3 replies to this topic

[ggking7]

I have a USB key that has been written to with all zero's, so it has no bootloader. Will netbootin install a bootloader? It says it does, but I can't boot from the USB key after installation, even though I could before all zero's were written to it. The system just says "No operating system found" and boots from the HD.

[was_jaclaz]

I have a USB key that has been written to with all zero's, so it has no bootloader. Will netbootin install a bootloader? It says it does, but I can't boot from the USB key after installation, even though I could before all zero's were written to it. The system just says "No operating system found" and boots from the HD.

No.

There is a misunderstanding.

The USB stick needs to be partitioned and formatted BEFORE using UNETBOOTIN.

Most utilities to do so (please read ALL) will ALSO install MBR CODE and Bootable bootsector (or PBR) CODE.

This is NOT "strictly" necessary for all distro's, as UNETBOOTIN will replace/merge this code with the appropriate one for whatever you are installing with it, but it cannot (and will not) "invent" from thin air MBR and bootsector DATA.

In other words, and in practice, make the USB stick bootable (with any OS or loader boot CODE+DATA) and test it's bootability before using UNETBOOTIN.

Suitable apps listed here:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=9460

jaclaz

[ggking7]

I use Linux and I was using fdisk to partition my USB key and mke2fs to create the filesystem. Neither set up the MBR apparently. I was able to make it work like this though:

dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdb

One thing I'd like to complain about is unetbootin's habit of failing to download the selected ISO, returning no error, and in fact reporting installation success. The symptom of this is a boot menu with only "Default" available, which goes nowhere. The solution is to download the ISO manually and point unetbootin to it. This is discussed on different sites online.

Anyway, if you're a developer, thank you very much for unetbootin. It is a nice piece of software.

[was_jaclaz]

Anyway, if you're a developer, thank you very much for unetbootin. It is a nice piece of software.

Well, you need to thank the developer:
https://launchpad.net/~gezakovacs
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GezaKovacs
tuxcantfly
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=6958
which as you can see does not frequent much the boot-land Forum.

But he is active on the UBUNTU one:
http://ubuntuforums....ber.php?u=79823


The homepage:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Has a link for submitting bugs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/unetbootin



jaclaz