USB memory stick question

[Phil]

On 04/23/2014 06:15 AM, Martin Cigorraga wrote:
> On 04/22/2014 03:05 AM, Phil wrote:
>> Thank you for reading this.
>>
>> I have an old Toshiba A100 laptop that will boot from and old Panram
>> 256 MB USB stick, no problem so far.
>>
>> I bought a Verbatim 8 GB USB stick today and the A100 laptop will not
>> boot from it. Same .iso file copied to both sticks with Unetbootin and
>> both formatted to FAT 32 with GParted.
>>
>> The Verbatim USB stick is readable in the A100 laptop but it will not
>> boot from it.
>>

<cut>

>
> AFAIK you can just simple dd Ubuntu .iso straight:
> 1. Plug you USB as usual
> 2. Unmount it from CLI, not from Nautilus: $ sudo umount
> /media/YOUR_USER_NAME/PENDRIVE_NAME.
> Usually it goes like (in my case): $ sudo umount /media/msx/pendrive
> Note that when at a CLI you can use the TAB key to autocomplete commands.
> 3. Make sure your pendrive is formatted to VFAT for better
> compatibility: $ sudo mkfs.vfat YOUR_PENDRIVE -I , usually /dev/sdb on
> most laptops and desktop systems.
> To be extra sure usr $ lsblk to list all your block devices. -I will
> instruct mkfs to format the whole pendrive instead just a partition.
> 4. Transfer the .iso to the pendrive: $ sudo dd if=NAME_OF_ISO_FILE
> of=/dev/sdb (or whatever your system points the pendrive to)
> 5. Reboot. This should work with every *buntu .iso, at least it does
> work here.
>

Thanks for your detailed reply Martin,

The core of the problem is that my elderly laptop will boot from an 
elderly 256 MB USB stick but not from a modern 8 GB USB stick. I will 
try your suggestion regarding mkfs.vfat instead of FAT 32 and using dd 
to copy the .iso file although I did try dd initially but the laptop 
would not boot from either USB stick until I used Unetbootin.

I'll report back if it works.

-- 
Regards,
Phil