Note: Copied from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

isotostick.sh (Command-line shell script, runs from Linux)

Warning: Running scripts from untrusted websites is potentially dangerous!

The easiest way, which also works with the Desktop installer, is to use the isotostick.sh script from http://www.startx.ro/sugar/ Download the script, make it executable and run the script like this:

sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools
wget http://www.startx.ro/sugar/isotostick.sh
chmod +x isotostick.sh
sudo ./isotostick.sh ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso /dev/sdX1

Don’t forget to replace /dev/sdX1 with the partition name of your USB stick found in the previous section! You will see some “operation not permitted” errors when the script tries to copy the symlinks for /dists/stable and /dists/unstable. This is because fat16 file systems do not handle symlinks, but it will not cause any problems.

Now you can boot from the USB stick and install Ubuntu like as if you had booted from the Desktop CD.

On a good note, I was easily able to boot to Ubuntu from an ISO and took a quick look around. USB Creator was easy enough to use and I ran through the wizard without any errors.

The bad news is, I was unable to boot from the USB drive afterwards. I changed my settings to boot from each of the 3 USB devices offered and each one resulted in an error message stating there was an error loading the operating system.

What went wrong? I would like to see if this problem is related to Ubuntu running on my virtual instead of my physical machine. I will change up my approach and see if it surprises me…

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/11/01/ubuntu-810-install-using-the-built-in-usb-installer/

I’m downloading the ISO now and will post my experience

Cheers,

Neal