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Can I just dd an Ubuntu 11.04 mini.iso to an usb flashdrive an boot from it? or what am I missing?

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You want a liveUSB, or a rescue USB, or just an alternate boot medium for you system? – Keith May 30 '11 at 6:23
an installer, from where i can install ubuntu, the same as i burn the mini.iso to cd & boot from it – LanceBaynes May 30 '11 at 6:46
there are easy and details instructions on the Ubuntu site on how to make bootable USB sticks. Please put some effort into answering your own questions by looking at documentation. The expertise on this site is better reserved for solving problems that don't already have obvious answers. – Caleb May 30 '11 at 14:50
Some distributions make their ISO hybrid so it can be dded onto a USB and the USB will boot. Gentoo is one example. AFAIK Ubuntu doesn't provide this. – phunehehe May 30 '11 at 15:00
FYI, you should be using the normal desktop iso to install rather than the mini, unless you are stuck with an ancient < 512 mb flash drive. That way the installer doesn't have to download everything from the interwebs, plus you get a live environment you can test and repair with. – psusi May 30 '11 at 15:03
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3 Answers

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You should be able to dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/sdx, where x is the letter for your USB device. Don't use /dev/sdx1, just /dev/sdx. It has worked for me (not with Ubuntu, though). Beware that this will destroy any data previously on the flashdrive.

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I will try this one out, I accepted it, thx! – LanceBaynes Jun 2 '11 at 19:48
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There are extensive instructions on installing Ubuntu from a USB flash drive on their Community Documentation site. It's a little more complicated than just dding the ISO to the drive.

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up vote 5 down vote

There is also unetbootin which is a gui interface that manage the download, mounting, formating etc. It can run on windows, linux and mac. If you prefer the command line interface, I think that dd should be sufficient, you can read about this at arch wiki (which point to unetbootin as an option).

Note that Ubuntu 11.04 does not work with u3 filesystem.

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