Sometimes BIOS upgrades fix this kind of issue. Stay tuned and don't loose confidence. We will help you.

(originally 12:52pm)
Thanks.

I tried the key in the front panel sockets of my work PC, but the USB mouse (connected at the back) froze and ceased working. I tried to reboot but the machine wouldn't even turn on! It remained unwell until I actually removed and re-attached the mains cable.
UPDATE (1.13pm) Tried again on this PC (a Vista PC from Dell, about a year old). This time I got as far as F12 for the boot menu, selected the USB key it detected, but got an instant "Boot error" message.

So, going back to my "home" PC (on the other side of the office until it's ready to go home) I tried the key on a front panel socket instead of the flying lead from a rear one. It flashed a lot but after 10 minutes of blank screen I gave up. Moving it to another front socket in a card reader bay, it has booted up this time, and gives a Debian menu :

Live
Live (failsafe)
Text Install
Text Expert
Text Rescue
Text Auto
GUI Install
GUI Expert
GUI Rescue
GUI Auto

I assume selecting "Live" is the right one?! :)

Again it has failed with the message "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" and has given me a BusyBox. The file live.log contains:
Begin: Running /scripts/live-premount ... done.

I have just proved that my USB stick is OK and can be booted from - I used Unetbootin to install Ubuntu 9.04_Live and it works fine! I've just had a play with a Linux GUI for the first time, very impressed with how slick it is - helps that I'm already used to Firefox :)
I played a quick game or two, and then had a go at installing OpenShot... LOL
That didn't work out too well though, hehe, looks like video editing is doomed to elude me!!

This is hell. Could you concentrate on your home PC and answer my questions 07/07/2009 - 23:14.

This could be a stick problem, remember? Try to follow the guidelines, remove u3 if present, format using HP tool, then try the test debian-live-501 image.

If you are not able to boot debian-live-501 image, according to Debian team, it means that your hardware is at stake. There can be two solutions: PC and/or USB stick.

Presently, trying to boot the Debian image on several PC fails.
So it could be the USB stick.

Any thoughts? Please go back to my questions 07/07/2009 - 23:14. After all these tests, I am not sure I still understand which key, which live distro you are trying to install. You can also contact me on Gtalk jm@poure.com and MSN jmpoure@poure.com

Bye and good luck.

On my side, I am stuck with a U3 stick which cannot be formated. I will have access to a Windows computer only on thursday. Then I will be able to remove the u3 headhacke and test in a real situation.

Bye the way, you can always go for the DVD solution. It is also persistent if you create a partition somewhere with label live-rw. It can be an NTFS/FAT32/EXT3 partition on hard drive OR a stick with a live-rw partition. So in any situation, I think you should be able to run a DVD with a stick.

I am sorry if you find it difficult to understand me, your English is generally so good I assumed you were natively English speaking, living in France.... but I'm now wondering if English is a second language for you after all? If so, I'm not surprised it is hard to follow me :)

The USB is OK, U3 does not matter, it works with Ubuntu Live. But it does not work with the Kdenlive image.

That is all. I will give up now to save you from further hell! Thanks anyway.

Then Kdenlive USB image is probably damaged. I need more time to understand what is going on. Anyone using the USB key with success?

Please consider advising people to use http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ instead of RawWrite as I think it's better software. If you can test new images with Unetbootin to write to your USB stick there is a better chance of success for all of us :)
Thanks

I will be testing it today, thanks.

I removed the u3 firmware and generated a new USB Key. It worked well on my wife laptop (Del Inspiron 830). On my ACER ASPIRE laptop, the key does not boot. Both PCs are recent. This means that booting from USB sticks is not pure science. Will get back.

[ Edit : my laptop BIOS is outdated. Upgrading the BIOS might help. But it can only be done under Windows and I run on Linux. So have a look at your BIOS and read changelog. If the BIOS corrects some USB key loading, upgrade it.]

Was that with RawWrite or with Unetbootin?

This was Linux dd ...
I only run GNU/Linux.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
is available to all :)

Merci

please see my post re "live usb will not shutdown or reboot". I looked for this thread before posting, but could not find it.

thanks, glad to be useful :)

By far the simplest way to get Ubuntu 9.10 up and running (from Windows) onto a USB key, with persistence (via Wubi and a virtual file system in a fixed size casper-rw file) :

See http://forum.videohelp.com/topic375466.html#2026748