Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

savithari · 2012-12-25 19:52:53

Friends:

Merry Christmas to all. For those who had a good meal and browsing thru Arch forums, sorry to disturb you.

I need help.

I am trying to install Arch Linux on a USB drive from a Live USB stick. The install moves fine and I follow the standard Arch install but pointing to the USB drive as the target.

However, once the install is complete and I halt the machine and then I unplug the Live USB stick, then start the box(with the installed USB In the same USB socket) I receive the
/dev/by-disk/...... error.

I have the syslinux boot loader and I have not tried grub. Any help is appreciated.

Regards,
-Narahari

Trilby · 2012-12-25 20:11:44

Did you include the usb hook in your mkinitcpio.conf? I'm guessing not - add it, then rebuild the initramfs and you should be set.

EDIT: also, are you using UUIDs in syslinux.cfg? If not, you should.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-25 20:13:26)

savithari · 2012-12-26 14:06:01

Trilby wrote:

Did you include the usb hook in your mkinitcpio.conf? I'm guessing not - add it, then rebuild the initramfs and you should be set.
EDIT: also, are you using UUIDs in syslinux.cfg? If not, you should.

I used UUID's for sure but I did not know about usb hook.

Can I see an example of usb hook in the mkinitcpio.conf ?

-N

alphaniner · 2012-12-26 14:43:02

The usb hook is is deprecated in favor of the 'block' hook (see mkinitcpio --listhooks)

IOW, if you have the block hook you should be g2g

Trilby · 2012-12-26 15:23:22

Oops, I stand corrected. The block hook is pretty new - I've installed on several USB sticks and always needed the usb hook, but alphaniner is correct that it should not be needed if you have 'block'.

Do the latest isos have the block hook? And are you (savathari) using the latest iso?

For more complete examples see the wiki or man pages. Mine is below, but you should not simply copy it.

MODULES="ahci sd_mod ext4"
BINARIES="fsck fsck.ext4"
HOOKS="base timestamp"
COMPRESSION="lzop"

You'd want block or usb on the "HOOKS" line.

EDIT: if none of this applies/helps then post the actual error message. There is no /dev/by-disk, and paraphrased error messages only leave us guessing.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-26 15:25:22)

alphaniner · 2012-12-26 15:58:51

Trilby wrote:

Do the latest isos have the block hook?

Not according to mkinitcpio --listhooks run in the live environment.

DSpider · 2012-12-26 18:26:42

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/US … O_from_RAM

... It also allows booting and installing Arch from (and to) the same USB stick.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … nvironment

Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if ...

savithari · 2012-12-28 02:43:16

DSpider wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/US … O_from_RAM
It also allows booting and installing Arch from (and to) the same USB stick.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … nvironment
Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if ...

Now that I installed Linux on a USB drive with CD-ROM as the install source,

Can I (or should I) mod the mkinitcpio.conf to have

blocks

in the

HOOKS

line ?

There was talk of the blocks option not valid for HOOKS line. Is that still true ?, In that case what is my alternative ?

Kindly advise and help.

-N

Trilby · 2012-12-28 02:54:09

Yes, this is what we've all been pointing out.

Where is this talk of "blocks" not being valid? You either need the "usb" hook, or the "block" (not blocks) hook in your mkinitcpio.conf and have regenerated the initramfs in order to be able to boot from the installation on a usb stick.

alphaniner · 2012-12-28 14:08:40

Trilby wrote:

Where is this talk of "blocks" not being valid?

Maybe it was STDERR 'talking' if savithari used blocks instead of block.

savithari · 2012-12-28 17:54:25

First of all, a big Thank You to all who have helped me. It is very much appreciated.

I have since this conversaton put the target USB stick and a LIVE-CDROM.

I then installed from the CDROM to the USB. I checked the mkinitcpio.conf on the USB after the installation.

It has the block entry on the HOOKS line (without me doing anything).

The sysconfig.cfg file has the UUID entry.

I have tried mixing other USB sticks, rotating the USB-STICK(where ARCH is installed) to another slot. It all works fine.

But I really would like to be able to install from a USB-LIVE-STICK to a USB-STICK.

Is that feasible or install from CDROM to USB my best option ?

Regards
-N

Trilby · 2012-12-28 18:29:10

savithari wrote:

But I really would like to be able to install from a USB-LIVE-STICK to a USB-STICK.
Is that feasible ...?

Of course. I've done this many times. Have you tried this and had problems?

FYI, if you're making multiple USB installs, I've also installed from live-usb to usb, then configured the new install just the way I wanted it, then used `dd` to duplicate that usb (partitions and all) to other usb drives of the same size. This avoids having to go through the same install and configure steps repeatedly if you are making many persistent install usbs.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-28 18:30:45)

DSpider · 2012-12-29 10:06:13

savithari wrote:

But I really would like to be able to install from a USB-LIVE-STICK to a USB-STICK.
Is that feasible or install from CDROM to USB my best option ?

I already told you:

DSpider wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/US … O_from_RAM
... It also allows booting and installing Arch from (and to) the same USB stick.

Follow the link and give it a shot. If you don't have a Windows, you can combine it with the instructions from here (instead of a .bat file)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-12-25 19:52:53

Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#2 2012-12-25 20:11:44

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#3 2012-12-26 14:06:01

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#4 2012-12-26 14:43:02

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#5 2012-12-26 15:23:22

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#6 2012-12-26 15:58:51

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#7 2012-12-26 18:26:42

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#8 2012-12-28 02:43:16

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#9 2012-12-28 02:54:09

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#10 2012-12-28 14:08:40

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#11 2012-12-28 17:54:25

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#12 2012-12-28 18:29:10

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

#13 2012-12-29 10:06:13

Re: Installation on a USB stick from a Live USB

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