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I'm trying to create a bootable USB stick (7.5G) for Ubuntu 12.04 (x86_64) from another Ubuntu 12.04 x86_64 PC.

I downloaded the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425).

When I run Make Startup Disk, I selected the downloaded release. The drive shows up with a capacity of 7.5GB and a blank space under "Free Space". I have tried using the "Erase Disk" button, which seems to erase the disk.

The problem is that the options below the "Disk to use" section are grayed out. The "Make Startup Disk" is colored dull orange, while the source disc image and device to use are bright orange. The "Make Startup Disk" button doesn't do anything when I click it. The only working buttons are "Other...", "Erase Disk", and "Close".

Upon using Other button to select the ISO, it allows to select the ISO but it doesn't load and the "Source Disk Image" field remains empty.

enter image description here

ish
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Chelmite
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  • Another user reported having the same problem. Their comment on the issue: 1) stupid erase button. 2) Created drive does not work. 3) iso selector broken – Seth Feb 09 '13 at 23:43
  • To me, this sounds like a bug in Startup Disk Creator. – Seth Feb 09 '13 at 23:45
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    It's sep 2013 and I still can't use Ubuntu's Startup disk creator; the created disk doesn't work. It's very embarrassing to have to switch to windows from Ubuntu, in order to create a startup USB for Ubuntu... – enobayram Sep 03 '13 at 18:21
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    Formatting the USB thumb drive as vfat solved the problem for me. (Not enough reputation on this site to post an answer.) Used fdisk to set partition type to 'e' then used mkfs.vfat to format the USB drive. Problems stopped. – David Poole Nov 04 '14 at 14:20
  • Also usb-creator-gtk writes a log file to ~/.cache/usb-creator.log Use tail -f ~/.cache/usb-creator.log to watch the program's debug messages. – David Poole Nov 04 '14 at 14:23
  • God damn, i was using NTFS format USB stick. Unforunately Startup Disk creator looks for FAT file system. Use FAT format. It should work. – EngineSense Feb 25 '17 at 14:11
  • 19.10 Ubuntu' Startup Disk Creator still has problems, using UNetbootin instead – ses May 30 '20 at 21:57

5 Answers5

24

There is a alternative way to make StartUPdisk

You need to install UNetbootin. Go to software center and search for it. Then install....

Run it.....from application

You will see this window

enter image description here

  • Click on Diskimage.
  • Select iso.
  • Give 3 GB of space in Space used..... Then select your USB Drive from dropdown menu. Click ok. And wait until finished. Hope it helps.
Kaktarua
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    This worked for me. Just a note: with my USB 2.0 thumbdrive, the whole process took 30 minutes while sometime the GUI hung, but went well in the end. – IsaacS Aug 19 '14 at 10:41
  • Another alternative is the default Disks utility. Select the device, select the volume, select More Actions (the gears icon), select Restore Disk Image... - no other apps needed! – steevee Feb 24 '16 at 09:55
17

I had similar problems on 12.04LTS. My workaround was to launch usb-creator-gtk from the Terminal cli:

  • open the Terminal application
  • run sudo usb-creator-gtk at the prompt
  • inster your login password (I assume you are the admin;) )
  • the Startup Disk Creator gui should appear
  • try to erase/create the startup disk you need
Ionică Bizău
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lokutus25
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    This worked for me, but still wasn't straightforward. Here's what happend. When I opened the program as directed, it only showed my USB stick as a target, but the "Make startup disk" button was greyed out. I clicked "Erase" on the target disk, which worked, but then the only target available was another disk. I had to close and then re-run "sudo usb-creator-gtk" again, and then the "Make startup disk" button was clickable for my USB stick drive. – Tyler Collier Jan 02 '16 at 18:23
  • This method works even on Ubuntu 20.04. Surprised it has not been fixed even after so many years. – 100rabh Sep 28 '21 at 13:46
  • In case of Lubuntu, it is usb-creator-kde. – adnanmuttaleb Aug 01 '22 at 17:03
5

Free up your Pen-drive by using Erase Disk button. After finish, there will be an option to set the space that will be used on your pen-drive.

Open Startup Disk Creator

Open Startup Disk Creator

Select Pen-Drive and click Erase button

enter image description here

Click Yes when prompt

enter image description here

Put your password

enter image description here

Wait a lil bit and you will get an option to adjust the extra space.

enter image description here

If it still doesn't work, remove your Pen-Drive and reboot your system.

Chelmite
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penreturns
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1

I need to test this again but I think if your usb drive isn't configured as "bootable" you'll see this. I could be wrong.

Run Disk Utility and mark partition as bootable.

ekeyser
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0

I had alike issue (making win 7 bootable stick from Ubuntu 12.04). After a memory stick was erased "Free space" was showing 0 bytes.

What I did to solve the problem is just opened Nautilus window and clicked on memory stick icon (left panel) to mount it. After that "Make startup disk" button became enabled.

humkins
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