UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

tuxcantfly · 2007-09-21 06:35:52

Main Website At http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html

What This Does

It's an installer for Windows or Linux users that lets you install Arch Linux without a CD. The way it works is that a small (20 MB) installer places the PXE (netboot) version of the Arch Linux installer on your hard drive, and configures your boot loader, either NTLDR if using Windows, or GRUB if using Linux, to boot from the PXE installer, and downloads and installs Arch Linux from the net.

Requirements

You will need to either have a Windows (95-Vista) or Linux (any distro that uses GRUB) install already on your hard drive. You'll also need an internet connection. Apart from that, the requirements are the same as the standard Arch Linux requirements.

Instructions

Download the appropriate installer package from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile … _id=198821

If using Windows, download the .exe file, if using Fedora or another rpm-based distro, download the .rpm file, if using Ubuntu or another deb-based distro, download the .deb file, and if using a distro that doesn't support rpm or deb, download the sh file.

Then, install the package, and reboot. A menu entry should appear in the boot menu, titled "UNetbootin". Select that entry, and boot.

When you get to the installer prompt, enter:

/arch/setup

And that will start the installer. When asked for a source of installation media, select "FTP". After that, the installation will be the same as if it were done using a CD; just follow the usual steps for selecting packages and partitioning, then wait as Arch Linux is downloaded from the FTP servers and installed.

More

UNetbootin also supports Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Mandriva, Debian, and Fedora. Post a reply if you need any help, new features, or another supported distro. The website is located at http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html

Notes

If installation from FTP is broken, or if you already have the iso file, install using the iso from the hard drive; details at http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 90#p284090

Last edited by tuxcantfly (2007-10-29 04:00:10)

hokasch · 2007-09-24 10:58:11

Awesome! Exactly what i needed!

But perhaps you should place a warning about the ftp-Installation currently not working, because of the changes to repositories.

would be great to use the lubi installer with an arch base-iso instead, but from what I read it is only working for ubuntu & derivates at the moment.

P.S.: just for personal interest/getting things straight:
is unetbootin working in a similar way to what I tried here (1st post/second paragraph)? or is it something totally different ("pxe"...). just give me a hint and a link, I will than read by myself...

thanks again for this highly usefull contribution!

hokasch

azerty · 2007-09-24 15:14:59

Very interesting, I'll probably test it these days...
Keep up

tuxcantfly · 2007-09-24 20:18:09

hokasch wrote:

But perhaps you should place a warning about the ftp-Installation currently not working, because of the changes to repositories.

Whoops, sorry, didn't notice that issue; I had been using my local mirror of packages on my hard drive for testing. I've added that warning; for now extract the packages from the iso and select "hard drive" as the installation source.

hokasch wrote:

would be great to use the lubi installer with an arch base-iso instead, but from what I read it is only working for ubuntu & derivates at the moment.

Yes, Lubi has a dependency on d-i (the debian installer), so I wouldn't be able to port Lubi to other distros, not to mention that it installs to a loopmounted filesystem, which is probably not a desired configuration in the long term; when I originally created it, in the form of the Windows-based Ubuntu Installer (now Wubi), the main purpose of using the loopmounted filesystem was so that new users who are intimidated by the partitioning process wouldn't have to do it, but presumably, if you're installing a relatively advanced distro like Arch, you probably know how to partition a hard drive, so there aren't really any advantages to using a loopmounted-install approach when it comes to Arch.

hokasch wrote:

P.S.: just for personal interest/getting things straight:
is unetbootin working in a similar way to what I tried here (1st post/second paragraph)? or is it something totally different ("pxe"...). just give me a hint and a link, I will than read by myself...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Ex … nvironment Yes it's practically the same (that's just basically doing manually what UNetbootin does automatically, at least in the case of Linux; for Windows the bootloader hacks are different); netboot initrd and PXE initrd are interchangeably used; I have more details on how UNetbootin works here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=427540

tuxcantfly · 2007-09-25 01:07:13

This is how you can install Arch from a base or standard Arch iso you have already downloaded to your hard drive, without needing a CD; this is to be used as a temporary workaround while Arch's FTP servers are undergoing the transition between repos:

1. Download the Arch Install iso (either base or full will do), then install UNetbootin for Arch, procedure described in http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=283021
2. When you reboot, before running /arch/setup, do the following:

mkdir /temphdd
mount /dev/sda1 /temphdd
mount -o loop /temphdd/archlinux.iso /src

Here, I'm assuming that you downloaded the arch iso directly to partition 1 of hard drive 1 (/dev/sda1); adjust the filenames of the iso and directories accordingly. When you enter in:

ls /src

You should see "arch" and "isolinux". If not, you must have mounted something to the wrong spot; go back and check the commands you entered.

3. Now, run:

/arch/setup

And when you get to step 2 (select packages), select "Other/Src" installation media. It should then give you a list of packages to install. If it doesn't, and gives you an error (could not find /src/arch/pkg), go back to step 2; otherwise, if it goes well, select the packages and continue on with the standard install process.

Notes

Make sure you don't delete the partiton on which the iso is stored during the partitioning stage; also make sure that if you need to do partitioning for that partition, do it before mounting the partition and iso (you can't resize partitions while they're mounted).

Last edited by tuxcantfly (2007-09-25 01:18:52)

tuxcantfly · 2007-10-08 07:24:08

Archlinux 2007.08 has been released, and it now actually has a working ftp install, which means a new build of UNetbootin for Arch... See the usual spot at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile … _id=198821 for downloads (exe, sh, deb, and rpm formats)

tuxcantfly · 2007-10-10 05:00:19

I've uploaded some 64-bit Arch Linux UNetbootin builds. Check the download page at https://sourceforge.net/project/showfil … _id=198821 Since the packages are all marked as "noarch/all", you don't need to necessarily install 32-bit from a 32-bit OS, or 64-bit from a 64-bit OS; you can install 64-bit if your processor is capable of it (amd64 or intel core2 and above), even if you're running a 32-bit Windows or Linux install.

tuxcantfly · 2007-10-29 03:59:18

I've updated the Arch Linux UNetbootin builds to support installing from Windows Vista, usual download spot at https://sourceforge.net/project/showfil … _id=198821

tuxcantfly · 2007-12-24 19:07:22

Happy holidays folks, nothing like cranking out shell scripts and tinkering with MBRs over winter break... anyhow...

I've released a new version of UNetbootin, shell-script (.sh) version, now with 2 oft-requested features:

1. Ability to install from a liveCD or other live-media (liveUSB) install, as well as the ability to specify a target partition and (optionally) grub or lilo as the bootloader (this is the installmode=nohost option)
2. Ability to install to a USB drive in order to create a bootable-USB-netboot installer (this is the installmode=usbdrive option)

As for the original behavior (chainload from the host hard-drive grub installation), that can be accessed through the installmode=tohost option.

Anyhow, here's the syntax and options for running (This example is for Fedora 8, but I've also uploaded the new .sh builds for Ubuntu 7.10, openSUSE 10.3, Debian 4.0, CentOS 5.1, Arch Linux, Mandriva 2008, and Slackware 12.0):

If you are running this script from a host, hard-drive Linux install, and want the GRUB bootloader installed in /boot to be used, enter:

./unetbootin-fedora8rev49.sh installmode=tohost

Otherwise, if you are running this script from a liveCD or other live, non-hard drive media, or the installmode=tohost option fails, or you want to specify your target partition (targetpartition=/dev/sda1) or (optionally) the bootloader (bootloader=grub or bootloader=lilo), enter, in addition to the targetpartition and formatpartition options:

./unetbootin-fedora8rev49.sh installmode=nohost targetpartition=/dev/sda1 formatpartition=yes

Otherwise, if you want to install to a USB drive, enter, in addition to the targetpartition and formatpartition options:

./unetbootin-fedora8rev49.sh installmode=usbdrive targetpartition=/dev/sda1 formatpartition=yes

Ususal download spot at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile … _id=198821

el mariachi · 2008-01-26 19:37:23

This is my salvation. I have an old Toshiba Satellite that I want to put to use, but it's cd drive is jammed.

When I boot to UNetbootin it crashes with a Kernel Panic error.. why does this happen?

tuxcantfly · 2008-01-26 19:48:13

el mariachi wrote:

This is my salvation. I have an old Toshiba Satellite that I want to put to use, but it's cd drive is jammed.
When I boot to UNetbootin it crashes with a Kernel Panic error.. why does this happen?

Most likely, it's some hardware incompatibility with ArchLinux of some sort (I've encountered that error a few times when running off some obscure hard drive controllers, this is probably the same situation). Either that, or your machine ran out or RAM while launching the installer (the initrd are kernel rather large, around 40 MB compressed and even more uncomressed, so you might run into issues if you have less than around 128 MB of RAM). If you want to try Linux on the machine, but don't specifically need Arch, I'd suggest just trying a different distro; they might be more compatible with whatever hardware is causing the kernel panic.

el mariachi · 2008-01-26 19:55:06

what would you recommend?
it's a toshiba s1700-200
64mb ram
650mhz celeron

tuxcantfly · 2008-01-26 19:58:19

el mariachi wrote:

what would you recommend?
it's a toshiba s1700-200
64mb ram
650mhz celeron

Damn Small Linux (aka DSL) should work nicely, if you try anything with a full-blown desktop environment like XFCE it'll run unbearably slow. Debian or Ubuntu (or basically anything) with Fluxbox or IceWM should also run well.

Last edited by tuxcantfly (2008-01-26 20:04:47)

el mariachi · 2008-01-26 20:14:15

that's what I thought. I was going for the Arch Linux + Xmonad/awesomeWM combo.
But since it's picky about ram... I'm so sad with this:(

chuckychuck · 2008-07-01 11:04:31

hi !
sorry to up this 6 months old post

but does this installation method still works with the newest archlinux release ?

thanks

wuischke · 2008-07-01 13:23:59

Just to comment about this program: It is great! I used it to install NetBSD on my laptop. It works really nicely and is very easy to use. My compliments! Plus, I have learned what it does (at least for NetBSD) and will be able to do this myself the next time.

tuxcantfly · 2008-07-01 15:23:40

chuckychuck wrote:

hi !
sorry to up this 6 months old post
but does this installation method still works with the newest archlinux release ?
thanks

Yeah, still works. You'll want the version from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ though, and you'll need to manually specify the FTP-install ISO ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/iso/2008.06/arc … p-i686.iso for the latest release. I'll have the guide and application updated soon for the latest release.

Last edited by tuxcantfly (2008-07-01 15:24:38)

chuckychuck · 2008-07-01 17:28:57

ok, you mean i need the gui version of unetbootin that allows to choose iso/initrd/kernels?
not the archlinux-ready version of unetbootin found on that page http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile … _id=198821 ?

thanks

and, just to be curious, i had already installed some linux distros from the hard disk, but without your script, i had just copied initrd and vmlinuz files from the isos' isolinux directory, and then added an entry in my grub for these 2 files
then i booted these, and the distro installer prompts the installation method ( ftp, iso located on hard disk etc .. ) then the installation begun as normal

what does your script precisely do in the case of archlinux, are there any additional steps ? ( as the /arch/setup is not "contained" within the initrd and kernels, so the initrd image and the kernel are not sufficient to lead to the installation method screen isn't it ? )

i tried to read the sources, but i'm far from fluent in cpp so ...

tuxcantfly · 2008-07-01 19:52:30

chuckychuck wrote:

ok, you mean i need the gui version of unetbootin that allows to choose iso/initrd/kernels?
not the archlinux-ready version of unetbootin found on that page http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile … _id=198821 ?
thanks
and, just to be curious, i had already installed some linux distros from the hard disk, but without your script, i had just copied initrd and vmlinuz files from the isos' isolinux directory, and then added an entry in my grub for these 2 files
then i booted these, and the distro installer prompts the installation method ( ftp, iso located on hard disk etc .. ) then the installation begun as normal
what does your script precisely do in the case of archlinux, are there any additional steps ? ( as the /arch/setup is not "contained" within the initrd and kernels, so the initrd image and the kernel are not sufficient to lead to the installation method screen isn't it ? )
i tried to read the sources, but i'm far from fluent in cpp so ...

Oh darn nevermind I replied too fast; I was looking at the contents of a previous release's ISO file. The initrd file's name appears to have changed to "archlive.img" in the latest version, so no UNetbootin won't work with it for now, until I've updated it. The way it works is that it extracts the contents of the ISO file to the target drive (these days installation to USB drives appears to be the most widely-used approach), locates the grub, syslinux configs to get the boot parameters, and attempts to locate the kernel and initrd files based on filesize and name patterns (which the current version has an issue with). So sorry, you'll have to wait for the next release (or you can work around this issue by copying /boot/archlive.img to /ubninit after installation, it should work then)

Last edited by tuxcantfly (2008-07-01 20:23:20)

chuckychuck · 2008-07-01 20:17:53

no problem, thanks for your help

pete-the-meat · 2009-02-04 21:00:46

I know this thread is really old but I was attempting to use UnetBootIn and the latest core iso to install arch onto my netbook but am having some problems - using tuxcantfly's instructions to mount the iso and point the installer at those files but the installer tells me, and ls backs this up, that /src/core/pkg does not exist. I, in my noobish mindset, remounted the iso somewhere else and created a simlink from /src/core/pkg to the directory in ithe iso which contains all the tar.gz's but this didn't work, from here I am completely stumped as to what to do. Any help would be appreciated since I have the feeling that Ubuntu is frying it and don't want it on there any longer than necessary.

Cheers

Last edited by pete-the-meat (2009-02-05 15:11:20)

meti · 2009-07-22 10:50:45

----I have a toshiba satellite l300 notebook with vista OS and I want a dual OS that includes archlinux. I followed all the steps provided to install the unetbootin for arch. But after the reboot i dont get the installer prompt. Instead I get a message saying
....... /sbin/hwdetect: line 336: 506 Segmentation fault modprobe $i > /dev/null
2>&1
iwl3945 : Copyright .. Intel
can anyone help me.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-09-21 06:35:52

UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#2 2007-09-24 10:58:11

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#3 2007-09-24 15:14:59

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#4 2007-09-24 20:18:09

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#5 2007-09-25 01:07:13

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#6 2007-10-08 07:24:08

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#7 2007-10-10 05:00:19

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#8 2007-10-29 03:59:18

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#9 2007-12-24 19:07:22

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#10 2008-01-26 19:37:23

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#11 2008-01-26 19:48:13

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#12 2008-01-26 19:55:06

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#13 2008-01-26 19:58:19

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#14 2008-01-26 20:14:15

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#15 2008-07-01 11:04:31

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#16 2008-07-01 13:23:59

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#17 2008-07-01 15:23:40

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#18 2008-07-01 17:28:57

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#19 2008-07-01 19:52:30

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#20 2008-07-01 20:17:53

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#21 2009-02-04 21:00:46

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

#22 2009-07-22 10:50:45

Re: UNetbootin: Install Arch Linux Without a CD From FTP

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