[gentoo-user] Install from USB stick; here's how

[gentoo-user] Install from USB stick; here's how

[Walter Dnes]

  For those of you who don't want to do the tap-dance listed at...
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml

* My netbook's harddrive is normally /dev/sda, except when I boot from a
  USB stick.  The stick will become /dev/sda and the harddrive becomes
  /dev/sdb

* My desktop's harddrive is also /dev/sda.  I took the linux minimal
  install ISO, ran isohybrid on it, with the command...

isohybrid install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso

  If you don't have isohybrid...

emerge sys-boot/syslinux

* I then copied it over to a USB stick (/dev/sdb) with the command...

dd bs=4M if=install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso of=/dev/sdb

  Note that it's just the device letter.  There is no partition number.
Your letter may be different.  Note also that the USB stick must *NOT*
be mounted. - WARNING - be absolutely certain you have the letter right.
E.g. using your harddrive's device letter would zap your harddrive.

* I booted from the USB key and had an uneventful install.  There were a
  few differences...

  - stuff that would normally be done to /dev/sda was done to /dev/sdb,
    because the USB stick with the install ISO was /dev/sda

  - I don't know if it was the install-from-USB, or my weird lan
    (192.168.123.248/248), but net-setup did not take for my wired eth0
    address.  I ran ifconfig and route manually.

  - lilo had to be set up differently for the first boot.  This is a
    section in its own right

* lilo will be written when the netbook's harddrive is /dev/sdb, but
  when the USB key is removed, it will boot with the harddrive as
  /dev/sda.  lilo does not allow you to specify a non-existant partition
  in the "image" root section.  But fortunately, you can do so in the
  "append" line, and even more fortunately, the "append" line overrides
  the "image" root section.  Here's what I did...

  - WARNING - Change the "# MBR to install LILO to:" section to

# MBR to install LILO to:
boot = /dev/sdb

    The default /dev/sda will overwrite the boot record of the install
    USB stick, and not update your harddrive

  - Since my root is on partition ID 6, I set the image entry like so.
    Adjust for your system

image = /boot/kernel-production
        root = /dev/sdb6
        label = Production
        read-only # read-only for checking
        append = "root=/dev/sda6"

    Note that the main entry specifies root as /dev/sdb6 but the append
entry specifies root as root=/dev/sda6.

  - run the "lilo" command.  It will issue a warning about not going to
    the first disc; ignore the warning.  Reboot, and remember to take
    out the USB stick before the system can boot from it.

  - First thing to do after the first boot is to edit /etc/lilo.conf to
    normal values; i.e. usually put "/dev/sda" in as expected

# MBR to install LILO to:
boot = /dev/sda

image = /boot/kernel-production
        root = /dev/sda6
        label = Production
        read-only # read-only for checking
        append = ""

    Adjust for your system.  Then run lilo.  You now have a standard
lilo setup.

* You can keep the USB stick as "rescue CD on a USB stick".  If you want
  to return the USB stick to normal use, you'll have to zero out the
  first sector before you can repartition and reformat it.  The command
  (assuming the stick is /dev/sdb) is...

  dd count=1 bs=512 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb

  - WARNING - be absolutely certain you have the letter right.  E.g.
    using your harddrive's device letter would zap your harddrive.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] Install from USB stick; here's how

[Bruce Hill]

On Sun, Jan 06, 2013 at 10:05:08PM -0500, Walter Dnes wrote:
>   For those of you who don't want to do the tap-dance listed at...
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml
> 
> * My netbook's harddrive is normally /dev/sda, except when I boot from a
>   USB stick.  The stick will become /dev/sda and the harddrive becomes
>   /dev/sdb

Tired of the old dog-and-pony show?

http://www.sysresccd.org/Download gives you a much more complete environment,
including wifi support (with firmware), and won't conflabulate and change the
devices like that one metioned above, and has a very simple install script.

Here's blkid on the laptop normally:

/dev/sda1: LABEL="system" UUID="d91e2ce9-d1b0-4619-abc3-3886142d58da" TYPE="xfs"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="swap" UUID="f303a606-2bd6-47b1-8761-3d5f212725fd" TYPE="swap"

and after booting with SystemRescueCd:

/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" 
/dev/sda1: LABEL="system" UUID="d91e2ce9-d1b0-4619-abc3-3886142d58da" TYPE="xfs" 
/dev/sda2: LABEL="swap" UUID="f303a606-2bd6-47b1-8761-3d5f212725fd" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="SYSRESC" UUID="52DC-EE33" TYPE="vfat"

Since it's tools are better, it has x86 or x86_64 kernels, more options, and
it's based on Gentoo ... it's a great replacement for those old Gentoo
minimals.
-- 
Happy Penguin Computers               >')
126 Fenco Drive                       ( \
Tupelo, MS 38801                       ^^
support@happypenguincomputers.com
662-269-2706 662-205-6424
http://happypenguincomputers.com/

Don't top-post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_post#Top-posting

[gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-01-07, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:

>   For those of you who don't want to do the tap-dance listed at...
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml
>
> * My netbook's harddrive is normally /dev/sda, except when I boot from a
>   USB stick.  The stick will become /dev/sda and the harddrive becomes
>   /dev/sdb
>
> * My desktop's harddrive is also /dev/sda.  I took the linux minimal
>   install ISO, ran isohybrid on it, with the command...
>
> isohybrid install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso
>
>   If you don't have isohybrid...
>
> emerge sys-boot/syslinux
>
> * I then copied it over to a USB stick (/dev/sdb) with the command...
>
> dd bs=4M if=install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso of=/dev/sdb

I did a 64-bit install from USB flash-drive a few days ago using the
older tap-dance, and it worked fine -- except I discovered one of my
"must have" apps is 32-bit only and didn't work correctly when run in
32-bit emulation mode (I don't know why).

So I tried Walter's recipe yesterday to do a 32-bit install.

After running the isohybrid command, I compared the resulting image
with the original.  They were identical.  I copied the image to a USB
flash drive, and it booted just fine.

It seems that the minimal install .iso images are already built for
hybrid booting from either CD or a generic block device (e.g. USB
mass-storage device).

So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?

Why isn't it just the steps below?

  1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.

  2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  


-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I am a traffic light,
                                  at               and Alan Ginzberg kidnapped
                              gmail.com            my laundry in 1927!

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Walter Dnes]

On Tue, Sep 03, 2013 at 05:05:22PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote

> After running the isohybrid command, I compared the resulting image
> with the original.  They were identical.  I copied the image to a USB
> flash drive, and it booted just fine.
> 
> It seems that the minimal install .iso images are already built for
> hybrid booting from either CD or a generic block device (e.g. USB
> mass-storage device).
> 
> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
> 
> Why isn't it just the steps below?
> 
>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
> 
>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  

  Mmore importantly, http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-*
files should have this listed.  There are a lot of machines now,
especially notebooks, that don't have a CD and/or DVD drive.  I do
remember asking devs for the default isohybrid feature.  I just
downloaded a amd-64-bit install iso, to update my rescue stick.  The
64-bit install also worked.  Do you want me to file a bug on bugzilla in
the documentation section?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Alan McKinnon]

On 03/09/2013 19:05, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2013-01-07, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
> 
>>   For those of you who don't want to do the tap-dance listed at...
>> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml
>>
>> * My netbook's harddrive is normally /dev/sda, except when I boot from a
>>   USB stick.  The stick will become /dev/sda and the harddrive becomes
>>   /dev/sdb
>>
>> * My desktop's harddrive is also /dev/sda.  I took the linux minimal
>>   install ISO, ran isohybrid on it, with the command...
>>
>> isohybrid install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso
>>
>>   If you don't have isohybrid...
>>
>> emerge sys-boot/syslinux
>>
>> * I then copied it over to a USB stick (/dev/sdb) with the command...
>>
>> dd bs=4M if=install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso of=/dev/sdb
> 
> I did a 64-bit install from USB flash-drive a few days ago using the
> older tap-dance, and it worked fine -- except I discovered one of my
> "must have" apps is 32-bit only and didn't work correctly when run in
> 32-bit emulation mode (I don't know why).
> 
> So I tried Walter's recipe yesterday to do a 32-bit install.
> 
> After running the isohybrid command, I compared the resulting image
> with the original.  They were identical.  I copied the image to a USB
> flash drive, and it booted just fine.
> 
> It seems that the minimal install .iso images are already built for
> hybrid booting from either CD or a generic block device (e.g. USB
> mass-storage device).
> 
> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
> 
> Why isn't it just the steps below?
> 
>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
> 
>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  

Copying an .iso to a USB stick does not give you a bootable USB stick.
It gives you a USB stick with one large file, without bootloader, and
the BIOS code can't make sense of it.

USB mass storage devices are not CDs, you can't just dd an ISO9660 image
to a USB stick and expect it to work (although files named *.img will
often work doing exactly this)

This is why unetbootin takes so long to do it's thing, it has to unpack
image files and write them file by file to the USB stick


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

[gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-09-03, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 03, 2013 at 05:05:22PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote
>
>> After running the isohybrid command, I compared the resulting image
>> with the original.  They were identical.  I copied the image to a USB
>> flash drive, and it booted just fine.
>> 
>> It seems that the minimal install .iso images are already built for
>> hybrid booting from either CD or a generic block device (e.g. USB
>> mass-storage device).
>> 
>> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
>> 
>> Why isn't it just the steps below?
>> 
>>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
>> 
>>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  
>
> More importantly, http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-*
> files should have this listed.  There are a lot of machines now,
> especially notebooks, that don't have a CD and/or DVD drive.  I do
> remember asking devs for the default isohybrid feature.  I just
> downloaded a amd-64-bit install iso, to update my rescue stick.  The
> 64-bit install also worked.  Do you want me to file a bug on bugzilla in
> the documentation section?

Sure, that would be great.  I didn't do that because wasn't sure if
the .iso images worked for everybody as-is, or if the old "tap-dance"
was still required for the general case (for people with older BIOSes
or something).

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I always have fun
                                  at               because I'm out of my
                              gmail.com            mind!!!

[gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-09-03, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 03/09/2013 19:05, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2013-01-07, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
>> 
>>>   For those of you who don't want to do the tap-dance listed at...
>>> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml
>>>
>>> * My netbook's harddrive is normally /dev/sda, except when I boot from a
>>>   USB stick.  The stick will become /dev/sda and the harddrive becomes
>>>   /dev/sdb
>>>
>>> * My desktop's harddrive is also /dev/sda.  I took the linux minimal
>>>   install ISO, ran isohybrid on it, with the command...
>>>
>>> isohybrid install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso
>>>
>>>   If you don't have isohybrid...
>>>
>>> emerge sys-boot/syslinux
>>>
>>> * I then copied it over to a USB stick (/dev/sdb) with the command...
>>>
>>> dd bs=4M if=install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso of=/dev/sdb
>> 
>> I did a 64-bit install from USB flash-drive a few days ago using the
>> older tap-dance, and it worked fine -- except I discovered one of my
>> "must have" apps is 32-bit only and didn't work correctly when run in
>> 32-bit emulation mode (I don't know why).
>> 
>> So I tried Walter's recipe yesterday to do a 32-bit install.
>> 
>> After running the isohybrid command, I compared the resulting image
>> with the original.  They were identical.  I copied the image to a USB
>> flash drive, and it booted just fine.
>> 
>> It seems that the minimal install .iso images are already built for
>> hybrid booting from either CD or a generic block device (e.g. USB
>> mass-storage device).
>> 
>> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
>> 
>> Why isn't it just the steps below?
>> 
>>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
>> 
>>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  
>
> Copying an .iso to a USB stick does not give you a bootable USB
> stick.

It does for recent Gentoo minimial install .iso images.

> It gives you a USB stick with one large file, without bootloader, and
> the BIOS code can't make sense of it.

All my machines seem to.

> USB mass storage devices are not CDs, you can't just dd an ISO9660
> image to a USB stick and expect it to work

But it _does_ work.  I tried it with a couple different minimal
install .iso files and a couple different machines.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! What's the MATTER
                                  at               Sid? ... Is your BEVERAGE
                              gmail.com            unsatisfactory?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Alan McKinnon]

On 03/09/2013 23:19, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2013-09-03, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 03/09/2013 19:05, Grant Edwards wrote:
>>> On 2013-01-07, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>>   For those of you who don't want to do the tap-dance listed at...
>>>> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml
>>>>
>>>> * My netbook's harddrive is normally /dev/sda, except when I boot from a
>>>>   USB stick.  The stick will become /dev/sda and the harddrive becomes
>>>>   /dev/sdb
>>>>
>>>> * My desktop's harddrive is also /dev/sda.  I took the linux minimal
>>>>   install ISO, ran isohybrid on it, with the command...
>>>>
>>>> isohybrid install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso
>>>>
>>>>   If you don't have isohybrid...
>>>>
>>>> emerge sys-boot/syslinux
>>>>
>>>> * I then copied it over to a USB stick (/dev/sdb) with the command...
>>>>
>>>> dd bs=4M if=install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso of=/dev/sdb
>>>
>>> I did a 64-bit install from USB flash-drive a few days ago using the
>>> older tap-dance, and it worked fine -- except I discovered one of my
>>> "must have" apps is 32-bit only and didn't work correctly when run in
>>> 32-bit emulation mode (I don't know why).
>>>
>>> So I tried Walter's recipe yesterday to do a 32-bit install.
>>>
>>> After running the isohybrid command, I compared the resulting image
>>> with the original.  They were identical.  I copied the image to a USB
>>> flash drive, and it booted just fine.
>>>
>>> It seems that the minimal install .iso images are already built for
>>> hybrid booting from either CD or a generic block device (e.g. USB
>>> mass-storage device).
>>>
>>> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
>>>
>>> Why isn't it just the steps below?
>>>
>>>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
>>>
>>>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  
>>
>> Copying an .iso to a USB stick does not give you a bootable USB
>> stick.
> 
> It does for recent Gentoo minimial install .iso images.

Now I'm confused, let's clarify. Which of these meanings of copy are you
using:

cp my_big.iso /where/i/mounted/the/stick

dd if=my_big.iso of=/dev/sdb


If it's the first, then you have just discovered serious $COMPUTER_MAGIC
unbeknownst to me thus far :-)


> 
>> It gives you a USB stick with one large file, without bootloader, and
>> the BIOS code can't make sense of it.
> 
> All my machines seem to.
> 
>> USB mass storage devices are not CDs, you can't just dd an ISO9660
>> image to a USB stick and expect it to work
> 
> But it _does_ work.  I tried it with a couple different minimal
> install .iso files and a couple different machines.
> 


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

[gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-09-03, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 03/09/2013 23:19, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2013-09-03, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 03/09/2013 19:05, Grant Edwards wrote:
>>>> On 2013-01-07, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:

[...]

>>>>> isohybrid install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso
[...]
>>>>> * I then copied it over to a USB stick (/dev/sdb) with the command...
>>>>>
>>>>> dd bs=4M if=install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso of=/dev/sdb

[...]

>>>> After running the isohybrid command, I compared the resulting image
>>>> with the original.  They were identical.  I copied the image to a USB
>>>> flash drive, and it booted just fine.
>>>>
>>>> It seems that the minimal install .iso images are already built for
>>>> hybrid booting from either CD or a generic block device (e.g. USB
>>>> mass-storage device).
>>>>
>>>> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
>>>>
>>>> Why isn't it just the steps below?
>>>>
>>>>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
>>>>
>>>>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  
>>>
>>> Copying an .iso to a USB stick does not give you a bootable USB
>>> stick.
>> 
>> It does for recent Gentoo minimial install .iso images.
>
> Now I'm confused, let's clarify. Which of these meanings of copy are you
> using:
>
> cp my_big.iso /where/i/mounted/the/stick
>
> dd if=my_big.iso of=/dev/sdb

Sorry about that.  The latter.  The actual command is shown about 32
lines up (except that my minimal install .iso was more recent)...

IIRC, the last time I tried 'cp' it worked just as well as 'dd'

  cp install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso /dev/sdb
  
The Wiki page at http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO shows a
rather involved process for creating a bootable USB drive from a
Gentoo minimal install .iso.  However, AFAICT, you don't have to do
any of it.  You can just write the .iso image to the usb flash drive
and then boot from it.
  
I presume that at some point in the past, the minimal install .iso
images weren't bootable from a "hard-drive", and the process on the
wiki page was needed. But since the Gentoo .iso images _are_ bootable,
why not just say so and get rid of the old recipe?

[The old recipe still works, and perhaps it's useful for generic .iso
images from elsewhere, but for a Gentoo install .iso it's a bit of a
time-waster.]

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! BELA LUGOSI is my
                                  at               co-pilot ...
                              gmail.com            

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Walter Dnes]

On Tue, Sep 03, 2013 at 10:13:29PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote
> 
> IIRC, the last time I tried 'cp' it worked just as well as 'dd'
> 
>   cp install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso /dev/sdb

  Interesting.  I assume that /dev/sdb was not mounted.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Alan McKinnon]

On 04/09/2013 00:13, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> Now I'm confused, let's clarify. Which of these meanings of copy are you
>> > using:
>> >
>> > cp my_big.iso /where/i/mounted/the/stick
>> >
>> > dd if=my_big.iso of=/dev/sdb
> Sorry about that.  The latter.  The actual command is shown about 32
> lines up (except that my minimal install .iso was more recent)...

Ah, OK. That makes this whole sub-thread a red-herring that should be
ignored :-)



-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[thegeezer]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 872 bytes --]

You can also create a Grub2 bootable usb which launches ISO.
this is always useful to have.
for a while now Gentoo has supported being launched this way.
you need the following in your grub2 cfg
the crucial part is the /iso/install-amd64-minimal-20110714.iso   (yeah
i know is an old iso but this also shows how long it has worked)
this needs to be a real path on the usb stick

menuentry "Gentoo Linux minimal install" {
    loopback loop /iso/install-amd64-minimal-20110714.iso
    linux (loop)/isolinux/gentoo root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc dokeymap
looptype=squashfs   loop=/image.squashfs cdroot initrd=gentoo.igz
isoboot=/iso/install-amd64-minimal-20110714.iso
    initrd (loop)/isolinux/gentoo.igz
}

Until i got my Zalman VE300 i was using this to boot emergency repair disks
is a lot handier having one usb with many iso than a seperate usb stick
for each distro



[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1351 bytes --]

[gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-09-04, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 03, 2013 at 10:13:29PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote
>> 
>> IIRC, the last time I tried 'cp' it worked just as well as 'dd'
>> 
>>   cp install-x86-minimal-20121213.iso /dev/sdb
>
>   Interesting.  I assume that /dev/sdb was not mounted.

Correct.  I wouldn't really depend on this -- if 'cp' tries to do
something smart with sparse data, or if the image isn't an even number
of 512-byte blocks, it might not work.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! With YOU, I can be
                                  at               MYSELF ...  We don't NEED
                              gmail.com            Dan Rather ...

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Walter Dnes]

On Tue, Sep 03, 2013 at 05:05:22PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote

> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
> 
> Why isn't it just the steps below?
> 
>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
> 
>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  

  I got the USB-stick install instructions from the Arch linux wiki at
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Installation_Media   I was going
to link to it in my bug/feature request.  Then I noticed the following...

> Warning: This method does not work with UEFI boot.

  Given how UEFI is spreading, I backed out of the bug report.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

[gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-09-04, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 03, 2013 at 05:05:22PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote
>
>> So what's the deal with http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO?
>> 
>> Why isn't it just the steps below?
>> 
>>   1) Copy the minimal install .iso to USB mass storage device.
>> 
>>   2) Boot from USB mass storage device.  
>
>   I got the USB-stick install instructions from the Arch linux wiki at
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Installation_Media   I was going
> to link to it in my bug/feature request.  Then I noticed the following...
>
>> Warning: This method does not work with UEFI boot.
>
>   Given how UEFI is spreading, I backed out of the bug report.

Do the instructions at http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO work
with UEFI machines where the simple 'dd' method doesn't?

One datapoint: my motherboard has UEFI bios, and simply dd'ing the
minimal install .iso to a flash drive worked fine.  When I boot up
with the USB drive, the BIOS boot menu shows two entries for the USB
drive, the first one always worked, so I never tried the second one...

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! -- I have seen the
                                  at               FUN --
                              gmail.com            

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Walter Dnes]

On Wed, Sep 04, 2013 at 09:59:28PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote

> Do the instructions at http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO work
> with UEFI machines where the simple 'dd' method doesn't?

  I don't have a UEFI boot machine, so I don't know.

> One datapoint: my motherboard has UEFI bios, and simply dd'ing the
> minimal install .iso to a flash drive worked fine.  When I boot up
> with the USB drive, the BIOS boot menu shows two entries for the USB
> drive, the first one always worked, so I never tried the second one...

  Are you booting in UEFI mode or "legacy mode"?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

[gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-09-06, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 04, 2013 at 09:59:28PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote
>
>> Do the instructions at http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO work
>> with UEFI machines where the simple 'dd' method doesn't?
>
>   I don't have a UEFI boot machine, so I don't know.
>
>> One datapoint: my motherboard has UEFI bios, and simply dd'ing the
>> minimal install .iso to a flash drive worked fine.  When I boot up
>> with the USB drive, the BIOS boot menu shows two entries for the USB
>> drive, the first one always worked, so I never tried the second one...
>
>   Are you booting in UEFI mode or "legacy mode"?

Legacy mode.  Will a minimal install CD work in non-legacy UEFI-only
mode?

-- 
Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Install from USB stick; here's how

[Walter Dnes]

On Sat, Sep 07, 2013 at 12:31:36PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote
> On 2013-09-06, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 04, 2013 at 09:59:28PM +0000, Grant Edwards wrote
> >
> >> Do the instructions at http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO work
> >> with UEFI machines where the simple 'dd' method doesn't?
> >
> >   I don't have a UEFI boot machine, so I don't know.
> >
> >> One datapoint: my motherboard has UEFI bios, and simply dd'ing the
> >> minimal install .iso to a flash drive worked fine.  When I boot up
> >> with the USB drive, the BIOS boot menu shows two entries for the USB
> >> drive, the first one always worked, so I never tried the second one...
> >
> >   Are you booting in UEFI mode or "legacy mode"?
> 
> Legacy mode.  Will a minimal install CD work in non-legacy UEFI-only
> mode?

  I don't know.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications