Impossible to delete files from USB stick

After running this command:

sudo cp MyFile.iso /dev/sdb && sync

it's now impossible to delete files from the USB stick. I get the following message:

Error removing file: File system in read only mode

The USB stick seems properly mounted/umounted by the system and I can see the files on the stick. However

sudo fdisk -l

gives a weird result as there is no number after the USB device (ie: sdb) whereas the stick is mounted:

Disk /dev/sdb : 15 GiB, 16039018496 octets, 31326208 sectors Unités :
sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 octets Sector size (logical/physical): 512
bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Can someone help me ?

1 Answer

The problem is that the cloned system inherits the iso9660 file system, which is read-only by design. After you have finished using the USB drive as an Ubuntu boot drive, you can

• restore the USB drive to a standard storage device. mkusb can create an MSDOS partition table with a FAT32 partition automatically and you select it from the main menu in mkusb version 12 (mkusb-dus).

  If you run standard Ubuntu, you need an extra instruction to get the repository Universe. (Kubuntu, Lubuntu ... Xubuntu have the repository Universe activated automatically.)

  sudo add-apt-repository universe # only for standard Ubuntu
  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mkusb/ppa # and press Enter
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install mkusb mkusb-nox usb-pack-efi

• use some other partitioning tool if you want to create something more advanced (than a standard storage device). gparted is a good tool with an intuitive graphical user interface.