Cannot boot from CD or external USB

[Colin Law]

On 26 August 2014 12:03, Thomas Blasejewicz <thomas at s7.dion.ne.jp> wrote:
>
> (2014/08/23 15:57), Colin Law wrote:
>>
>> On 08/22/2014 04:06 AM, Thomas Blasejewicz wrote: ...
>>>>>
>>>>> You can install from ISO:
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot>
>>>>> Easy way to boot to 14.04 from ISO is to use grml-rescueboot:
>>>>> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot#grml-rescueboot>
>>>>> after following the grml instructions, downloading and placing the
>>>>> 14.04
>>>>> ISO in /boot/grml & 'sudo update-grub' reboot and you'll see the 14.04
>>>>> grub menu entry that you can boot into.
>>>>>
>>>>> (I will try with a Windows CD tomorrow (I guess I still have one
>>>>> somewhere)
>>>>> Regarding Mr. Kassube's suggestion: when I try to upgrade to 14.04 the
>>>>> computer tells me, my current graphic card or something are
>>>>> not really suited for the new version and I am advised to stay with
>>>>> 12.04.
>>>>> That (the old hardware) is precisely why I wanted to try something
>>>>> lighter,
>>>>> like Lubuntu. So, upgrade does not work.
>
> Old Windows CDs do not work either.

In that case your computer is broken, or you have still not got the
BIOS setup correctly.

>
>> Install lubuntu-desktop first and check that works.  Then upgrade to
>> 14.04 and you can boot into lubuntu.  However it is probably not a
>> good idea to upgrade without checking that the machine runs on lubuntu
>> 14.04 first, so you still need to work out what is broken.
>>
>> Colin
>>
> I tried to fumble around with that "ISOBoot"  thing and after A LOT of trial
> and error I "somehow" managed to
> install this Grub2 thing and can call up (sometimes) a "grml" screen,
> offering the option of installing Lubuntu.
>
> I tried that - MANY times - and always failed.
> There are three options during the installation process, ALL of which end
> with an error message,
> telling me something like "installer cannot unmount xxx point" -> /isodevice
> At that point I can neither "continue" nor "go back". The computer is
> frozen.
> I have also absolutely no idea how I am supposed "unmount" this something;
> there are no "buttons", no options, a terminal cannot be called up ...
> everything is dead.
> Would this work, if I unmount the isodevice BEFORE trying to install. Sounds
> paradoxical to me.

I can't help there, I have never tried that.

>
> I also made a "bootable" flash drive.
> Which, naturally, does not boot. I tried on 4 computers (2 Windows, 2 linux)

I think it will not boot on the machine of interest as, if I remember
correctly, boot from USB was not one of the options in the boot order.
So even if you worked out how to change the boot order in the BIOS you
will not be able to boot from USB on that machine.

> On the Windows machines, however, clicking on that "wubi.exe" icon starts
> the drive and asks whether I want to install.
> Does not work under Linux.

Wubi is only for installing linux as an application inside windows,
which is not what you want to do.

>
> WHY for heavens sake can't there be anything as simple as clicking on some
> icon in Linux?
>
> As for the flash drive ... if there actually ***IS*** a way to boot from
> that thing, I would very much like to how that can be achieved.

Why you cannot boot from it on other machines I don't know.  Did you
set the boot order on them to boot from USB?  What application did you
use to burn the image?

>
> From reading on the instructions pertaining to those flash drives, I was
> under the impression, that you can create you own personal
> Linux OS (plus maybe some personal folders), take it with you, jab it into
> any computer be ready to work in that private environment of yours ...

Again that assumes that you have a machine that is capable of booting
from USB and that you have told to boot from USB.

Colin