Ubuntu cannot be installed from a flash drive. Installation by other methods. Installing Linux Live USB Creator

Gone are the days when, in order to install Linux on a computer, you first had to . I used to have, and still have, a large stack of disks with different versions Linux. Now that every computer can boot from a flash drive, you don’t have to buy disks at all.

I downloaded a Linux image from the Internet, installed it on a flash drive, and then installed it on my computer from that flash drive. Grace! But not all young Linux users know yet how to install Linux from a flash drive and this short article is for them.

How to install Linux from a flash drive yourself?

For Linux installations from a flash drive you will naturally need a flash drive, at least 4 gigabytes for a medium-sized distribution and at least 8 gigabytes for full version Linux, which can usually reach 4 gigabytes.

After this, we need to download the Linux image that we will install. Which Linux to choose? Do I prefer the ones described in this article? However, you can choose any one you like. The downloaded file must have the extension .ISO Usually it is always like this, but some developers may upload images in other formats.

After this, we need to install Linux on a USB flash drive, as described in the article? The process is quite simple and after reading that article you can easily install any Linux on your removable media. After you have installed Linux ON a flash drive, you can install Linux FROM a flash drive.

The next step is booting from this flash drive, and this can cause some difficulties. The fact is that many computers are configured to boot from your hard drive, and if you insert a flash drive into the computer and reboot, nothing will happen. To install Linux from a flash drive, you need to change the BIOS settings.

Don’t be alarmed, there’s nothing scary here, just read the article and everything will become clear to you. Let's assume that you managed to boot from the flash drive, and you saw your new operating system running in live disk mode (in our case, in live flash drive mode :)

But that’s not all, of course, Linux is not installed yet, although you can already use it directly from the flash drive. But our task is precisely to INSTALL Linux from a flash drive.

Is the Linux installation described in this article? All installation steps are well described there, how to partition the disk, and so on. So there shouldn't be any difficulties.

But if there is something that is not clear to you, then write in the comments and I will try to help you with advice, since I have performed this operation more than once and personally it seems to me that everything is simple. But on the other hand, there may be situations that I have not encountered and I will be happy to complete the article.

In conclusion, I would like to feel sorry for people who use Windows; it still cannot boot from a flash drive and does not have a LIVE operating mode. Shame and shame!

4 comments

Good day. I can't install Ubuntu in any way. I made a bootable USB flash drive and set everything in the BIOS, but it still doesn’t start.
p.s. formatted the flash drive to fat32, after using the unetbootin-windows-608 utility I wrote down Ubuntu 14.04.2 desktop amd64, freed up space in the hard drive by biting off 50 gigabytes from drive D using standard programs and left the space unoccupied so that Ubuntu itself would create a partition from this space with its file system(couldn’t find how to create Ext3/4(((
Please help me, what am I doing wrong?

Many modern laptop models come without a CD/DVD drive. This allows you to significantly reduce the price and accommodate additional ports and connectors.

But the lack of a DVD drive makes administering the computer a little more difficult.

For example, there are sets of utilities for defragmenting files, fighting viruses, or working with hard drives and sections that can be downloaded as ISO files.

We also used an ISO image with the system when we looked at installing Ubuntu on new computer in the previous article.

So, if you purchased such a brand new compact PC, then now you will have to learn how to create bootable USB drives and boot the computer from a flash drive.

Let's get started. To burn an ISO image of Ubuntu to a flash drive, we will use a special software.

Create a bootable USB drive using Rufus

Rufus is a program for creating bootable USB drives. Works on any Windows systems, and supports many languages, including Russian and Ukrainian.

if you have boot disk with a Linux or Windows system, you can use an ISO image creation program to clone it and create a bootable USB flash drive from the resulting image.

First you need to download Rufus from the site https://rufus.akeo.ie, you can choose the portable version. Next, we’ll look at how to burn an Ubuntu image to a USB flash drive.

We launch the program, the interface is simple and clear, we have to make a few simple settings.

As you can see, our USB drive was detected automatically.

The "Partition scheme" parameter - for modern computers you need to select "GPT for computers with UEFI".

For older PC models, you should leave it at "MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI."

"Format options" - from the drop-down list, select the source type "ISO image". Click on the disk icon and select the ISO file with the Ubuntu image.

This completes the settings. We press the "Start" button and two more dialog boxes await us.

Check the box "Burn in ISO image mode" and click "OK".

Now, if you disconnect the flash drive and connect it again, the disk will have a new volume label and a characteristic icon.

Let's make sure that the computer is configured correctly and will select the USB drive when booting. The procedure may vary depending on the PC model:

• 1. Enter the BIOS by pressing the F2 key when booting the computer.
• 2. Move to the "Boot" section using the "Right Arrow" and "Left Arrow" keys.
• 3. Go down to the "Boot priority order" section.
• 4. Select the device called "USB HDD" using the up and down arrow keys.
• 5. Move the selected device to the first position in the list using the F6 and F5 keys.
• 6. Exit the BIOS, saving the changes you made.

When you restart your computer, the GNU GRUB bootloader will now launch, and you can navigate through the menu using the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys.

Background

"Pocket distribution" is quite a convenient thing, because the vast majority of computers run on Windows control, and many people want to get a familiar work environment outside the home.

For a long time I used an SD card with SLAX. The distribution is convenient, customizable, can completely load into RAM and free up the port. However, the project has been frozen for 3 years and has outdated software. Lack of support for ext4 file systems and new hardware (especially video cards and WI-FI routers) forced me to abandon this system.

UPD: Slax has already been defrosted and a new version has been released. Details.

Next, I came up with the idea of ​​installing the OS on a flash drive using built-in tools Ubuntu systems. But due to irrational preservation of changes, this system had to be abandoned. In the end, it was decided to use an installer called Ubiquity. It is he who is contained in the LiveCD and installs it on HDD. Since this option requires much more space than the default CD image, I purchased a new 16 GB flash drive - Apacer AH325:

The distribution for installation was selected Linux Mint 12, about which already earlier. In general, you can use any Linux system, but it is better to opt for Ubuntu or ubuntu-based distributions.

Note: if you are going to make full use of the temporary partition (for example, watch large videos on YouTube), then it is better to increase the 100 megabyte limit. I don’t recommend removing the limit, because a frozen application can crash the entire system, filling up the temporary folder with its copies.

First boot

You should then be greeted by the LightDM menu. After entering the password you will receive a fully functional system. You can begin further configuration and downloading packages. However, the best thing to do first is to open Update Manager and bring the system into current status. Everything else depends on your needs and tastes. But that is another story...

Results

On my own behalf, I advise you to always produce backup important data "to the cloud" (Ubuntu One,

Today I will tell you how to install Linux. So we decided on the distribution. The desktop environment has been selected. All that remains is to download the image and install the new operating system. Since I chose ubuntu with the xfce working environment, a special version. It's called Xubuntu. Download from the official website - download xubuntu. This OS has two options. Regular and lts versions. The regular one is published twice a year in October and April. And the lts version is Long Term Support. Published every two years and supported for 5 years. I'm using the lts version.

After downloading the image, check its checksum. How to do this is written. If the checksums match, you can write it to some medium from which we will install, for example, an optical disk or flash drive. Any specialized program, for example, can handle writing to disk. And it will help us to write the image to a flash drive Rufus program. Download from the official website - download Rufus. It's easy to use. After downloading and launching. Need to:

• In “Device” select the flash drive to which we will record;
• in “Partition scheme” – MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI;
• in “Create a boot disk”, select the downloaded iso image using Explorer;

You don't need to change any more settings. Click “Start” and wait for the recording to finish. The bootable USB flash drive is ready for installation.

For clarity, I recorded a video about - how to make a bootable USB flash drive:

Installing Linux Xubuntu

To start the installation. Set in your bios/uefi settings motherboard loading from a flash drive or from optical disk. Depending on what medium you chose. Next, the download will begin and we will be asked to choose. Either “Run Xubuntu” or “Install Xubuntu”.

(To enlarge, click on the pictures)

Select a language from the menu on the left. I will choose Russian. Click the “Install Xubuntu” button.

Click Continue and select the installation type. This is an important point. We need to determine where and how we will install Linux. I recommend checking the “Other option” button and selecting the manual disk management method.

We will display the partitions and disks on the computer indicating the size and type of file system

Next, select a location where to install the system. If there is no free space, you need to create it by deleting unnecessary partitions. You can do this by clicking on the button with the minus sign. But be careful, after applying the settings, you will not restore anything!

So, we have free space. Now we add sections. To do this, select an empty space and click on the plus button. As it shown on the picture.

On the tab - “Device for installing the system boot loader”, indicate which disk to install on boot entry. First, we create a swap partition (analogous to a swap file in Windows). Even if you have enough random access memory, the swap partition is still worth doing.

The recommended size is the amount of physical memory on the computer multiplied by two. How much you will do is up to your discretion. With current amounts of RAM, double size will not always be appropriate. In the Size window, specify the actual size.

Specify the type of the new partition as logical. Location - Start of this section. Especially if you put a hard drive on an HDD. By clicking on the arrow in the “Use as:” menu, select the swap partition and click the “Ok” button.

Next, create a partition directly for the operating system. Please indicate the size. The minimum volume for the system is 8 GB. Set the type to primary and the beginning of this space. Select Ext4 file system. The mount point is the root directory “/”.

The remaining space is allocated to user directories. Directory "/home"

Now the important point. If you want the disks to connect automatically after loading. For example, there is a “save” partition formatted in the ntfs file system used with the windows operating system and on which you store information and want the disk to automatically connect immediately after the system boots. Then do the following. Select this section. Specify the ntfs file system and NOT Check the box to format the section! Otherwise, the information on it will be lost!

It is better to select the “media” folder and the name of the disk as the mount point. For example: “/media/save”

The end result is that you need to specify mount points for all partitions except swap. After the disks have been marked. How it looks in my case, see the screenshot. Click the “Install Now” button.

A warning will be issued. Please make sure that the sections are marked correctly. We read and check, because after this change cannot be undone! And click the “Continue” button.

After this, the changes will be written to disk and the system installation will begin. The location will be shown first. If automatically detected correctly. Leave it as is. If not, you can indicate yours.

Then specify the user details. Set a username, computer name and create a password. I also recommend leaving the “Require password to log in” button turned on.

This guide walks you through the installation process Ubuntu Linux step by step. Installing Ubuntu very simple and done quite quickly. With the release of each new version Ubuntu developers are trying to simplify the system installation process as much as possible. In this guide, I will walk you through the complete Ubuntu installation process, with each step accompanied by a screenshot and description. As a rule, users have the greatest difficulties only with disk partitioning; everything else is no more difficult than installing some program. We will look at the process of installing Ubuntu on an empty hard drive, as well as installing Ubuntu next to Windows, that is, the case when you already have an operating system installed Windows system and you want to install Ubuntu next to it.

1. Burning an iso image to disk - for installation from a CD/DVD.
   Writing an iso image to a USB drive (creating a bootable flash drive) - for installing Ubuntu from a flash drive.
2. — this item only needs to be completed if you already have Windows installed and want to install Ubuntu next to it.

This guide walks you through the installation process of Ubuntu 12.04. Other Ubuntu versions are installed in exactly the same way.
Updated: Ubuntu 18.04 installs similarly. Feel free to use this guide.

First of all you download Ubuntu distribution, then write it to the desired media (flash drive or disk). If you want to install Ubuntu next to Windows, then you pre-allocate free disk space. Then you restart your computer, configure the BIOS, and boot from the disk (or flash drive). You can boot either into a LiveCD system (a system that works without installation on the computer directly from the disk) or you can start the installation process without loading the LiveCD system. Let's look at the entire installation process step by step.

If you are installing Ubuntu for the first time and do not have sufficient experience, then it is highly advisable to do backup copy important data (copy it to another medium). Naturally, this is true if you are not installing Ubuntu on a clean computer.

Starting the Ubuntu installation

Let's assume you have already inserted a flash drive or disk and turned on the computer. The installer should start downloading. The following window will appear in front of you (let's call it the splash screen).

The not-so-informative keyboard icon at the bottom of the splash screen means that if you press any key on the keyboard, you'll be taken to a menu.

If you do not click anything, then the download will continue and the following window will appear. On the left in the list you can select a language (this language will be used in the LiveCD system) - select Russian. Next you can click the button Try Ubuntu to boot into the LiveCD system and start the installation from there, or immediately press the button Install Ubuntu. I advise you to boot into the LiveCD system, so click the button Try Ubuntu.

If you press an arbitrary key while the splash screen is displayed, then the language selection menu will be displayed. Use the arrows to select Russian and press Enter.


A menu will appear in which we select the first item Run Ubuntu without installing it on your computer. Thus, we will boot into the LiveCD system, and from there we will launch the installation. If for some reason the LiveCD system does not start, then you can select the second option and begin the installation immediately.

When you boot into the LiveCD, you need to double-click on the icon on the desktop Install Ubuntu (Install Ubuntu).

Language selection and initial settings

The first thing we will have to do is select the language of the future system (Ubuntu will be installed in the same language). Choose Russian and press the button Continue.

On the next window, “Preparing to install Ubuntu,” you are asked to check two boxes: “Download updates during installation” and “Install this third-party software.” If you select the “Download updates during installation” option, then during installation all the latest updates will be automatically downloaded from the Internet and installed (as well as localization files). I note that in this case the installation will take longer. If you do not currently have an Internet connection, you can update the system after installation. The second option (check mark) means that you agree that some components will be installed with closed source code(for example MP3 codecs and FLASH). I advise you to check two boxes, then press the button Continue.

Disk partitioning

We have come to the stage that causes the most difficulties for beginners - this is hard marking disk (hard drive). I will try to briefly describe some basic principles of hard drive partitioning.

Each hard drive can be divided into several parts, these parts are called partitions (or partitions). For example, if you use Windows, then you may have only one partition - your C drive, or, for example, the hard drive can be divided into two parts - into two drives C and D (into two partitions).

Ubuntu Linux must be installed on a separate hard section disk. File Linux system has a specific directory structure. The root of the file system is designated as “/” (slash), all user data is stored in the /home directory (if we draw an analogy with Windows, this is something like the My Documents folder), the bootloader is located in the /boot directory, and so on. And you can put /home on a separate partition hard drive, /boot to another, the rest of the file system "/" (aka system partition) to the third. In the simplest case, you need to create just one partition on your hard drive for the root “/”. There is also a special type of hard disk partition that Linux uses - a swap partition. A swap partition is an area on the hard drive that Linux can use in cases where it is low on RAM or needs to dump the operating system (the computer goes into sleep mode - hibernate).

As I already wrote, in the simplest case you only need to create one section. However, it is better to create at least three partitions. The first is the root partition (with a volume somewhere between 30-50GB), the second is the /home partition (the volume is usually taken to the maximum) and the third is the swap partition (the volume is usually taken equal to the amount of RAM). In this guide, I create exactly three sections.

For reference: 1GB = 1024MB, not 1000MB. For simplicity, during installation, I consider that 1000MB is 1GB, so I indicate the sizes in multiples of 1000. The installer himself adjusts them a little.

There are three types of partitions: primary, logical and extended. An extended partition is simply a combination of several logical partitions.

For MBR partition table There can be only 4 primary partitions for each hard drive (including extended). There can only be one extended section. There can be as many logical ones as you like. Windows is usually already installed on the primary partition, but Linux partitions can be combined into one extended partition. To do this, during installation you just need to specify that the type of each partition will be logical, then Ubuntu will automatically place them in one extended partition.

For GPT partition table(GUID Partition Table) there is no concept of logical and extended partitions. On disks with a GPT table, only primary partitions are created. You can create 128 partitions on one GPT disk.

Hard drives in Linux are referred to as sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Each partition on the disk is named sda1, sda2, etc.

If the disk uses an MBR partition table, then the first four digits are used to designate primary partitions, and the rest are used for logical partitions. For example, you can partition the disk like this:
sda1 - primary partition with Windows
sda2 - extended partition:
- sda5 - logical partition /
- sda6 - logical partition /home
- sda7 - logical swap partition

Each hard drive partition can be formatted with a specific file system. Under Windows, Fat32 or NTFS file systems are usually used. There are several file systems for Linux, but at the time of writing this manual the best is Ext4, so I will format all Linux partitions in Ext4.

Below are two ways to install Ubuntu. The first way is to install Ubuntu on a blank hard drive when you have a completely empty or new hard disk. The second method is to install Ubuntu on a hard drive that already has Windows installed. In the second case, when you start the computer, a menu will appear (GRUB menu), in which you can choose which operating system to launch.

Installation on a new (clean) hard drive

Installing Ubuntu on an empty hard drive is one of the easiest, since you do not risk damaging important data or accidentally formatting existing sections on disk. If you have a new and empty hard drive that does not contain other operating systems, then the following window will appear in front of you. You can select the first item, then the installer will do everything automatically, but we will select the second item and partition the disk ourselves the way we want. So, select the “Other option” item and press the button Continue.

A window will appear with a list of disks and partitions. Since there are no partitions on the new hard drive, the list will simply show your hard drive /dev/sda. First of all, we need to create a partition table. Please note that your partition table may already have been created and you can skip this step. Click the button New partition table.

A warning will appear, click the button Continue.

A new partition table will be created and the disk layout window will look like the one shown in the screenshot below. Please note that you can now see the current disk volume (free space). Now we will create three partitions (root /, home and swap. To create a new partition, click on the inscription " free place" and press the button Add.

As I already wrote, we will create three sections. The first will be the root / partition of 30GB in size, the second home partition of 218GB and the swap partition of 2GB in size. When creating partitions, we will specify that all partitions must be logical. The installer will automatically create an Extended (extended) partition and place our three logical partitions in it.

So, the window for adding a new section has opened in front of us. I specified the partition type as Logical, the size in megabytes is 30000MB. The location of the section was indicated by Home. Ext4 file system and mount point / (root partition). After setting all the settings, press the button OK.

Now the window with a list of disk partitions will contain our root partition. At the same time, the amount of free space will decrease accordingly. Now let's create a home section. Click on an item in the list free place and then the button Add.

In the window for creating a new partition, again select the partition type Logical. I allocate maximum space for the size of the home partition, therefore, since I decided to leave 2GB for swap, then we define the size of the home partition as the current free space minus 2GB. In my case it is 218GB. We indicate the location Start, Ext4 file system, and mount point /home.

The home section will be added to the list of partitions. All that remains is to create a swap partition. Select an item from the list free place and press the button Add.

In the partition creation window, specify the type again Logical, size 2000MB (all remaining free space), location Start. In point Use as choose: swap partition. There is no need to specify the mount point.

As a result, we ended up with three partitions on the hard drive. Now we just have to select the device on which the bootloader will be installed (in the “Device for installing the system bootloader” list at the bottom of the window), in our case we select /dev/sda (the bootloader will be installed on our hard drive). In fact, the partitions have not yet been created or formatted; we have only compiled a list of actions for the installer. Please note that the checkmarks in the column Formatting should be opposite the root and home partitions. For the last time, check to see if you have entered everything correctly and click the button Install now.

Installation next to Windows

Quite often, users install Ubuntu side by side (in parallel) with Windows. In this case, when you boot your computer, you will be able to choose which system to start. We will assume that you have already allocated enough space on your hard drive to install Ubuntu. If you have not already done this, then follow the instructions described in the article “Preparing a disk in Windows before installing Ubuntu”.

In my case, I have Windows installed on my laptop, which is located on a 42GB partition and I have allocated 105GB of free space for Ubuntu, plus there is hidden section 1.5GB capacity, where files for Windows recovery(since the laptop was purchased with a pre-installed system).

So, the installer will automatically detect that you already have Windows installed and offer you several options for installing Ubuntu. Namely: automatic installation next to Windows, complete Windows replacement on Ubuntu and manual installation(manual partitioning of the disk to suit your needs).

If you select the second option, then all data on the disk will be deleted and as a result one Ubuntu will be installed.

If you select the first item, then Ubuntu itself will automatically install itself in the free space that you allocated to it (for me it is a 105GB partition). In this case, the disk will be divided into only two partitions: root / and swap. This is what my disk looked like after this installation:

I advise you to use manual disk partitioning, so select the third item labeled “ Another variant"and press the button Continue.

A window will open showing the structure of your hard drive (or drives, if you have several). It clearly shows disk partitions, their sizes, file systems and occupied space. In the screenshot below you can just see the ~1.5GB partition (recovery partition for Windows), about 40GB is used for Windows and more than 100GB of free space that we left for installing Ubuntu. Click on the line " free place" and press the button Add.

The window for creating a new partition will open. First of all, we will create a root partition “/”. Selecting the partition type Logical, I installed the volume ~18GB, location " Start", Ext4 file system and mount point "/".

After adding the root partition, the disk structure will look like this. Click on the line again free place"and press the button Add.

Now we will create a home partition. I allocated all the available space for it minus 2 gigabytes, which will go to the swap partition. The settings are as follows: partition type “Logical”, size ~93GB, location “start”, file system Ext4 and mount point /home.

After adding the /home partition, we get the following disk structure. We have just 2GB left for the swap partition. Click on the line " free place" and then the button Add.

All we have to do is create a swap partition. Select the partition type Logical, set the size equal to the remaining 2GB, location Start and in the “Use as” field set the item “ swap partition", you do not need to select a mount point (the field will be locked).

As a result, we get the following hard disk structure. And the last thing we should check is the bottom option “Device for installing the system boot loader”. In the drop-down list you must indicate your hard drive (I have /dev/sda, on which we did all the partitioning), the GRUB system boot loader will be installed on it.

Additional settings

The system installation process will begin. At the same time, you will be asked to perform some custom settings. On the first screen you must select the city (country) you are in:

Next, select the keyboard layout and press the button Continue. I have selected from two lists Russian.

Next, you must create a primary user.
In field " your name» enter your full name.
In field " Computer name» specify the name of the computer, for example - my-home-pc.
In field " Enter your username»Indicate your username (in small Latin letters). It is advisable to choose a username that is not very long and simple, and this is what your home directory will be called later (in my case it is /home/yuriy).
Below you must enter your password and password confirmation. Please note that you will then enter this password when logging into the system, as well as during any administrative system settings (for example, when updating or installing programs).
Press the button Continue.

You may then be asked to select a picture for your user (avatar). Since my laptop has a built-in web camera, the installer suggested that I take a photo of myself (button “ Take a photo»).

Next, the installer prompts you to import Accounts from other operating systems. For some reason, it didn’t offer to import data from Windows 7, but usually you can import some user data (for example, bookmarks from Windows), but I’ve never done this. So we just press the button Continue.

Copying files

Now the further installation process will begin and you will be able to view some presentation of the system (slideshow). The installation will take a few minutes.

Restarting the computer

Finally, when the installation is complete, a message will appear asking you to restart your computer. Since I started the installation from a LiveCD system, I am also prompted Continue acquaintance with LiveCD system. Press the button Reboot. Most likely, you will also be asked to remove the flash drive (if the installation was from USB) or remove the disk (or the CD-ROM will open automatically), otherwise when you reboot, you will start auto-booting from the CD/flash drive again.

First start

After the computer restarts, the login window will appear in front of you. You must enter the password (which you provided when installing Ubuntu) and press Enter.

The Ubuntu desktop will boot. At this point, the Ubuntu installation can be considered complete. After installation, as a rule, a window will immediately pop up asking you to additionally install the system localization files, as well as perform a system update (if this was not done during the installation phase).