[SOLVED] Installing Mint 7 KDE via USB error

[EnthusOcn]

Good day all,

So, I want to get Gloria KDE running on my systems. Why waste a CD? Install it with a reusable USB drive. Also, my other computer is a netbook with no CD/DVD drive, so I kind of have to use a USB drive. The problem is that I can get it to boot off my USB stick. I've done this with the main Gloria Gnome with no issues. This is my first time installing the KDE version, but I hit a snag!

When I use unetbootin it seems to skip most of the copy phase. Well, I tried it anyway and it says it can't find the Linux kernel. Sure enough, looking at the stick it didn't copy anything over, it simply made it bootable but didn't put on anything to put to. (Edit: This is still unresolved.)

When I use Ubuntu's USB Startup Creator it says it can't find the partition number (of my USB stick, I assume). (SOLVED ISSUE, read the last post.)

Does anyone have any idea about why these things might happen? At first I thought it was because KDE CE is a DVD not a CD ISO, but I don't really think that's it. Any help you can offer would be appreciated. The other unetbootin and USB Startup Creator threads seem to have other far more complicated issues. These one seem straight forward, but I don't seem to have a solution.

[Edited for clarity]

[EnthusOcn]

When I searched earlier I missed this thred:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3250

The problem is that obviously the DVD wasn't copied over. I suspect that I simply need to mount the ISO and copy over the files. A hassle but doable. I'll let you all know if this works. Any other suggestions to try when I get home from work would be appreciated.

Unrelated question: How do I link to a thread using only the topic number? I seem to have seen people do this. (Ah! I hit preview and see that this happens automatically.)

[EnthusOcn]

No, I get the following error when I do that.

First, it shows the splash screen as it detect my hardware with the bouncing bar. In never gets to the real progress bar...

After it loads /casper/initrd.gz it says Loading, please wait...

Then it loads the BusyBox built-in shell (ash) (Ubuntu 1:1.10.2ubuntu7) and a command prompt.

Now I have no idea what to do. It's just sitting at initramsfs regarldess of trying to boat the entire thing or just the installer. The Gnome edition was working so well the other day on the system. Hmm. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[EnthusOcn]

If I am insane--as evident by my having a conversation just with myself--I might as well continue.

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/67427

This link seems to fix the USB Start UP Disk Creator issue. Copying now.

[EnthusOcn]

SOLVED.

I have no idea what unetbootin's problem was. As per the last link I reformatted my stick and I made it only 2 or so gigs so I didn't have a bunch of free space and used a different USB port just in case. I don't know if the free space caused a problem or not. I'll try it without the free space later. After all of this it worked fine. Thank you all for your help, voices in my head.

[SplittingDistant]

EnthusOcn,

You may be talking to yourself in terms of replies, but I was listening!

I've been having trouble with this myself so your posts were a great help to me.

So carry on talking to yourself, noobs are out there taking it all in appreciatively.

Thanks,

SplittingDistant.

[EnthusOcn]

You may be talking to yourself in terms of replies, but I was listening!

I've been having trouble with this myself so your posts were a great help to me.

Thank you for that. Glad to hear it.

It occurs to me that the unetbootin MIGHT have had a similar problem, just being manifest in a very different way. I may try to look in to that.

[jdizzle]

Downloading Mint 7 KDE iso right now. I've been using the Main Edition Gnome for a couple months now on my Asus eee 900. I freaking love it. I switched from Ubuntu. No hard feelings, I love Ubuntu too and Mint wouldn't be here without it.

Anyway. I'm listening to the voice in your head too. I didn't have a single problem with the main edition install with usb utilizing unetbootin. I'm no computer whiz and I must say, "piece of cake."

I'm at 25 % download and I hope I'll be enjoying some cake with the KDE version too.

A little worried about the 1.1gig size. I've used unetbootin with a couple distros, but only of the 700mb variety.

I'll keep you posted.

[jdizzle]

I had no problem what so ever creating a bootable live usb stick of LM7 KDE using unetbootin.

EnthusOcn,

You might have a problem with your memory stick. This has happened to me before using unetbootin. I forgot the error I received, but it was something about bad blocks. I'm not even sure what blocks are, but I remember there was an easy way to check the blocks status in a terminal. When I checked I had two bad blocks. That was enough for unetbootin to give that memory stick the "boot". When you partitioned your stick, you probably separated the bad blocks. That's my theory anyway. I wish I could remember how to check those blocks... Remind me of the command if anyone out there wants to fill me in.


On another not so related note:

Thank goodness for live CDs and unetbootin for live usbs. I was very excited about KDE. However, after playing around with it for a night, I found that I'm a gnome guy. Just feels right for me, no real reasons. Maybe I just like green. This was my first experience with KDE and it really is amazing. It truly transforms the computing experience. I'm ready to give XFCE whirl now, as soon as it is out of RC stage.

As always, thanks so much Ubuntu and Mint people. You've really got something great going here. Great job LM7 KDE Community. Awesome work!

P.S. Gonna hook my neighbor up with a dual boot LM7 (I'll show him KDE and Gnome) system. I'm trying to help the cause anyway I can...