Installing Ubuntu from USB flash drive....

So, after countless failed attempts, here's another go.

Turns out there are several people in the same rut as me, not to mention the countless on Ubuntu forums begging to know what to do once thrown to the BusyBox console (what's up with that name anyway?).

However, I did find a couple of new URLs:

1. http://learn.clemsonlinux.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Install_from_USB_drive
2. http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2006/12/11/install-ubuntu-from-usb/

So time now to experiment all over again.

This time I will format my USB drive in FAT16, instead of FAT32. I have downloaded another fresh image of Ubuntu 7.10 iso, and verified md5 checksum. So far, so good.

So,

1. Create a virtual floppy drive using vfd
2. Format and make bootable the virtual floppy using Windows
3. Create bootable USB flash, with FAT16, using HP's utility, and supplying boot files from the virtual floppy.
4. Install bootloader on USB using syslinux. Verified ldlinux.sys appeared in the root folder
5. Copied over all 712,508 KB of Ubuntu distrib on to the freshly formatted USB drive. Boy, is FAT16 slow or what?
   
6. The clemsonlinux.org page above insists that initrd.gz and vmlinuz must be downloaded from Ubuntu archives. Well, what the hey... and yes, that falls flat on its face.
   
7. So back to the drawing board. This time, I followed instructions to the letter from here, and everything seems ok, until it just... "hung"... no messages on the screen...
8. At this point I have no clue what to do..