[solved] Can't create bootable USB media for YUNOHOST installation

[splunko]

SOLVED

System: Old PC, ver: 11.0.9.

Description of my issue:

• Yunohost installation .iso didn’t create a bootable USB disk.
• Tried multiple USB drives, all known to be fine for installing other distros from.
• Tried using dd command and using the “Etcher” application.
• Similar sounding issues cropped up in this post and this post, but had gone unsolved. The threads were closed so I couldn’t provide my solution.

Solution [linux]:

• use gparted to remove all the USB drive partitions
• make a FAT32 partition that takes up the whole drive
• safely remove the USB drive, wait, then re-insert it
• use unetbootin to write the .iso to the USB drive
• copy all the files on the drive onto another USB drive formatted with NTFS
• safely remove both USB drives
• use the USB drive made by unetbootin to install yunohost on the hardware of your choice
• when the error message comes up that it can’t find the installation files (this is a known snag), insert the second USB on which you have a copy of all the files, and allow the installation to proceed
• carry on being awesome.

Epilogue

I have NO idea why this worked, but it did, and clearly it’s a problem that had stumped others. I wanted to record it here so folks web-searching don’t fall at the first hurdle like I almost did, and like I suspect those other folks did. Peace!

edited to add: thank you to all the devs, mods, documenters, maintainers, and myriad others that keep all this spinning, and to whoever put workadventure on the application wishlist

[wbk]

Hi splunko,

Welcome to Yunohost!

@splunko

I have NO idea why this worked, but it did,

Me neither, I had no idea things could get so complicated before starting!

Thank you for your write-up and have lots of fun with your new installation