Install Ubuntu from my USB device?

Can it be done, I downloaded the file but can't find a disk big enough, any way to boot my dell 6400 from USB? There is an option when I press F12 but it wont load an ISO, how do I need to do it?

 

An ISO is meant to be burned to a CD. What do you mean you can't find a disk big enough? You don't have any 700Mb CD's? You don't just burn an ISO as a file... you have to burn it as a disk image.

You can't just copy the ISO to a USB device and boot from it.

 

oh I know that, but is there any way I can install from the USB, by installing the ISO to my memory device using MAgicISO or something.... I just don't have any 700mb disks lying around :S

 

Not really. You can always request a free CD of Ubuntu. They don't support any network installs that I'm aware of. If you have access to a smaller CD (like a 650MB one), then you could download one of the server install ISO's, and once you get that installed, you could just log in and type "sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop". It will require that you be plugged in to a wired ethernet connection most likely, though.

 

There is a certain way to extract ISO into file directories, and modify the boot sector of your USB to make it bootable. By the time you figure it out, you probably know a lot detail of Linux and Grub. However, newbie may get lost for various reasons.

 

I installed Debian Etch with a usb stick and that works fine.

For Ubuntu it you must download the boot.img.gz file and copied this to a usb stick,
#zcat boot.img.gz >/dev/sda1 (check your dmesg)
#mount /dev/sda1 /mnt (check your dmesg)
#cp ubuntu-7.04-alternate-i386.iso /mnt
You need a usb stick with 1GB space on it.
more info see url:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2132614,00.asp

Not tested by myself

 

I'm not installing from solid state memory, it's a 30gig mp3 player ( a real moving HD)

 

Yeah. Do what I said... get a server ISO, burn it to a smaller CD, install it, then upgrade to the ubuntu-desktop. It's the same as just installing Ubuntu by default, but it uses a smaller install disc like you'd need.

 

ok kool I shall give it a go!