unetbootin to flash drive sensitive to format source
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNetbootin |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
My custom is to do a fresh format of a flash drive just before running unetbootin. Through ubuntu 10.04 this was no problem and I could do the format on either the host ubuntu system or a Windows XP.
After upgrade to 10.10 and using unetbootin 494-1 from the ppa (and an iso prepared by remastersys backup) I found that an 8GB flash drive formatted by 10.10 for Linux could not be booted. The boot never got started as such and my diskless Intel system hung on an apparent attempt to boot from the LAN. (Hung forever on an DHCP request - which I don't understand either.)
Attempting a fresh 10.10 format of the flash drive to FAT failed to complete format with a modulo problem. (Ugh!) I did not try to use the drive since it did not auto-mount after the format attempt.
A fresh FAT-32 format of the flash drive using Windows XP completed normally. The drive accepted the unetbootin write and the system boots correctly, at least letting default time through.
I have not tried all (or even some) combinations in any orderly fashion. Neither have I tried to isolate the root cause. One difference noted: Win XP volname is limited to 12 characters and I routinely use a 14 character volname on a Linux format. Seems an unlikely source.
| Peter Brewster (peter-brewster) wrote | #1 |
Confirmed that ubuntu 10.10 mtools has a problem to FAT format a flash drive. It requires that USB flash drive capacity (total number of sectors) be an integer multiple of reported (sectors/track). The problem is not present in 10.04 or earlier. See bug report 660233.
Ext4 was the format first mentioned above - when the drive would not boot. mtools did not report any error doing an Ext4 format, the drive auto-mounted, and unetbootin wrote the drive without any reported errors.