[bmcclure937]

I am attempting to install XBMC Live via a USB flash drive. I do not have a CD (or any optical) drive in my HTPC. I am planning to run without an optical drive and use my HTPC for the sole purpose of streaming media from my NAS.

My problem is being unable to boot to the USB flash drive after using 'dd' to write the ISO to the drive. I have found that this is probably not the best approach.

Can someone advise me on the best way to install XBMC from a USB flash drive? I would like to boot directly to my USB and then be able to use it as an install medium to install XBMC to my internal target disc!

[Uuaww]

download live onto your desktop and use: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ to mount it on the usb drive. press f12 from the menu and boot from USB.

[bmcclure937]

sorry, I should have specified that I am attempting to create the USB Install Drive from a Mac. Does anyone know how to write an ISO to a USB drive so I can boot from the USB to install Live?!

Thank You! (I have researched methods and also tried using 'dd')

[bmcclure937]

*BUMP* : can anyone advise me on how to create a USB Flash drive from the XBMC ISO so I can boot to the USB and install XBMC Live on my internal drive?!

I am on a Mac. Thanks!

[bmcclure937]

For the record, I have done the following without success. These are the same basic steps I have taken from the very beginning. I am not sure if my mobo is having issues booting from USB or if it is the USB I created having problems.



My next step will be trying the USB on another machine!

[Uuaww]

Ok well, I only own a mac and my revo which runs linux. I am going to tell you now, it is damn near impossible to create a bootable usb drive with a mac. I tried everything for days without success. It is 100x easier just to borrow someones pc and do it.

sorry, thats what I resorted to.

[FishOil]

Boot the LIVE version of XBMC on a computer with a CD Drive and use the bootable disk wizzard to create a proper USB installable USB drive.

You're spinning your wheels with anything else.

[vikjon0]

Boot the liveCD and do
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=80049

For the moment I can't recal if current mac's can boot i386, if not boot it in a virtual machine.

(For the record, you are required to read the stickies and search the forum before posting and you are not expected to bump after 5hours)

[Taravel]

I don't know if ubuntu can read MacOS partition but you can start a ubuntu live CD and than you can use the ubuntu tool under System->Administration->startup disk creator than select the iso and the usb key and wait some minutes. If you can't read mac os partition you can put the iso in another usb key or download iso in live session.

[bmcclure937]

Thank you for all of the suggestions! For the record, I do not think I bumped before 5 hours. I did search the forums and read stickies and did not find any information on the forms regarding my topic (specifically - creating a USB Install Drive using a Mac). On top of that, I did not even turn to the forums for help before attempting a couple approaches to creating a bootable USB Install Drive from my Mac.

I will move forward with some of the suggestions. I am going to try a Ubuntu VM first. If I cannot successfully create a USB from Ubuntu 10.10 then I will go ahead and use XBMC Live (as a VM) and try to create a USB from there.

If those options fail I will boot a Live CD to a real PC (not virtual).

Thanks!

[bmcclure937]

Progress Update

1. Ubuntu 10.10 Virtual Machine -- FAILED [I/O error]
   
2. XBMC Live CD using Bootable Disk Wizard (under Programs) -- FAILED [did not recognize 2 USB drives]
   
3. Windows - UNetbootin in Progress (SUCCESS)
   

Wouldn't this be a lot easier if an IMG files was also provided along with ISO downloads? This way, people could write the IMG directly to a USB drive! I feel like I am jumping through so many hoops, and it makes me feel foolish. Especially because I have never had these kinds of issues installing Linux distros, FreeNAS, other OSes, etc. I can normally navigate these sorts of things myself... not sure what is giving me fits!

I might have to just cave in a put a CD drive in my HTPC to install the system. That is disappointing, because I assume I would have to do that every time I upgrade too... lame!

[bmcclure937]

Alright! I finally got a bootable USB Install Drive setup. I had to resort to using UNetbootIn on Windows. I did not try UNetbootin on Ubuntu (although I could have).

I had Windows and Linux VMs available to try the different options. Once the USB was created with UNetbootin, booting from the USB was seamless and I was unstalling XBMC!

Side Note: I still think it would make sense and be convenient to have other options to create a USB Install Drive. The built-in add-on functionality is a good idea, in concept, but it defeats the purpose. The entire purpose of creating a USB Install Drive is so you do not have to burn a CD and boot using a CD (or any optical) drive. So needing to burn a Live CD to go into the utility to attempt making a USB defeats the whole purpose... IMO. Yes, it eliminates needing the CD drive in the HTPC but it still requires burning a CD.


Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I greatly appreciate it and hope this thread may be useful to others down the road who are struggling with my same issues. I also hope in the future there will be an easy way to upgrade via an IMG file loaded through XBMC or to write an IMG file to a USB!

[bmcclure937]

Now I am experiencing issues when booting. I have XBMC Live Dharma installed to my internal HDD... when I boot it will show the XBMC load screen with the 5 grey dots. Then it goes to a username/password prompt.

From there, nothing happens. I can type 'startx' into the command prompt but get errors. The hardware I am using in my build is in my signature. I should not have any compatibility issues.

What gives?!

*EDIT*: this was an nVidia driver issue. I simply chose to go with XBMCFreak because it includes the latest nVidia drivers for my GT430 and the latest Linux kernel. Problem solved.