Make a USB Boot CD for Ubuntu that can be used to boot your Ubuntu Live USB flash drive from a PC or Mac with a BIOS that doesn't natively support booting from USB devices. (the USB drivers are loaded from CD). I used a MacBook Pro to test this tutorial. This process replaces our older USB Boot CD for Ubuntu tutorial, with new requirements added to make it work with later versions.
A boot menu option has been included for booting from a MacBook (forcing bypass of the Nouveau Nvidia drivers, which do not play well with a MacBook.).
Prerequisites to make a USB Boot CD for Ubuntu
- PC or MacBook that can Boot from a Live CD
- USB flash drive with Ubuntu preinstalled
- Working CD Burner and USB Port
- Active Internet Connection
How to make a USB Boot CD for Ubuntu
Note: I prefer to perform the following steps by booting from a prebuilt Live Ubuntu flash drive created using UUI, using a machine that does support booting from USB. This allows us to free up the CD Burner and use it to burn the final ISO.
- Insert your Bootable Ubuntu Live USB (or Ubuntu CD) and restart your computer, booting from the CD or USB
- Open a Terminal, and type or copy each of the following lines:
- To update, type:
sudo apt-get update
- To install nvidia and grub:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-current grub
- To make a temporary working path:
mkdir -p ubcd/boot/grub
- To add the necessary ISO/CD boot files:
cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito ubcd/boot/grub
- To open grub menu for editing:
gedit ubcd/boot/grub/menu.lst
Add the following information to your menu.lst file and click save:
title Start Ubuntu from USB DISK (MACBOOK)
root (cd)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent nouveau.noaccel=1 blacklist=vga16fb
initrd /boot/initrd.lz
boot
title Start Ubuntu from USB DISK (PC)
root (cd)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent
initrd /boot/initrd.lz
boot
- Then to copy vmlinuz to the temporary direcxtory, type:
cp /cdrom/casper/vmlinuz ~/ubcd/boot
- To edit the modules file, type:
sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
Add the following lines to the modules file and click save:
usbcore usb-storage uhci_hcd ohci_hcd ehci_hcd sd_mod scsi_mod
- Type the following to open and begin editing initramfs.conf
sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
- Add the following line to the bottom of the file and click save:
WAIT=8
- Then to rebuild initramfs, type:
sudo mkinitramfs -o ubcd/boot/initrd.lz
- Finally, to make a new Ubuntu ISO, type:
mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o usbcd.iso ubcd
- Insert a blank CD and type brasero -i usbcd.iso (to burn the usbcd.iso to a CD)