[svlug] "dd" first CD image to USB pendrive for booting?

[Bill-Schoolcraft]

At Mon, 11 Dec 2006 it looks like Daniel Gimpelevich composed:

> On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 11:12:00 -0800, Bill-Schoolcraft wrote:
> 
> > I've done some gOOgling and there is alot of mention to DSL, Slax etc
> > but nothing to more or less address what I'm trying to do...
> 
> For good reason: Those distros have addressed this very task, and SUSE has
> not.
> 
> > (question)
> > Am I missing something core to this process in terms of the legacy
> > bootstrap process or?
> 
> Perhaps you are not aware of the structure of the iso filesystem you tried
> to dd to the pendrive, specifically as it pertains to booting. The
> eltorito specification was designed for booting DOS. As a result, every CD
> bootable on i386 contains one or more floppy images embedded inside the
> iso. Machines that are able to boot from pendrives typically ignore the
> MBR altogether (but not all do), and just load the boot sector from
> /dev/sda1. You could just fill sda1 with the contents of the floppy image,
> but then you'd have nowhere to put the contents of the rest of the iso.
> Theoretically, you could split the iso among two pendrives, but there's no
> way a SUSE image will look for the second one on /dev/sdb1, so this goes
> right back to the distro question. Ubuntu also addresses this issue, but
> in a considerably more versatile (read: less user-friendly) manner than
> DSL or Slax. In addition to the "cdrom" installer, Ubuntu offers the
> "hd-media" installer, and the "netboot" installer. If you were installing
> Ubuntu (and not Kubuntu or Xubuntu, either), you could just dd the
> hd-media installer onto the pendrive. Did this for a laptop that had no CD
> drive and no floppy drive, and it worked perfectly.
> 
> Oops, as I was typing the above, it seems somebody else already told you
> pretty much the same thing. However, it doesn't seem like you were told
> how to apply this information to exactly what you intend to do, i.e.
> install SUSE: Put the individual files and folders that are on the iso
> onto a FAT filesystem on /dev/sda1 using cp, and install the syslinux
> bootloader into its boot sector. After properly configuring the bootloader
> (which, depending on what SUSE used, may consist of nothing more than
> renaming a single file), you will have a ready-to-go SUSE "mini-network"
> USB stick. With 1GB devices, you will also have plenty of room left over
> for many other uses of the pendrive.
> 

Yes, thanks for the above -- learning alot from this experience.

What threw me off was the simplist example RedHat gave for doing this
at:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/s1-steps-install-cdrom.h
tml

The went on to write the following under "USB pen drive":

######################################################################
2.4.1. Alternative Boot Methods

Boot CD-ROM

    If you can boot using the CD-ROM drive, you can create your own
CD-ROM to boot the installation program. This may be useful, for
example, if you are performing an installation over a network or from a
hard drive. Refer to Section 2.4.2 Making an Installation Boot CD-ROM
for further instructions.


USB pen drive

    If you cannot boot from the CD-ROM drive, but you can boot using a
USB device, such as a USB pen drive, the following alternative boot
method is available:

    To boot using a USB pen drive, use the dd command to copy the
diskboot.img image file from the /images/ directory on CD-ROM 1. For
example:

dd if=diskboot.img of=/dev/sda

    Your BIOS must support booting from a USB device in order for this
boot method to work.
######################################################################

Thanks

-- 
  Bill Schoolcraft <*> http://wiliweld.com

"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday,
    lying in hospitals dying of nothing."
                -- Redd Foxx