From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B163213838B for ; Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:11:38 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 5E222E0807; Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:11:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2D1E3E07D9 for ; Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:11:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4EE76340366 for ; Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:11:29 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new using ClamAV at gentoo.org X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: -2.888 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.888 tagged_above=-999 required=5.5 tests=[AWL=-0.188, BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED=0.001, FREEMAIL_FROM=0.001, NML_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED=0.9, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW=-0.7, RP_MATCHES_RCVD=-1, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001] autolearn=no Received: from smtp.gentoo.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.gentoo.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id JmKu1W3CRBVF for ; Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:11:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: from plane.gmane.org (plane.gmane.org [80.91.229.3]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B5812340392 for ; Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:11:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1XZned-0005ET-TO for gentoo-user@gentoo.org; Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:11:15 +0200 Received: from dsl.comtrol.com ([64.122.56.22]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:11:15 +0200 Received: from grant.b.edwards by dsl.comtrol.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:11:15 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org From: Grant Edwards Subject: [gentoo-user] [OT] Making a bootable USB flash drive from ISO image Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:11:03 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: dsl.comtrol.com User-Agent: slrn/1.0.1 (Linux) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org X-Archives-Salt: 176b0dcc-1738-4bb2-844e-4222d9f7bce5 X-Archives-Hash: 64b5b10f0e4fd0683590fd0cc1565a64 In order to test some stuff, I needed to install Xubuntu in one of the hard drive partitions on a 5-6 year old generic tower machine. I downloaded the Xubuntu 14.04.1 AMD64 ISO, which at 935MB no longer fits on a single CD. So I burned a DVD+R. It failed to boot. The drive in which I burned it is rather suspect, so I tossed the DVD and changed tack: I've got a couple 4+ GB USB flash drives laying on my desk, so I decided to try making a bootable USB flash drive. Google pointed me to various sets of instructions which seemed to either involve either 1) Mounting the ISO image, copying files around, downloading various other bits, and just a lot of faffing around in general. 2) Installing something like unetbootin (which presumably automates all the faffing) which then requires installing a bunch of other stuff (including Qt). But, I found one blog post which said that just using 'dd' to copy an ISO image to the USB flash drive usually "just worked". So I dd'ed the 935MB ISO image to the flash drive and plugged it into the target machine, hit the reset button, hit F11 for the boot menu, picked the USB flash drive from the list, and Bob's your uncle: it booted and installed just fine. What I'm wondering is why all the blog posts, wiki pages, and HOWTOs showing either the complicated command-line procedures or dependency-heavy "USB creator" apps? (Many of them quite recent.) Did this work because the Xubuntu people do something special when creating the ISO image? (If so, then they have my thanks!) Is what I thought was a plain vanilla ASROCK/Nvidia AM2+ motherboard BIOS something special? (It's an AMI BIOS dated 2009, so it's nothing particularly recent.) -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! Let me do my TRIBUTE at to FISHNET STOCKINGS ... gmail.com