Unable to load Qubes iso to USB stick to boot.

Richard Gaylord

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Apr 14, 2016, 9:50:32 AM4/14/16

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Hi,

I am trying to load a bootabel iso of Qubes R3.1 onto a 32GB drive. The drive is otherwise blank and recently formatted to NTFS. I have tried to simply copy the iso file to the USB drive but it gives me a message stating the Boot Manager is missing.

I have tried to copy it using dd from the command line but I get a message stating: failed to open '/media/user/LEXAR2': is a directory.

I have tried to use Start Up Disk Creator but the choose file interface at the top of the GUI will not populate the Qubes iso file to the GUI when I select it.

I have even tried Brasero but it won't let me choose a USB to burn the image.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to get a bootable iso on the USB.

Thanks in advance.

JPL

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Apr 14, 2016, 9:56:43 AM4/14/16

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You may need to completely wipe the USB stick using Gparted or something similar. To be honest 32 GB is a bit small. You really need 64GB USB3

Salmiakki

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Apr 14, 2016, 9:58:24 AM4/14/16

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When you use dd you need to use the file that points to the device not some mountpoint.
It should be something like "/dev/sdd".
Make sure you have the right one though or you will overwrite stuff on your hard drive or something else. ;)

Salmiakki

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Apr 14, 2016, 10:06:56 AM4/14/16

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On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 3:56:43 PM UTC+2, JPL wrote:

To be honest 32 GB is a bit small. You really need 64GB USB3

I don't see why that would be true. I even used an 8 GB stick myself, afair.

Arne Michael Neumann

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Apr 14, 2016, 10:09:29 AM4/14/16

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I definitely used an old 8 GB stick floating around not four weeks back. The iso is a little over 4.7GB, hence won't fit on a single layer DVD medium. Anything larger than 5GB should be enough.

JPL

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Apr 14, 2016, 10:12:37 AM4/14/16

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Ah yes. My mistake. If you are going to install it to a USB it needs to be 64GB.

Richard Gaylord

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Apr 14, 2016, 12:22:32 PM4/14/16

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Salmiakki, and all others - thanks for your reply.

I tried to modify the dd target device as /dev/sdb1 and it gave me an error stating: dd: faile to open '/dev/sdb1/': Is a directory. Using the target device as /dev/sdb1/LEXAR2 gives me dd failed to open Not a directory.

Any other ideas would be really helpful. BTW, I am trying to install a bootable image onto the USB from where I can install on SSD on computer. Not a standalone system on a USB.

Thanks in advance.

Richard Gaylord

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Apr 14, 2016, 1:24:41 PM4/14/16

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So, I have now figured out why dd was not working, I was adding a / to the end of the directory. But it still doesn't matter. I have now loaded the file with dd but, when I try to boot, either from an ext4 or and NTFS partitioned drive I get a quick screen telling me something to the effect: boot failure, and then the boot loader goes directly into Ubuntu.

Any ideas or comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

On Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 9:50:32 AM UTC-4, Richard Gaylord wrote:

JPL

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Apr 14, 2016, 1:48:06 PM4/14/16

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You will probably have to change the settings in the BIOS. A lot of people have problems with this.

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/

I had to enable legacy mode and turn off UEFI in two places - the secure boot section and also the boot order section.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/qubes-users/jpl/qubes-users/DUcpDnqozOU/P461hb-7BQAJ

Salmiakki

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Apr 14, 2016, 2:06:54 PM4/14/16

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nononono :)
What you want is to dd to of=/dev/sdb
not sdb1 and definitely not sdb1/somethingelse
this is actually explicitly mentioned here https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/live-usb/

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