The live CD image is supposed to work on USB sticks too. I've looked into your syslog and I can say that my installation crashed just after the nvidia warnings too.
In my bug (I've marked my bug as a duplicate) there are two syslog files attached for the installation with/without updates (crash/no crash). I don't have an empty CD, so I can't confirm that it works with the updates from a live CD. ** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu) Status: New => Confirmed -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/741962 Title: install crashes after downloading updates -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs