USB install not working - Linux first timer

Hi I'm new to Linux - hoping to convert from windows, but I have been unable to boot Elive from USB. I think that I will stick with windows. Downloaded stable iso (elive_2.0_Topaz_new-kernel_up002) to hard drive. Down loaded special Elive Unetbootin file to USB stick and then followed instructions and installed the iso file to this boot disk. Everything appeared to finish and work during Unetbootin install. When I reboot the USB is not recognized as a boot disk and windows boots. I have just managed to make a USB boot for Backtrack 4 using Unetbootin which works fine on a seperate USB stick (I'm not totally computer inept!). My computer is set to boot from USB first. When I followed the Unetbootin (Elive) set up I specified the correct USB drive and source for the iso from harddrive. Seems to take a long time during install ( extracting/copying iso to boot file stage (last 2 files -98% seems to drag on for another ten minutes?), but in the end the boot file is produced and then prompted to reboot, with no joy.
Appreciate if anyone has any advice as I really loved the look of Elive, and was hoping to ditch windows all together, but no so sure now.
Appreciate any help.
Cheers Rasta

Had another thought, what are the minimum system requirements ? Installing onto 1GB USB stick? 700mb file. Is 1Gb too small? Probably just talking to my self - cheers chris

HI!
Seems like we have to clarify something here: Copying any *.iso file to a usb-device by using Unetbootin is NOT an installation.

Quote

Down loaded special Elive Unetbootin file to USB stick and then followed instructions and installed the iso file to this boot disk. Everything appeared to finish and work during Unetbootin install. When I reboot the USB is not recognized as a boot disk and windows boots.

There is no special "Elive unetbootin" file needed. Just use latest unetbootin.
It can even download Elive stable (and several other linux distributions) and create a bootable usb-device for you.

To solve your problem just reformat your usb-device (fat32), unplug and replug it, and use unetbootin to copy elive onto the usb-device afterwards.

Have Fun!

Elive für Einsteiger: [sites.google.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2010 04:36PM by AlexAnteMachina.

Thanks for the advice. I've tried using unetbootin latest version , which I used to make a boot disk with BT4 - no problems. I've now downloaded 3x iso files of Elive. Running out of ideas? The process to produce boot disk when running through unetbootin, seems to work, gets to 98-99 % extract/copying and then I wait another ten minutes and it then tells me every thing is complete and successful. When trying to boot up the usb is not recognised as boot disk. Out of ideas and time. Think I will try another distro. Cheers Chris.

rasta

If you have not wiped out the ISO from the stick, take a look at this little tool that will search for ISO's on your hard drive and USB and list them menu-style; it's called gujin. I use it to boot different ISO's, but since my old hardware will not boot from USB at all, I put the Elive ISO in a standalone partition (same thing with archlinux live, and so on). You could do the same thing, but try with the stick first, unless you can spare the space on your hard drive.

Thanks for all the advice, just managed to get Elive up and running... Awsome! Question?
With the Installer I have gone as far as formatting my hard drive to Linux Swap (40gb D drive, other drive is 60 GB (Windows XP).
Bailed out of the install at this stage as I was not sure if by installing Elive on (D) with Windows on (C) that I would still be able to boot windows XP at start up.
Have I formatted the (D) correctly -and will I still be able to dual boot XP.
Thanks again for all of the help,
Rasta

sorry for the late reply, but maybe by now you have discovered grub. Towards the end of installation, it will present a menu called the grub menu, and it should list all detected OS'es on your computer. This menu will appear everytime you boot the computer. You can choose it to default to either Windows or Elive after a wait period of a few seconds. The old form grub can even be edited, but not from Windows.

If your PC is recent enough, the BIOS can be used to select which partition to boot from (C or D), but that's for extreme cases when your grub wasn't set up properly to show Windows. It's gotten to the point where one hardly has to edit the grub.conf.

BTW don't make the entire D a swap drive, if I understood your question correctly. Set up a partition first for "/" (iirc it's referred to as the root dir), and then set up swap. An old rule of thumb is the size of the swap should match the size of RAM you have. The file system for "/" can be reiser, ext3, or ext4, and that is where everything else will be installed. We used to set up '/home' on a separate partition as well; I still do.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2011 01:25PM by she_died.