Wednesday 9 December 2009

Install Ubuntu from Alternate ISO Image and USB Drive (Karmic 9.10)

I downloaded the Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) alternate install CD. At first I thought there would be no way to run a clean install from this, but I discovered a simple way, which doesn't even involve burning to CD. This method is designed to be run from another linux system.
  • Download the alternate install cd image
  • Find a usb thumb drive with at least 1GB free (may need more, up to 2GB)
  • Download usb-creator, and run it (usb-creator-gtk or usb-creator-kde on Kubuntu)
  • In the top box, choose your alternate ISO image. Plug in your usb drive and it should appear in the lower section of the window. Choose the drive (for example, /dev/sdb1) and choose "Discarded on Shutdown".
  • Click "Make Startup Disk"
You should then be able to boot your computer from the usb drive, and run the text-based installer.

Source: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, you're a lifesaver if this works.

I've been trying to install the alternate version using the pendrivelinux installer and unetbootin and both of them couldn't make a proper bootable USB stick :<

Unknown said...

Well, let me know if it works. I'm hoping that things will improve soon so its not so difficult!

Anonymous said...

Hooray, it did work :D

At least I have the installation part down right, I still have to figure out the rest of setting up an LTSP server for a thin client project. But for now you spared me from buying a CD drive. Thank you very much, David.

Unknown said...

No worries, glad to hear it worked out. All the best with your project.