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Make a USB Boot CD for Linux Mint

This USB Boot CD can be used to boot Linux Mint 6 from a USB flash drive on computers with a BIOS that does not support booting from USB. Linux Mint is a remix based on Ubuntu. The USB Boot CD uses a grub bootloader to launch the vmlinuz kernel and initrd from the CD, loading the necessary USB drivers, and then proceeds to locate and extract the compressed filesystem from the flash drive.

Please Note: This USB Boot CD should work on most systems. However, it should be noted that the USB Boot CD may not work on really old computers with only USB 1.0 hardware support.

Can be used to boot flash drives created using the Linux Mint USB Install via CD or Linux Mint USB Install via Windows

USB Boot CD for Linux Mint 6 creation essentials:

• PC with a BIOS that does not support booting from USB
• Linux Mint 6 Live CD
• Working CD Drive and USB Port
• USB flash drive with Linux Mint 6 preinstalled

Creating a CD to Boot Linux Mint 6 from USB

The following process will enable you to create a Boot CD that can be used to Boot Linux Mint 6 from a USB Flash Drive on systems that do not natively support booting from USB.

1. Insert the Linux Mint 6 Live CD and restart, booting from the CD
2. Open a terminal and type mkdir -p usbcdm/boot/grub
3. Type cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito usbcdm/boot/grub
4. Type gedit usbcdm/boot/grub/menu.lst
5. Add the following information to your menu.lst file and save it
   

   title Run Linux Mint 6 from USB DISK
    root (cd)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.gz
    boot

6. Type cp /cdrom/casper/initrd.gz ~/usbcdm/boot
7. Type cp /cdrom/casper/vmlinuz ~/usbcdm/boot
8. Type mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o usbcdmint.iso usbcdm
9. Burn the usbcdmint.iso to a CD

Booting from the USB Boot CD for Linux Mint

1. Shutdown your computer
2. Insert the USB Boot CD and your Linux Mint flash drive
3. Set your BIOS or Startup Menu to boot from CD
4. Start your computer (booting from the CD)

The USB Boot CD should load the necessary USB drivers, detect the filesystem.squashfs on your flash drive, and then proceed to boot Linux Mint 6 from the flash drive.