Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

bamowo · 2010-01-24 00:02:17

Hello,

New user here. Have been messing around with Arch in a VM and now want to try a true hdd install. I don't have an optical drive so I'm trying to go the USB route.

The computer does allow booting from USB but I am having trouble in this case.

I have tried unetbootin and it completes writing to the stick without a hitch. However, upon boot, a black screen is displayed with the word "boot:" and a flashing cursor. It does not have the normal Arch grub menu. I can't figure out where to go from there. I believe this is not the correct behavior because I tried unetbootin w/ backtrack 3 as well and it booted right into the correct menu. (Used the standard FTP iso for this, the application could not find an iso based on the drop downs so I pointed to it using the "ISO" method.)

Secondly, I tried the method listed in the Arch guide's using dd .

sean@david-u:~/Downloads$ sudo dd bs=8M if=archlinux-2009.08-netinstall-x86_64.img of=/dev/sdf
23+1 records in
23+1 records out
195641856 bytes (196 MB) copied, 50.1885 s, 3.9 MB/s

Using this method, upon boot, at POST, before the system gets to the boot devices, it hangs hard. Nothing but a hard restart brings it out. My downloaded img md5sum matches the md5sums.txt, however I cannot verify that the written md5sum matches the image file as I'm not sure how to capture the fact that dd says it wrote 23+1 records. See below:

sean@david-u:~/Downloads$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdf count=23 status=noxfer | md5sum
23+0 records in
23+0 records out
21915d144f3b0c05d7d72c6cad297353  -
sean@david-u:~/Downloads$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdf count=24 status=noxfer | md5sum
24+0 records in
24+0 records out
9923f522012aff9182b708db23197988  -
sean@david-u:~/Downloads$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdf count=23+1 status=noxfer | md5sum
dd: invalid number `23+1'
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e  -
sean@david-u:~/Downloads$ cat archlinux-2009.08-netinstall-x86_64.img | md5sum
64cdedf65f5da1b1ca584fe12a892ca1  -

Thirdly, I tried creating one per http://wiki.debian.org/BootUsb however it seems that the paths to some files are different. This method gets me the furthest. The Arch grub menu displays but if I type 'arch' to start the kernel loading it reports that it cannot find '/boot/vmlinuz26' I tried all sorts of things, moving around the files, but couldn't get it to find the kernel.

Fourthly, I tried the Gujin method but when i try to 'cat archlinux-2009.08-netinstall-x86_64-isolinux.iso > /dev/sdf5' it gives me permission denied regardless of whether it's mounted or not or if im running as root or not.

Suffice it to say, I'm getting frustrated here as I probably don't understand some of these things as much as I should. Anyone have any similar experiences/solutions they can share?

Ultraman · 2010-01-24 00:12:32

nvm... what I said was not it

Last edited by Ultraman (2010-01-24 00:14:19)

lilsirecho · 2010-01-24 00:21:18

Unetbootin is used to create "live" usb OS systems from "Live" cd or dvd .ISO's( note the "Live").

Thus in Arch you would need a "live" .iso, not a standard "install" .iso to utilize unetbootin.

If you find a good arch "live" .iso that works, let me know about it.

tomk · 2010-01-24 01:19:30

lilsirecho - the arch install images are live systems. They create a working Arch system when booted, prior to installation on the hard drive. They just have a lot less on them than most "conventional" live isos.

Chakra and godane's arch-live are said to be good - I haven't tried either myself though.

lilsirecho · 2010-01-24 03:29:37

Tomk;

Wasn't aware of the capability of the arch ftp .iso. Somehow it hasn't appeared on my radar screen.

Does it also provide persistence? Does it run in ram with squashfs?

Can't believe it is "Live" like Faunos....

Last edited by lilsirecho (2010-01-24 03:42:26)

lilsirecho · 2010-01-24 04:13:49

Some background info on unetbootin reveals it doesn't always work.

One "live" .iso called avlinux3.iso based on debian does not work , in its full-size format. It does however in a reduced size called avlinux3R1 which is compatible with unetbootin which was generated to solve the unetbootin difficulty.EDIT: The USB is fat32 for unetbootin AFAICT.

I apologize for misinterpreting the goal of the OP and leave it be.....

My definition of "live" is more involved than merely initial install of minimal OS.

Last edited by lilsirecho (2010-01-24 04:16:34)

TheSaint · 2010-01-24 10:59:37

I did setup Arch on a UFD. There are few simple steps to take care:
1) the disk to format, partition (if necessary) and install is the UFD
2) add the usb hooks on /etc/mkinitcpio.conf during the setup.
3) correct /boot/grub/menu.lst to point at (hd0,x) as the root system (x should reflect the install partition). Normally is hd0,0.

This will gives a running Archlinux on a pocket size, no squashfs used and upgradeable any time.

F

lamegaptop · 2010-01-24 21:23:34

I think the poster wants a USB from which to boot and install from. I do this all the time like this-

Format USB (I use fat, not sure it matters since dd overwrites anyhow) Make sure to flag as boot partition.

Plug in USB stick again and do a dmesg in terminal to find the /dev/sd?? assigned.

As root -

dd if=<enter .img file here> of=/dev/sd??

For example -

sudo dd if=archlinux-2009.08-netinstall-x86_64.img of=/dev/sdf

Works for me every time. It sounds as if your USB is not flagged bootable.

bamowo · 2010-01-24 22:14:35

using dd to write an image onto the stick locks up the computer if i plug it in before the bios calls the first bootable device. very odd.

anyway, i wouldn't say this is solved, but i performed a workaround by extracting the contents of the iso to a temporary hd partition and used my existing grub menu from ubuntu to boot the temp partition. then installed to another partition.

thanks all.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-24 00:02:17

Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#2 2010-01-24 00:12:32

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#3 2010-01-24 00:21:18

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#4 2010-01-24 01:19:30

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#5 2010-01-24 03:29:37

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#6 2010-01-24 04:13:49

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#7 2010-01-24 10:59:37

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#8 2010-01-24 21:23:34

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

#9 2010-01-24 22:14:35

Re: Writing ftp install img to USB and booting

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