linux - Burning Lubuntu to Dell PC
2014-07
I have an old Dell PC Dimension 8200 that I'm trying to install Lubuntu on. I'm burning the ISO image on a Mac 10.6 using Disk Utility, but when I try to boot it on the Dell, it doesn't recognize the disc. I have an old version of Ubuntu that works fine. My experimentation has led me to a few questions:
- When downloading an ISO on a Mac to go on a PC, do I select the Mac or PC version of the ISO?
- After Disk Utility says "The disk has been burned successfully burned", when I reinsert it into my Mac, I get an error saying "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." Then it ejects it. Why might that be?
- Are there any other steps I might be missing?
I'd be happy to provide more information, I'm just not really sure where to begin right now.
UPDATE: So I booted a lubuntu install CD in another PC and it worked fine. The Dell seems to accept the Ubuntu 10.04 install CD fine but doesn't know what to do with Lubuntu 14.04. Weird. If anyone has the answer why I'd love to know.
For running burned disc on your Dell machine you should download Ubuntu 32 bit, not mac.
what's the best way to get an ISO "burned" to a USB stick on a Mac? Restoring using Disk Utility does not work.
The ISO is ubuntu mini.iso. It is the minimalist install ISO for installing ubuntu. It needs to be bootable on a PC. I am trying to install ubuntu on a PC that has no CD-ROM. The only other computer I have around is a macbook.
Directly from the Ubuntu download page (my formatting):
- Download the desired file
- Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities/ or query Terminal in Spotlight)
- Convert the .iso file to .img using the convert option of hdiutil (e.g.,
hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/ubuntu.iso
) - Note: OS X tends to put the .dmg ending on the output file automatically. Remove the .dmg extension as necessary,
mv ~/path/to/target.img{.dmg,}
- Run
diskutil list
to get the current list of devices - Insert your flash media
- Run
diskutil list
again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g./dev/disk2
) - Run
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN
(replaceN
with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example,N
would be 2) - Execute
sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m
(replace/path/to/downloaded.img
with the path where the image file is located; for example,./ubuntu.img
or./ubuntu.dmg
). - Using
/dev/rdisk
instead of/dev/disk
may be faster.- If you see the error
dd: Invalid number '1m'
, you are using GNUdd
. Use the same command but replacebs=1m
withbs=1M
. - If you see the error
dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy
, make sure the disk is not in use. Start the 'Disk Utility.app' and unmount (don't eject) the drive.
- If you see the error
- Run
diskutil eject /dev/diskN
and remove your flash media when the command completes - Restart your Mac and hold down Alt while the Mac is restarting to choose the USB stick
Note: On newer Macs you might have to install an EFI boot manager to boot from USB.
I had a very similar problem that none of these answered.
It's worth checking out UNetbootin. It will create a bootable USB disk on a Mac for a PC.
- Ensure the USB Key is properly formatted (Master Boot Record, FAT32 - if necessary NTFS using NTFS-3G)
- You can try using the Restore feature in Disk Utility by clicking on the USB key's volume, then clicking on the Restore tab and choosing the ISO to restore onto it.
- If step 2 fails, you can do this manually by running
ditto
orcp -r
; eg.ditto /Volumes/NAME_OF_MOUNTED_ISO /Volumes/NAME_OF_USB_KEY
orcp -r /Volumes/NAME_OF_MOUNTED_ISO /Volumes/NAME_OF_USB_KEY
to manually copy all the files (including hidden ones)
I've user SuperDuper for this task before. It does the job and not much else. Like a good program should :-) The full version is not free ($30) but you get what you need for free:
You can download SuperDuper! v2.6.2 right now and back up and clone your drives for free— forever!
The way to do this using DiskUtility is to first format the drive using Diskutility and then copy over the files from the mounted iso to the newly formated drive using cp -R. Ex: cp -R /Volumes/mounted_iso/* /Volumes/formated_drive/
When formatting be sure to pick the ntfs file system and make the disk bootable by picking the correct option from the Options menu in the erase tab.
You do need the boot sectors, copying like this will work with some apps but not with a Windows ISO essential files cannot be copied, the image needs converting. ISO and IMG are different animals.
There is no need to convert the ISO to an IMG. I wasn't willing to convert an image first. This has easier steps, outlined below.
Start by listing the current disks and volumes:
diskutil list
Now unmount the current volume for the disk you are about to overwrite. (X = Drive number, in my case was 1):
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
Now dd the iso directly to the usb:
sudo dd if=/pathto/mini.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m
Done!