usb-creator produces flash drive that won't boot on my system: could not find kernel image

[Conrad Knauer]

Binary package hint: usb-creator

I used usb-creator 0.1.10 with daily Ubuntu Intrepid LiveCD ISOs (e.g. from Oct. 25th) on a 2GB SanDisk cruzer micro. Everything looked fine and I could choose it as a bootable device from the BIOS menu. The result, as per what I copied off the screen:

---
Searching for Boot Record from USB RMD-FDD..OK

SYSLINUX 3.63 Debian-2008-07-15 CBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2008 H. Peter Anvin

boot:
---

Which is where it stops; when I press return, I get this error message:

---
Could not find kernel image: linux
---

The same thing also happened with a 4GB Kingston DataTraveler flash drive.

[Evan (ev)]

Can you format the device and re-run usb-creator with the -s option (`usb-creator -s` from a terminal window) and reply to this bug report with whether or not that fixed the problem for you?

Thanks

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

It did not fix the problem, unfortunately; I still get the same error.

Here was the command line output, BTW:

---
$ usb-creator -s

-- Starting up at 11:23:46 --
[11:23:46] adding: /dev/sdb
[11:24:04] mounting /home/conrad/Desktop/ISOs/Ubuntu/intrepid-081025-desktop-i386.iso
[11:24:04] updating dest_status as part of update_row_state
[11:24:12] deleting /dev/sdb from the ui
[11:24:12] device removed and none left. source = False
[11:24:12] possibly adding: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_E73F_40BB
[11:24:12] new device:
{'capacity': dbus.UInt64(2048062464L), 'uuid': 'E73F-40BB', 'label': '', 'free': 0, 'fstype': 'vfat', 'device': '/dev/sdb1', 'mountpoint': '', 'udi': '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_E73F_40BB'}
[11:24:12] adding: /dev/sdb1
[11:24:12] updating dest_status as part of update_row_state
[11:24:13] updating dest_status as part of update_row_state
[11:24:13] prop modified
[11:24:13] device_udi: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_E73F_40BB
[11:24:13] num_changes: 2
[11:24:13] change: volume.mount_point
[11:24:13] change: volume.is_mounted
[11:24:24] Installing...
[11:24:24] Source CD: /home/conrad/Desktop/ISOs/Ubuntu/intrepid-081025-desktop-i386.iso
[11:24:24] Destination disk: /dev/sdb1
[11:24:24] Persistence size: 0 MB
[11:24:24] Marking partition 1 as active.
[11:24:24] installing the bootloader to /dev/sdb1.
[11:24:25] ['/usr/share/usb-creator/install.py', '-s', '/tmp/tmp4U2yUD/.', '-t', '/media/disk', '-p', '0']
[11:25:49] Unmounting source volume.
[11:25:50] Install command exited with code: 0

---

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

I tried a second time with the default persistence setting, but that made no difference:

---
$ usb-creator -s

-- Starting up at 11:49:38 --
[11:49:38] adding: /dev/sdb
[11:49:51] mounting /home/conrad/Desktop/ISOs/Ubuntu/intrepid-081025-desktop-i386.iso
[11:49:51] updating dest_status as part of update_row_state
[11:49:54] deleting /dev/sdb from the ui
[11:49:54] device removed and none left. source = False
[11:49:54] possibly adding: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_0C28_2155
[11:49:54] new device:
{'capacity': dbus.UInt64(2048062464L), 'uuid': '0C28-2155', 'label': '', 'free': 0, 'fstype': 'vfat', 'device': '/dev/sdb1', 'mountpoint': '', 'udi': '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_0C28_2155'}
[11:49:54] adding: /dev/sdb1
[11:49:54] updating dest_status as part of update_row_state
[11:49:55] updating dest_status as part of update_row_state
[11:49:55] prop modified
[11:49:55] device_udi: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_0C28_2155
[11:49:55] num_changes: 2
[11:49:55] change: volume.mount_point
[11:49:55] change: volume.is_mounted
[11:50:01] Installing...
[11:50:02] Source CD: /home/conrad/Desktop/ISOs/Ubuntu/intrepid-081025-desktop-i386.iso
[11:50:02] Destination disk: /dev/sdb1
[11:50:02] Persistence size: 128 MB
[11:50:02] Marking partition 1 as active.
[11:50:02] installing the bootloader to /dev/sdb1.
[11:50:02] ['/usr/share/usb-creator/install.py', '-s', '/tmp/tmpoWCF4D/.', '-t', '/media/disk', '-p', '128']
[11:51:51] Unmounting source volume.
[11:51:52] Install command exited with code: 0

---

[David D Lowe (flimm)]

I can confirm this bug.
I've tried it the normal way on a blank fat32 partition, I got the error described. /media/disk/syslinux/syslinux.cfg was unreadable by gedit , and cat syslinux.cfg gave two blank files.
Same error when using the -s switch.
Different error when I tried persistant mode, I got: could not find kernel image vesamenu.c32
The syslinux directory is empty this time, however at the disk's root, I found syslinux.cfg, with these contents:

include menu.cfg
default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 300
gfxboot bootlogo

I did find . | grep c32 but did not find anything.

I used an iso image for all the above.

I'm marking this bug as confirmed, and if there are no more questions, as triaged.

[David D Lowe (flimm)]

I just tried creating a USB disk from an actual CD, not an ISO image file, and it worked. What were you using Conrad Knauer?

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

David D Lowe: I was using ISO files previously, so I tried it just now with a burned CD of the final Intrepid ISO and it still didn't work, either produced from inside my Intrepid install with the CD in the drive or produced from running the LiveCD. I didn't use the -s switch though...

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

Tried creating it using the CD in the drive (from my installed system) with -s and I still have the same problem. I checked for anything in the BIOS that might change the result, but I couldn't find anything (FWIW, my motherboard is an ASRock K7VT6 with the newest available BIOS). Of course, if its getting to a point where its displaying the Syslinux info, then it does appear to be booting from the device...

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

Hmm... looks like this has been an issue in Fedora as well:
https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/ticket/58

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

Curious... based on http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo I ran:

sudo qemu -hda /dev/sdb -m 256 -std-vga

and that emulated a booting system that DID work with the thumb drive. I note that the thumb drive appeared in QEMU as:

ata0 master: QEMU HARDDISK ATA-7 Hard-Disk (1953 MBytes)

Could it be that the problem is that my (real) system is treating the thumb drive as "USB RMD-FDD" (is that ReMovable Device - Floppy Disk Drive?)

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

I took the same cruzer micro to a store that had a Linpus Linux-based Acer Aspire One and tested it on that machine; it booted fine (I manually put, if I remember correctly, the USB HDD option to the top of the boot list in the BIOS).

So does this just mean that my MB doesn't fully support booting from a thumb drive? (too old?)

If so, is there some work-around? (since it does begin to boot)

[Kyle Raglin (ktraglin)]

I've been doing some testing with a couple of different machines. The first has a Biostar TA770-A2+ motherboard, while the second has a Gigabyte GA-M61SME-S2. Using instructions from Pen Drive Linux (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/10/15/ubuntu-810-persistent-flash-drive-install-from-live-cd) creates a boot-able flash device that boots just fine on either machine, but when using Ubuntu's new "Create a USB Startup Disk" (usb-creator), the same flash device only boots on the first machine. The second machine ends up at a terminal session boot prompt. Pressing [enter] yields the message, "Could not find kernel image: linux". I wan't to help Ubuntu continue to succeed as the best Desktop Linux available, but I'm not sure how I can help.

[Kyle Raglin (ktraglin)]

...slight modification from above... wish there was edit capability...

I've been doing some testing with a couple of different machines. The first has a Biostar TA770-A2+ motherboard, while the second has a Gigabyte GA-M61SME-S2. I'm using a 2GB Feiya Technology Corp Memory Bar. Instructions from Pen Drive Linux (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/10/15/ubuntu-810-persistent-flash-drive-install-from-live-cd) creates a device that boots just fine on either machine, but when using Ubuntu's new "Create a USB Startup Disk" (usb-creator), the same flash device only boots on the first machine. The second machine ends up at a terminal session boot prompt. Pressing [enter] yields the message, "Could not find kernel image: linux". I've also tried entering "vmlinuz", as well as "/casper/vmlinuz", with the similar results. I wan't to help Ubuntu continue to succeed as the best Desktop Linux available, but I'm not sure how else I can help.

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

I tried the pendrive instructions; it too ends in the "Could not find kernel image: linux" message. But again I note that my MB treated it as FDD, so I'm guessing its the BIOS and there's not much I can do about that (since it is the newest one available). So I guess for me this bug is actually "Invalid"...

[John Dyck (john-d-dyck)]

I had the same situation as described in #9 above. I.e. "Could it be that the problem is that my (real) system is treating the thumb drive as "USB RMD-FDD" (is that ReMovable Device - Floppy Disk Drive?)" I had selected USB RMD-FDD as first device to boot from.

 Instead of accessing the USB stick, my machine was accessing the Floppy Disk Drive. I disabled the FDD in the BIOS and now the machine boots from the USB stick.

[Jan Murre (jan-murre-gmail)]

According to:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1064925.html

USB Disk needs to be FAT 16.

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

Jan Murre: thread is wrong; usb-creator makes FAT32 and motherboards that support usb thumb drive booting accept that just fine.