ubuntu not working

[MeinGottWalther]

Hey folks!

So I was mounting the ubuntu installer iso on a USB drive, then I booted from that and proceeded to install ubuntu on a second usb drive and during the installation process I specifically clicked on my 2nd usb drive, but ubuntu ended up being installed on my 2nd drive in my Laptop which luckily didnt contain any files. But now there is another program, the ubuntu OS doesnt work I just get a command line windows with the same text every time i click enter, can anybody help me pls!

 

thanks in advance!

 

PS: windows still works but not the ubuntu drive

[MeinGottWalther]

a bit more complicated, ubuntu pops up in the Boot Menue, but when i boot Windows it shows that all my drives are empty except my :C SSD which contains windows, that odd. I guess Ubuntu is still too buggy to be used on the normal market, but if anybody can help me that'd be great

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, MeinGottWalther said:

a bit more complicated, ubuntu pops up in the Boot Menue, but when i boot Windows it shows that all my drives are empty except my :C SSD which contains windows...

That's because Windows doesn't support the file system that's used by Linux (most likely ext4). That's why Windows thinks the drive is empty. Not really a problem with Ubuntu.

 

Could it be that you installed the boot loader onto the second USB disk? That would mean Ubuntu can't boot unless that USB disk is plugged in. If you haven't done anything on Ubuntu yet, I'd try to reinstall without having any other devices plugged in and make doubly sure which drive you use as the installation target.

[MeinGottWalther]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

That's because Windows doesn't support the file system that's used by Linux (most likely ext4). That's why Windows thinks the drive is empty. Not really a problem with Ubuntu.

 

Could it be that you installed the boot loader onto the second USB disk? That would mean Ubuntu can't boot unless that USB disk is plugged in. If you haven't done anything on Ubuntu yet, I'd try to reinstall without having any other devices plugged in and make doubly sure which drive you use as the installation target.

so wait, can i install the boot loader and ubuntu on the same usb drive and if so, how do i do it?

[tikker]

9 minutes ago, MeinGottWalther said:

then I booted from that and proceeded to install ubuntu on a second usb drive and during the installation process

Why? That is not how it's intended to be used. If you want to run it from USB, make a bootable USB drive. There are options to have it be persistent.

 

Ubuntu is pretty stable, especially if you use the LTS versions. Are you sure the disk you selected was the USB drive?

[MeinGottWalther]

Just now, tikker said:

Why? That is not how it's intended to be used. If you want to run it from USB, make a bootable USB drive. There are options to have it be persistent.

 

Ubuntu is pretty stable, especially if you use the LTS versions. Are you sure the disk you selected was the USB drive?

the installer itself works i can "test it" but files wont be saved so i have to use the installer usb to install it on another usb and that seems to be difficult

[MeinGottWalther]

i basically want to have a USB drive with a full ubuntu install on it that i can use to write stuff or search the web and i want to be able to use it on any modern pc that i plug the usb drive in, not just one specific machine

[Jarno.]

3 minutes ago, MeinGottWalther said:

so wait, can i install the boot loader and ubuntu on the same usb drive and if so, how do i do it?

If you want to create dualboot you first want to install Windows and then install Ubuntu as it has a build in option to detect a other OS and install next to it with a bootloader so you can make your choice. Also don't do it the other way around or Windows will whipe the whole drive happenly before it installs.

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, MeinGottWalther said:

the installer itself works i can "test it" but files wont be saved so i have to use the installer usb to install it on another usb and that seems to be difficult

Just make a persistent USB drive.

 

[edit] whoops, that link already assumes a running ubuntu install

[MeinGottWalther]

Just now, tikker said:

Just make a persistent USB drive.

whats that and how do i do it?

[CactusMan]

You installed in uefi mode? If you did, then ubuntu tried to install grub in the efi partition on your main drive. Windows typically assigns 100MiB to the efi partition, too small to fit both the windows bootloader and grub(with os entries+ui) at the same time.

Boot into the Ubuntu live environment and delete the ubuntu entries in the efi partition and start over. Make sure to manually create partitions and assign mount points on the usb drive in the installer. Fat32/EFI partition mounted at /boot/efi, and Ext4(or other file system of choice) mounted at /. Then install.

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, MeinGottWalther said:

so wait, can i install the boot loader and ubuntu on the same usb drive and if so, how do i do it?

What I'm trying to say is: You probably selected the second hard drive to install Ubuntu on and the second USB disk as the "device for boot loader installation". In this case you need the USB disk plugged in for Ubuntu to load its kernel etc. but the OS itself is installed on the second hard drive.

 

As others are suggesting, its possible to create a bootable USB disk with extra storage for persistant data, so you can run Ubuntu without having to install it onto your PC. But since you have a spare disk... I'd simply use that instead

[tikker]

1 minute ago, MeinGottWalther said:

whats that and how do i do it?

If you're on Windows, I have used YUMI in the past: https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

Persistent means changes you make are kept.

[CactusMan]

Format your second drive, the one ubuntu installed into the first time, back to NTFS to reclaim it for windows.

[Eigenvektor]

2 minutes ago, MeinGottWalther said:

whats that and how do i do it?

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912/create-a-persistent-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive/

Scroll down to "How to Make a Persistent Ubuntu USB Drive on Windows"

[MeinGottWalther]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

What I'm trying to say is: You probably selected the second hard drive to install Ubuntu on and the second USB disk as the "device for boot loader installation". In this case you need the USB disk plugged in for Ubuntu to load its kernel etc. but the OS itself is installed on the second hard drive.

 

As others are suggesting, its possible to create a bootable USB disk with extra storage for persistant data, so you can run Ubuntu without having to install it onto your PC. But since you have a spare disk... I'd simply use that instead

I appreciate the help but I dont understand anything...

so how do i install ubuntu only on one USB drive that i can boot from on any PC?

[MeinGottWalther]

is there an ISO that i can mount on the USB with ubuntu and the whole persistent thingy preinstalled?

[MeinGottWalther]

Just now, MeinGottWalther said:

is there an ISO that i can mount on the USB with ubuntu and the whole persistent thingy preinstalled?

 

4 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

What I'm trying to say is: You probably selected the second hard drive to install Ubuntu on and the second USB disk as the "device for boot loader installation". In this case you need the USB disk plugged in for Ubuntu to load its kernel etc. but the OS itself is installed on the second hard drive.

 

As others are suggesting, its possible to create a bootable USB disk with extra storage for persistant data, so you can run Ubuntu without having to install it onto your PC. But since you have a spare disk... I'd simply use that instead

 

[Jarno.]

Just now, MeinGottWalther said:

is there an ISO that i can mount on the USB with ubuntu and the whole persistent thingy preinstalled?

You are thinking way to hard. use refuse or something to install ISO on USB and you're done.

[MeinGottWalther]

Just now, Jarno. said:

You are thinking way to hard. use refuse or something to install ISO on USB and you're done.

excuse me? I have a usb with the ubuntu installer, but everything i do there will NOT be saved so its useless for me, how do i change it to be "persistent"? OR can you provide me the link please of a full ubuntu version please?

[tikker]

1 minute ago, MeinGottWalther said:

is there an ISO that i can mount on the USB with ubuntu and the whole persistent thingy preinstalled?

No, you tick a box to make the USB installation persistent when you make it. You make the USB drive with something like YUMI, LiLi etc.

A guide is on e.g. https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912/create-a-persistent-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive/

You download the ISO (the programs can do that for you even, I think) and then select the amount of storage it will take.

 

Also keep in mind  you won't get the full performace out of a live boot.

 

[Jarno.]

The picture you posted is of the grub bootloader. In other words you did not yet boot into Ubuntu. You should whipe all your drive and install again.

 

Also here is the Ubuntu ISO live CD

https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?version=18.04.3&architecture=amd64

 

[MeinGottWalther]

2 minutes ago, Jarno. said:

The picture you posted is of the grub bootloader. In other words you did not yet boot into Ubuntu. You should whipe all your drive and install again.

 

Also here is the Ubuntu ISO live CD

https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?version=18.04.3&architecture=amd64

 

 

3 minutes ago, tikker said:

No, you tick a box to make the USB installation persistent when you make it. You make the USB drive with something like YUMI, LiLi etc.

A guide is on e.g. https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912/create-a-persistent-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive/

You download the ISO (the programs can do that for you even, I think) and then select the amount of storage it will take.

 

Also keep in mind  you won't get the full performace out of a live boot.

 

is still dont understant the whole process on the website you provided, they have some weird command line, but where is that I mean where do i install mkusb? on the usb with the ubuntu installer? on the windows 10 OS? I dont get it they only provide half the information

[Eigenvektor]

4 minutes ago, MeinGottWalther said:

is there an ISO that i can mount on the USB with ubuntu and the whole persistent thingy preinstalled?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent#Installing_Ubuntu_on_USB_drive_using_Windows

2 minutes ago, MeinGottWalther said:

I have a usb with the ubuntu installer, but everything i do there will NOT be saved so its useless for me

You need to enable persistent storage at the time you create the USB disk. The USB disk needs to be large enough to support it. There should be an option where you can select how much space you want to reserve for persistent files.

[MeinGottWalther]

3 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent#Installing_Ubuntu_on_USB_drive_using_Windows

You need to enable persistent storage at the time you create the USB disk. The USB disk needs to be large enough to support it. There should be an option where you can select how much space you want to reserve for persistent files.

where can I download MKUSB ?