Contents • • • • UNetbootin (Automated, graphical approach) can be used to automate the process of extracting the Ubuntu ISO file to USB, and making the USB drive bootable. The resulting USB drive, however, can be booted on PCs only. If attempting to make a USB drive that can be booted from a Mac, follow the instructions below. Manual Approach We would encourage Mac users to download Ubuntu Desktop Edition by burning a CD for the time being. But if you would prefer to use a USB, please follow the instructions below.

Note: this procedure requires an.img file that you will be required to create from the.iso file you download. TIP: Drag and Drop a file from Finder to Terminal to 'paste' the full path without typing and risking type errors. • Download the desired file • Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities/ or query Terminal in Spotlight) • Convert the.iso file to.img using the convert option of hdiutil hdiutil convert /path/to/ubuntu.iso -format UDRW -o /path/to/target.img • Note: OS X tends to put the.dmg ending on the output file automatically. • Run diskutil list to get the current list of devices • Insert your flash media • Run diskutil list again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g. /dev/disk2) • Run diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN (replace N with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, N would be 2) • If you see the error 'Unmount of diskN failed: at least one volume could not be unmounted', start Disk Utility.app and unmount the volume (don't eject). • Execute sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m (replace /path/to/downloaded.img with the path where the image file is located; for example,./ubuntu.img or./ubuntu.dmg).

• Using /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk may be faster. • If you see the error dd: Invalid number '1m', you are using GNU dd. Use the same command but replace bs=1m with bs=1M. • If you see the error dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy, make sure the disk is not in use. Start Disk Utility.app and unmount the volume (don't eject).

• Run diskutil eject /dev/diskN and remove your flash media when the command completes • Restart your Mac and press alt while the Mac is restarting to choose the USB-Stick MacBook Air 3,2 Please notice: While all of the info and above commands are executed properly on a Air 3,2 (that is the 2010 version 13' version of the Air) the end result will not produce a bootable USB device, at least not with the image for Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit. When booting of the USB device the following message or something similar will appear: 'Missing operating system' and the process is auto-magically halted. To get the USB device (e.g. A USB stick) to show up at all in the boot menu you also may have to reboot/turn on/off the computer a couple of times and also resync the partition tables using rEFIt. After doing this the USB should then appear as a bootable device while holding in the alt or c key when you are rebooting the computer.

All three binary distributions can be used to install rEFIt on a USB memory stick or other disk drives. REFIt 0.14 (6.5M Mac disk image) rEFIt 0.14.

Notice that both the computers built in bootloader and rEFIt will identify the USB device as a Windows device, but that's not a problem and expected. A workaround to the-usb-device-is-not-booting-problem is to: • Install rEFIt. • Create a bootable start disk using Ubuntu and a USB stick. • Create a separate partition on the Airs HD. • dd the whole USB stick to that partition. • Resync with rEFIt. Turn power off and on.

• Select Pingo/Windows logo: Install should start. (Here you might want to press F6 to change parameters, e.g. Use nomodeset) Alternatively, burning a CD and installing via an external CD-drive will work fine on the Macbook Air 3,2.

Other procedure (Moved from ) We would encourage Mac users to download Ubuntu Desktop Edition by burning a CD for the time being. But if you would prefer to use a USB, please follow the instructions below. Note: this procedure requires an.img file that you will be required to create from the.iso file you download. TIP: Drag and Drop a file from Finder to Terminal to 'paste' the full path without typing and risking type errors.

• Download the desired file • Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities/ or query Terminal in Spotlight) • Convert the.iso file to.img using the convert option of hdiutil (e.g., hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/ubuntu.iso) Note: OS X tends to put the.dmg ending on the output file automatically. • Run diskutil list to get the current list of devices • Insert your flash media • Run diskutil list again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g., /dev/disk2) • Run diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN (replace N with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, N would be 2) • Execute sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m (replace /path/to/downloaded.img with the path where the image file is located; for example,./ubuntu.img or./ubuntu.dmg). • Using /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk may be faster. • If you see the error dd: Invalid number '1m', you are using GNU dd.

Use the same command but replace bs=1m with bs=1M. • If you see the error dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy, make sure the disk is not in use.

Start the 'Disk Utility.app' and unmount (don't eject) the drive. • Run diskutil eject /dev/diskN and remove your flash media when the command completes • Restart your Mac and press Alt while the Mac is restarting to choose the USB-Stick.

Advertisement I just let myself be lured into buying a Netbook for my daughter. It was a good deal actually and I love the machine. The only problem is that it came with no OS and no optical disc drive (it has two USB ports, though). The only option to get it up and running – without the need to buy (or borrow) an external optical drive – is to install the OS via a USB thumb drive. Armed with my faithful MacBook, an internet connection, and a 2GB USB flash disk; I set out on an adventure to bring my daughter’s future netbook alive. Deciding on the OS It didn’t take long for me to decide to install on the netbook.

Free would be the first reason and familiarity is the second. I’ve tried Ubuntu before and I have the installation CD with me. As naive as it sounds, some people still think that you can just copy and paste the content of the CD to the USB drive and boot the machine with it. That’s why my first quest is to find out how to transfer the installation ability of the CD to USB as a portable Ubuntu installer – the Mac way of course.

The search ended up with an unexpectedly different result. I found something more interesting: there is a netbook version of Ubuntu called (UNR for short) which is designed for the small screen and Intel Atom processor (as most netbooks are). The minimum requirement is 384MB of RAM. So I choose the nearest download location for me and hit the 'Begin Download' button. A Bug. Note: If you are wondering whether your netbook is compatible, you can check their, but in general, it should work with most netbook models. Mine is not listed but I’ve discovered no problem so far.

Creating the Portable Ubuntu USB installer The Ubuntu site has a page describing. Basically, you have to get an.IMG version of the Ubuntu installer (UNR is already in IMG format), and then convert it to the USB drive.

Windows users have the luxury of an easy GUI way of converting the IMG with the help of. Ubuntu users has their own Ubuntu ImageWriter. But Mac users and other Linux users have to bear with the geeky command lines method. The first thing to do to create the portable Ubuntu USB installer using Mac’s Terminal command line is to make the process easier by moving the UNR installer file to the highest position of the folder structure and then changing the name to something shorter like 'unr.img' (sans quote). Don’t forget to make sure that there’s no USB drive plugged. Then follow these steps. • Type: diskutil list in the Terminal and hit Enter • Plug in your USB flash disk and repeat step 1 • Compare the result and you’ll have the device node assigned to your flash media.

Usually something like ' /dev/disk2' (sans quote) • Type: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN in the Terminal and hit Enter. You’ll have to replace the /dev/diskN with the device node that you got from step 3. From the picture above you can see that the device node assigned for my USB flash drive is ' /dev/disk1' (sans quote) • Type: sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m in the Terminal and hit Enter. But there are several things that you have to change here before you hit Enter: – first the /path/to/downloaded.img is the location of the downloaded UNR installer file. As we’ve already taken care of this before, all you’ve got to do is to change the string into /unr.img – second, the /dev/diskN is the device node which is the same as step 4 – and the last, if you see the error line: dd: Invalid number ‘1m’then you need to change the bs=1m into bs=1M (notice the capital ‘M’) • Write your password, hit enter, and wait until the process is finished.

Please be warned that all the data in the USB drive will be lost. • Type: diskutil eject /dev/diskN i n the Terminal and hit Enter. • Unplug your USB drive. Installing UNR in the Netbook We now come to the climax of the story.

I plug the USB drive into the Netbook’s USB port and start the machine. During the booting process, I press the F10 button to go into the booting option, choose to boot from the USB drive, and.the prince and princess live happily ever after. Every manufacturer might have different settings for this booting menu, so please refer to your machine’s documentation.

Another option is to look carefully at the bottom left part of the screen during the beginning of the booting process because usually the booting instructions are written there. Now the netbook is alive and well, running UNR while my daughter has to continuously ‘compete’ with his father – yours truly – to use the tiny machine.:) As for me, I am now addicted to the concept of a USB Drive as the OS installation method and will surely try to find out more about it.