Ubuntu installation from image file

1. Download the desired .img file
2. Install the usb-imagewriter package

   • If your release does not include this, download it from

   • If imagewriter fails to launch, you may need to install python glade2 support. Install the python-glade2 package or Run sudo apt-get install python-glade2

   • If your release does not include it and you are running 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope then run this command from the console:

     • sudo apt-get install usb-imagewriter

3. Open Applications -> Accessories -> Image Writer

   • KDE users will find this in Applications -> Utilities -> Image Writer

   • from the command line, from the console:

     • sudo imagewriter

   • on some usb-imagewriter versions (console command: imagewriter) the application fails to write if the image path contains blank spaces, exiting with ": list index out of range".

4. Insert your flash media
5. Select the downloaded file and flash device, and click "Write to Device"
6. Remove your device when the operation is complete

Command Line Interface

Be very careful about which /dev device you write to. If your machine is booted up off of disk /dev/sda, and your usb stick is on /dev/sdc, and you accidentally write to /dev/sda instead of /dev/sdc, your filesystem will be irreparably damaged and you will lose all of your files.

1. Download the desired .img file
2. Open a terminal and insert your flash media

3. Look at the output of sudo dmesg | tail -20 to determine the device node assigned to your flash media (ignore the device number; e.g. /dev/sdc, not sdc1)

   • Example output of dmesg, where the device node is 'sdc':

   • [ 5046.396364] usb-storage: device scan complete

   • [ 5046.397075] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access USB Flash Memory 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS

   • [ 5047.068761] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00

   • [ 5047.068769] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through

   • [ 5047.075021]  sdc: sdc1

   • [ 5047.076459] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

4. Run sudo umount /dev/devicenode

5. Run sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/devicenode bs=1M

6. Remove your flash media when the command completes (you may need to wait a few extra seconds for it to finish)