[conspire] Help installing ubuntu? Creating a bootable USB drive

[Rick Moen]

[Hi, Michael.  I see you accepted the invitation to this low-traffic
discussion mailing list.  Welcome.]

Quoting Michael Gray (michaelcgray at gmail.com):

>  I am attempting to install Ubuntu on a windows machine. I downloaded the
> ISO file from the ubuntu site, but can't get it onto a bootable USB drive.
> I downloaded rufus but couldn't run it. I attempted to download unetbootin
> but windows wouldn't let me.

In future, when you are reporting a problem like this, it is incredibly
helpful, and sometimes truly essential, to report the exact symptom with
verbatim wording shown.  (Thus, it's usually necessary to go back and
try again, this time taking contemporaneous notes and transcribing any
error/status messages' wording.)

If we had the error message, we could search on it, and be fairly
confident we were on the right track.  Lacking that text to search for,
we are obliged to _guess_ somewhat about what you encountered, and this
often causes attempts to help you go off the rails, which then is
frustrating for everyone concerned, especially you.

Not intending to complain, but 'won't let me' isn't specific.  Ideally,
you should describe what you did in reasonable detail, a step at a time,
and say exactly what happened that you interpreted as 'won't let me'.

Like, it _could_ have been:

   Exception write during caught:System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception:
   Access denied

but you didn't transcribe it, so we don't know.  Missed opportunity,
y'see.  But no worries.


Anyway:

1.  Please make very sure that any background antivirus program is turned off.
    (Or, basically, any security-role file that might try to protect
    you by interfering with attempts to overwrite disks.)
2.  Before attempting to write the ISO95660 file to any bootable media,
    please check the file to make sure it is not corrupted, e.g., using 
    the md5sum program.  
3.  Please close all Windows Explorer (etc.) file-brower windows, in case
    they are locking the target device.  You can have them open when
    you open the device-writing software (e.g., unetbootin), but should
    close such windows before trying to use the writing software to 
    actually overwrite a target device. 
4.  You will need to be logged into MS-Windows using a login account
    with 'local Administrator' rights.  _Or_, launch unetbootin
    by right-clicking on it and selecting 'Run as Administrator',
    which amounts to the same thing.

Here is a page on the Arch Linux wiki that's all about how to do this
task under MS-Windows.  In that case, they're talking about writing
an 'ISO' (an ISO9660 file) of specifically Arch Linux to bootable media, 
but the tips are applicable to any ISO file at all, not just Arch Linux.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_flash_installation_media#In_Windows

> My ultimate goal is to run ubuntu, and creating a bootable usb drive is
> just a means to that end. If there's a better way to get ubuntu up and
> running, I am open to it. Any suggestions?

Seems like an excellent plan.  I'll hope that other subscribers also 
speak up!

(Among other things, I'm actually not the right guy to talk about how to
do this under Windows.)