a Label to a partition is supremely easy using Gparted. Just right-click on the partition in Gparted > Label

'gparted' apparently 'silently' 'fixes' what it doesn't like. I will not run 'gparted'.

No problem. To assign the Label "8GBusb" to a partition (sdb1 as an example):

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sudo tune2fs -L 8GBusb /dev/sdb1

[markfilipak]

... By the way, to apply a Label to a partition is supremely easy using Gparted. Just right-click on the partition in Gparted > Label

'gparted' apparently 'silently' 'fixes' what it doesn't like. I will not run 'gparted'.

No problem. To assign the Label "8GBusb" to a partition (sdb1 as an example):

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sudo tune2fs -L 8GBusb /dev/sdb1

I ran 'fdisk -l' just to make sure that my USB stick is still '/dev/sdb' and got this:

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Disk /dev/sdb: 14.5 GiB, 15512174592 bytes, 30297216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x43694d2e

Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *        0 3316223 3316224  1.6G  0 Empty
/dev/sdb2       87152   91887    4736  2.3M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

Note for /dev/sdb2, Type = EFI (FAT-12/16/32). The computer is not EFI, but I'm getting tired of arguing that, so I won't.

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mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # tune2fs -L 16GB_USBstk /dev/sdb
tune2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
tune2fs: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # 

What do you make of that? ...Thanks for the help.

[austin.texas]

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mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # tune2fs -L 16GB_USBstk /dev/sdb
tune2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
tune2fs: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
mark-Lenovo-V570 mark # 

What do you make of that? ...Thanks for the help.

Why did you try to apply a Label to the drive? (sdb)
Labels are applied to partitions - like sdb1