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gotqn
Asked: 2014-06-29 13:06:33 +0800 CST

Install Ubuntu on USB stick - "error loading operating system"

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I want to install Ubuntu 14.04 on USB stick, then install some drivers and programs on it and use it when I need.

I have one USB stick with Ubuntu 14.04 that I have used to install the OS on other PCs. The second USB stick is USB 3.0. I have both of them plugged in my PC and boot from the first one.

During the installation I have formatted the USB 3.0 drive to Ext4 and install the OS on it. It took a long time (about 4 hours). Unfortunately, after restarting the PC and trying to boot from the USB 3.0 I am getting the following error:

error loading operating system

Also, I have Windows 8, Ubuntu 14.05 and Ubuntu 13.10 on my PC. I have restarted again hoping that he Ubuntu installed on the USB 3.0 will be found, but it had not been.

Could you tell what I am doing wrong?

The USB 3.0 is 8 GB.

boot

3 Answers

  1. the very likely cause is that the computer has not been set to boot from the USB. Go into the bios (f2 on most computers) and go over to the "boot" section and move "USB device" or whatever it is called on your computer to the top by the method that the bios explains (sometimes "f5 is down f6 is up" or "u/d")

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  2. Mount your USB 3.0 stick and take a look at the files, using

    ls -l

    If you see MANY permissions of "?", you likely have a corrupted filesystem. This happened to me on a USB 3.0 8G stick on a Toshiba Satellite S855 (about a year ago). I could successfully install to a 4G stick (no swap, and blow by the complaint of not enough space, there is enough). I could not successfully copy the 4G to the 8G either (when in either USB3.0 or USB 2.0 ports, but on another (older) machine using two USB 2.0 ports, the copy to the 8G stick worked, and has run flawlessly for a year. Never figured out where the problem was, since there were too many new things (USB 3.0, the stick, the PC).

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  3. Hello and sorry for eventually write mistakes. I've had some problems during installation of Ubuntu on a USB drive and roll like a hard drive.

    To successfully install and boot to from USB I successfully use the steps as described below.

    • I used for test a 16GB 2.0 USB stick and a 4GB USB stick with Ubuntu image on it.
    • Use UEFI boot from bios for a easy installation.
    • Start your PC and click on Install Ubuntu, after few seconds in menu select Something else option and you will enter the drive menu. Don't forget to tick the option to install encoders for music players, etc.
    • In this menu my USB was listed as sda/sdb. Create a 4500GB partition as primary and select in the menu ex4 and /boot. Create a new partition after that as secondary also ext4 but only / in the window option. After that you have under the sda/sdb, sda/sdb1 (listed with /boot) and sda/sdb2 (with no mentions).
    • Down the menu select BOOT LOCATION on sda/sdb1 (this is the /boot partition) is very important after that click on sda/sdb2 then click the Continue when prompted. Enter your desired full name, host name, username, and password (enter your password twice), and if you prefer to login automatically or enter your password every time you log in. After clicking Next, stand back and relax as the installer will handle the rest.

    Tip: I didn't use the internet connection during installation.

    This worked for me, though I don't guarantee this work for every PC.

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