Building Ubuntu Bootable USB

  1. Download iso for ubuntu (currently using Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS (Trusty Tahr)
  2. cd ~/Downloads (change this if your download was to a different location)
  3. execute the following to convert iso to format more easily handled by OSX
    • Hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ubuntu.iso [name of iso downloaded]
  4. determine usb device name
    • Before inserting usb, execute ‘diskutil list’
    • Insert usb
    • Execute ‘diskutil list’, the newly displayed device will be the usb 

  5. unmount the usb, in order to make sure no other process are using
    • execute, ‘diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk[number]’
  6. Create the bootalbe usb
    • execute, ‘sudo dd if=./ubuntu.iso of=/dev/rdisk[number] bs=1m’
  7. Unmount the usb
    • execute ‘diskutil eject /dev/disk[number]’

This newly created, ‘bootable’ USB can be used to install Ubuntu 14.04