USB Progress

Ok. I have installed as per the instructions at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/02/12/usb-ubuntu-tutorial-for-linux-users/

It gets to the boot choices menu very quickly. Thats all nice until I choose a boot option.

Any of them I select require the Kernel to be decompressed and then loaded which is all fair but to do so it takes about 2 whole minutes. This shouldn't be the case it should be doing it in a matter of seconds. Its not because my computer is slow. I have a 2.5GHz Core 2 Quad processor with 2 Gigs of 800MHz CL4 RAM so it should tear though. Its probably because the USB is slower then the CD drive (which is what I'm used to loading from) and is just making a bottleneck on the system. I suspect the USB is running in 1.1 mode though.

That would be ok though if the system actually loaded though. However after loading initrd it stops and gives the message:

invalid compressed format (err=1)

-- System halted


I have run media checks on the CD I'm using and I have repeatedly installed Linux on the USB drive as per the instructions at the above site. I am at a bit of a loss for what do do next. I have tried another machine but it doesn't like booting from USB sticks.