Install Alternate Ubuntu Image from USB

UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD.

Unfortunately it does not work by default with Alternate Ubuntu Images. In order to make it work:

1. download an alternate image: Ubuntu Alternative Downloads
2. write an image to USB drive using UNetbootin
3. boot from this new USB on the target host
4. select the menu item “Default”
5. DON’T press ENTER
6. press TAB
7. add the “cdrom-detect/try-usb=true” before the “- -”
8. press ENTER

Now it will actually look into USB to install the system rather than looking for CD-ROM or trying the whole OS from the network.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 29th, 2010 at 01:21 and is filed under boot, ubuntu. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

14 comments

  2. Philip
    May 27, 2011 at 21:41

    Thanks for the step-by-step. Works like a champ!

  3. Kylie K
    July 29, 2011 at 15:55

    Just what I needed. Thanks!

  4. zoltan
    August 25, 2011 at 10:25

    Brilliant – I actually made it work! Thanks

  5. Graham
    August 28, 2011 at 12:10

    Perfect! This is just what I need. Thanks for sharing this wonderful step by step guide to us.

  6. palitoschinos
    August 29, 2011 at 23:38

    what do you mean with: before the “- -”

  7. Toly
    September 1, 2011 at 12:18

    @palitoschinos,

    You should see “dash dash” close to the the end of the line.

    /Toly

  8. palitoschinos
    September 4, 2011 at 15:51

    OMG it works!
    I was writing the image on the USB drive using another program thats why I didn’t see the “–”. Sorry.
    Thanks a lot!

  9. alcazar
    February 14, 2012 at 11:05

    Merci ! Fonctionne parfaitement

  10. Carlos Alfaro
    May 30, 2012 at 01:48

    It worked, I created the boot disk with the Universal Usb Installer, Used alternate for Ubuntu 10.04.4, then edited syslinux.cfg

    From
    append file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed initrd=/install/initrd.gz quiet –

    To
    append file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed initrd=/install/initrd.gz quiet cdrom-detect/try-usb=true –

    Thanks a lot

  11. LM
    October 11, 2012 at 07:53

    Yeahhh! It’s realy work!!!

  12. Noor
    October 31, 2012 at 16:17

    Will this work if I make the USB on Windows with Universal USB Installer from pendrivelinux.com? Because I don’t have Ubuntu right now, just winXP, and the desktop-iso doesn’t work (the installer keeps crashing).

  13. Noor
    October 31, 2012 at 16:21

    Sorry, I didn’t read Carlos Alfaro’s post well enough..
    Thanks for the info! Very helpful.

  14. durahman
    February 8, 2013 at 22:58

    Thanks. this is what i’am looking for :)

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