Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Remix cannot boot off of USB drive

Did you MD5 test the ISO before you transferred it to the USB?

I just finished doing so and it appears that nothing is/was corrupted. The ISO is exactly what it should be.

why did you have to enable the usb floppy? netbooks don't come with floppy drives. did the program tell you to do that?

It was the only way I could get the netbook to boot from anything besides the hard drive. If I don't enable usb floppy (and even if I rearranged the boot order to attempt to boot off of USB media first), the netbook will always boot off the hard drive first, even if I put it down at the bottom of the boot order. Enabling the USB floppy was the only way I could get it to detect my media and make it boot off of something besides the hard drive.

this is interesting. anyhoo, to make a long troubleshooting even short, have you tried the procedure in solution 1 from the link below?

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-fix-ubuntu-10-04-lts-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup.html

No, but see this is what I'm saying. I can't do solutions like this because I don't even get an install screen, a splash screen, an option to install...nothing. I get literally nothing and many of these solutions are in cases in which an install option is at least available but I don't have that. I can't do anything, it just goes straight to a blank screen with the blinking cursor as soon as I boot.

You downloaded the file in another OS, so you can MD5 test the ISO there....

That is where I tested it; I downloaded the file in Windows 7 and tested it there. I have done nothing in Ubuntu. This is what I'm trying to tell you guys: I don't have Ubuntu installed in any capacity. I have never installed it, ran it live, nothing. I have not interacted with the Ubuntu OS AT ALL because I can't even get to the point at which I am offered the opportunity to install it or even just run it live from the USB pendrive. I cannot get started at all, and this is the problem.

Ok what happens when you try?

When I try what? Booting from the USB drive? Exactly what I started this thread with: I hit the power switch on my computer, it shows the quick Compaq splash screen (during which I can hit escape to access the BIOS and whatnot), after which it just goes straight to a blank screen with a blinking cursor. Nothing happens.

www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-fix-ubuntu-10-04-lts-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup.html

Okay A) This is the exact same link that Marcus posted B) I will once again say that I cannot try any of these solutions since there is no install option for me, no "first screen with a rectangle," no ability to mount drives, nothing. I cannot stress this enough.

When the USB starts to boot, press SPACE and you will get the old school ubuntu menu, you can now test the RAM as well as the USB for consistency. You can also apply different boot options on this screen too with (I believe) F^, just read the bottom row.

Unfortunately, pressing space while booting is not bringing me to the ubuntu menu. Once again, without hesitation, it goes straight from the Compaq splash to a dead screen.

Have you tried the USB in a different PC? Have you tried using a CD to install from?

CD is not an option, since this is a netbook and I do not have an external CD drive. I suppose I can try the USB on a different PC just to make sure things are in working order. Will check back in after I have done so.

Your problem seems similar to others whose live usb was created with the Ubuntu usb creator, so trying some of their solutions:
1)Too large a writeable "persistent" cabilitity causes problems. The default creation uses 128M for the casper-rw file. Try renaming the file to casper-xx to not use it at all. If that's the problem, you should get to a boot screen (syslinux?)
2)your usb stick is too big. What size is it? I've used 2G sticks, but with minimum casper-rw (or a casper-rw partition)
3)your usb stick has the wrong sector size (should be 512, not anything larger -- use another stick.

Okay, so I tried the stick out on a different PC and it worked (well, not exactly, because I did it on a desktop and the stick has a notebook version of Ubuntu on it, so it flipped out a little...but the point is, I got an Ubuntu splash screen, I had options for installing it or running it live, I could mount drives, etc.) So the issue here seems to be the machine I'm using (my netbook, the Compaq Mini CQ10-525DX)...is there some sort of setting or file(s) I can change to get things working?

P.S. Thank you for your tips as well, Ubfan, but it seems that the stick itself is fine, since I was able to get a response out of it on a different machine. Do you have any ideas as to what I can do with my machine to make the stick work on it?

Please try to made your install usb stick with unetbootin (i use always it to made bootable usb stick) you can install and use it in Win and in Ubuntu.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

When booting, try forcing the boot selection , which should list all available boot devices -- the esc key may do it, or a function key. If the usb is seen as a bootable device, it should be a choice. If it is not seen, try putting it into another usb slot. If still not seen, take another look at the boot options, there may be other odd seeming options like the floppy which would work -- usb hdd, or removable media. After BIOS setup, check the boot selection devices again. Some pc/usb device combinations have problems talking to each other at boot time.
Good Luck

It seems that USB stick boot software can't manage your screen, which is very unusual because this software uses very few functionality of API screen. I think you should raise a bug against unetbootin to get a contact with a developer.

Unetbootin worked! Thanks for the suggestions folks, I guess the problem was just Pendrive.com's Universal USB installer program; it didn't work. But as soon as I set up the USB with Unetbootin, it worked. So thanks again, everybody.