Ubuntu

USB flash drive install fails with "No common CD-ROM drive was detected"

Asked by Aronson

I am trying to perform a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.04 server with a USB flash drive onto a PC without a CD-ROM drive. I have put the ubuntu-9.04-server-i386.iso file onto the usb flash drive with unetbootin-windows-241 software. I installed the USB drive into the PC and booted from it. The installation process starts with the installer boot menu, I select "Install Ubuntu Server", go through the language and country dialogs, select the keyboard layout, and then the install stops with "No common CD-ROM drive was detected.". As this PC does not have a CD-ROM drive, I could use some guidance on how to work around this issue.

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Cristi Nistor (cristi-nistor) said : 		#1

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

Have you read this?

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Aronson (rhchemail-099) said : 		#2

I originally used the link you suggested to learn about the UNetBootin method and I followed the proceedure under "Other extenal methods" - Unetbootin. This allowed me to create a USB drive that can start the install process but as I mentioned, the install process seems to require a CD-ROM drive which I don't have on this PC.

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Cristi Nistor (cristi-nistor) said : 		#3

Is your USB storage device formatted as fat16?

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Aronson (rhchemail-099) said : 		#4

It didn't seem to make a difference if the USB device was fat16 or fat32. Thanks for the suggestion. I have given up with the USB approach and have pulled a CD drive out of an old PC and temporarily attached it to my PC to do an install from CD.