Fork and add 'USB Image Writer' and 'USB Formatter' in the next UbuntuMATE

Development Discussion
#21

Martin, i think I’ve figured out what the problem was. The path to my linux iso was:

/media/stephen/Store1/software/Linux distros/ubuntu-mate-14.04.1-final-desktop-amd64.iso

I saw that there was a space between “linux” and “distros” in the path and changed this by putting a hyphen between them so that the path looked like this:

/media/stephen/Store1/software/Linux-distros/ubuntu-mate-14.04.1-final-desktop-amd64.iso

I currently have the mint usb imagewriter installed and, voila, it instantly worked following the above ammendment to the path of the iso.

i am going to uninstall the mint version of the writer and install the mate one and see if it is also fixed on there. will let you know the answer inthe next few minutes.

#22

The Mate one is still not working I am afraid.

Oh bugger, I am about to find out if it skrews up the mint one now,… :cold_sweat:

will let you know

#23

I can confirm the Mint one is working.

So to summarise, so far as my own situation is concerned:

The Mate one does not work on Ubuntu Mate 14.04 64 bit

The Mint one does, but all paths to iso’s must not contain any spaces

#24

I can also confirm the latest Mint incarnation, known as “Mintstick” works. It has a nice feature of being two sperate programs. One will format a usb to fat32, ntfs or ext4 and allows labelling of the stick. The second is the imagewriter itself and this fully works as well.

#25

I’m working on it. I had udisks as a missing dependency in the package. I’ve added that and submitted the package for a rebuild. Should be ready to test in a few minutes it might work?!

That said, I am going to re-factor the code and implement a pure Python solution rather than wrapping dd.

#26

No worries at all Martin. Just grateful for all of the work you are putting in. Sufficiently, in fact, I now make a regular monetary contribution to the Ubuntu Mate project, But, in truth, that contribution is tiny and inconsequential compared to the time and effort you are obviously devoting to it.

Thanks again.

2 Likes
#27

It ran at last! But stopped there when initiated. Somethings's still wrong :frowning:

#28

@Wimpy It worked! And I think I know where the problem lies, inspired by @stevecook172001's previous post. Previously, the ISO image file was in the directory named "GNU/Linux Distros". You see, here's a white space, and it caused the problem. The ImageWriter couldn't get the path due to this white space. But when I changed the path, it worked like a charm!
It warrants a change in coding so that it can take in the path with white spaces. You're the pro here, so I needn't tell you more. BTW, thanks. :smile:

#29

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll push on with some re-factoring and address the spaces in folders/files thing.

1 Like
#30

Still not working fully Martin.

The Mate USB imagewriter recognises the usb and will write the image, albeit, takes rather a long time to do so.

However, if I then try and do an install from the usb, it will not boot.

This was on a 64 bit machine running a 32 bit Ubuntu Mate desktop and having written a 64 bit Ubuntu Mate usb image.

#31

Adding to the above:

I uninstalled Mate USB imagewriter and installed the Mint version that has always previously worked for me on Ubuntu Mate 32 bit. It’s not working either. That is to say, it writes the image like the Ubuntu Mate one does. However, like the Ubuntu Mate imagewriter, the usb will not subsequently boot.

I can’t say whether or not this is due to underlying changes to the Ubuntu base OS that have occurred at more or less the same time as we have been doing this usb imagewriter testing on here, or whether it is due to some aspect of the testing itself in terms of what is contained on the Mate usb imagewriter that is leaving some trace behind, even after uninstallation, such that the mint one does not work as a consequence.

#32

update:

just tried writing ther iso using pendrive linux in winxp vm. still no go. tried to do it with another ubuntu iso. worked immediately. Makes me think the amd 64 bit mate iso is corrupted. am downloading new copy and will try again with usb imagewriter in ubuntu mate,. will let you know how it goes…

#33

the new 64 bit iso wrote to the usb and installed without a hitch, so, it must have been a corrupted iso

what are the bleeding odds?!

1 Like
#34

@Wimpy, I have tested with my uumate respin which is remastered using jlivecd (https://github.com/mdjahidulhamid/JLIVECD) and it does not boot at all (the image is created successfully)… same happens if I use “mint stick” or DD. The system recognizes the USB stick but skips direct to the main HDD/SSD; it only works with the default ubuntu “startup disk creator”
Do you known what is the main difference between both? What is the main approach for startup disk creator? I think it is related to installation of the boot record…???
TIA

#35

usb-imagewriter is basically a wrapper for dd, but I am working on making it a pure Python implementation.

2 Likes
#36

Wimpy, there's already a full python implementation here:

I simply built a package and run it on my Ubuntu machine.

#37

if only SUSE Image Writer didn’t depend on qt4, by far the best writer since it relies on being a GUI tool to dd.

#38

It would be nice to have an option for persistance, ie. any changes you make in the live session get saved on the USB stick, AFAIK, The Ubuntu ‘Startup Disk Creator’ does this, but the Mint one does not.

1 Like
#39

I think you can use unetbootin for persistence files on a live usb though I am not 100% certain

#40

Is the code for this utility available anywhere? I’d love to see how it was written. I did a quick Google search for “Ubuntu Mate Git” and I didn’t see anything.