Make a USB Boot CD for Ubuntu

Make a USB Boot CD 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

Making a USB Boot CD to Boot Ubuntu from a Flash Drive

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.

    1. Insert your Bootable Ubuntu Live USB (or Ubuntu CD) and restart your computer, booting from the CD or USB
    2. Open a Terminal
    3. Type sudo apt-get update
    4. Type sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-current grub
    5. Type mkdir -p ubcd/boot/grub
    6. Type cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito ubcd/boot/grub
    7. Type gedit ubcd/boot/grub/menu.lst
      Add the following information to your menu.lst file and click save:

(red text is to all be one line)

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
  1. Type cp /cdrom/casper/vmlinuz ~/ubcd/boot
  2. 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
  3. Type sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
    Add the following line to the bottom of the file and click save:WAIT=8
  4. Type sudo mkinitramfs -o ubcd/boot/initrd.lz
  5. Type mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o usbcd.iso ubcd
  6. Insert a blank CD and type brasero -i usbcd.iso (to burn the usbcd.iso to a CD)