Comments on: Solving Ubuntu USB Disk Install Error

By: Joel Kaartinen

Joel Kaartinen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:15:44 +0000

I’d suggest trying to repartition the stick by wiping the partition table clean and then trying again. My attempts failed until I tried this trick myself. The factory built partition was somehow incompatible with the boot system.

By: maremma carrettera

maremma carrettera — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:04:41 +0000

Hi,

I still get “Invalid or damaged Bootable partition”.

Host Linux: Ubuntu 8.10 x86
ISO image: Ubuntu 9.10 x86
USB Key: silicon power 2Gb
Computer: Fujitsu Siemens tablet PC without CD/DVD drive

I was able to boot an old Knoppix off a 4Gb USB pendrive.

The create USB startup drive from Ubuntu 8.10 apparently sets the correct “LBA” flag, but I get that boot error both with and without LBA flag set on the active “boot” partition.

Any clues?
Thank you!

n.b.: mine is just curiosity. I am able to boot an Ubuntu 9.10 x86 installation off PXE (DHCP+TFTP) server.

By: [ubuntu on my asus f2je - pre_installation] « capricornday’s Blog

[ubuntu on my asus f2je - pre_installation] « capricornday’s Blog — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:32:11 +0000

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By: Ankur

Ankur — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:29:40 +0000

I suggest that you file this as a bug in Launcpad. Include the output you gave here along with the repeat error after using apt-get autoremove.

By: Inane_Asylum

Inane_Asylum — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:24:09 +0000

Tried it, and it removed only one of the kernel packages, and gave the error message at the end.

By: Ankur

Ankur — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:00:09 +0000

Did you try ‘sudo apt-get autoremove’? See if that solves the issue.

By: Inane_Asylum

Inane_Asylum — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:40:54 +0000

Any package. It even shows up when you install a program through apt:

andrew@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install cowsay
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-2.6.27-7 linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic
Use ‘apt-get autoremove’ to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
cowsay
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 18.4kB of archives.
After this operation, 279kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe cowsay 3.03-9.1 [18.4kB]
Fetched 18.4kB in 0s (28.0kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package cowsay.
(Reading database … 124921 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking cowsay (from …/cowsay_3.03-9.1_all.deb) …
Processing triggers for man-db …
Setting up linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic (2.6.27-7.16) …
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
Failed to symbolic-link boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic to initrd.img.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic (–configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 17
Setting up cowsay (3.03-9.1) …
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
andrew@ubuntu:~$

By: Ankur

Ankur — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:01:47 +0000

So this is specifically for a kernel upgrade, or does it happen if you upgrade any package?

By: Inane_Asylum

Inane_Asylum — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:14:44 +0000

This is what it shows when doing an ‘apt-get upgrade’:

Setting up linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic (2.6.27-7.16) …
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
Failed to symbolic-link boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic to initrd.img.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic (–configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 17

[snip]

ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

From what I’ve read, it’s because the persistent USB installation is still considered a “LiveCD” session, so the kernel can’t be upgraded. I’ve seen a few workarounds for this issue, but none of them have worked for me. But, like I said, I haven’t had any problems resulting from this issue.

By: Ankur

Ankur — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:17:05 +0000

Hmm, haven’t really checked that.