Hello,
I have downloaded Fedora 10 installation iso.
I want to install it from USB disk on key as my DVDrom is not working.
Will this work: first: dd if=linux_f10_iso.iso of=/dev/sdb and boot will start installation ? and then boot from the USB disk on key (after setting the BIOS to boot from USB disk on key, which is possible with my motherboard)
(/dev/sdb is my USB disk on key).
Second question: suppose I take a live cd of Feodra 9 and then try to install fedora 10 iso (from the HD) - will such thing work? Or **MUST** I use a live cd of the same version as the Fedora which I want to install (namely, the live cd and the fedora iso (which is on the disk) I am installing must be of the same version, namely fedora 10?
Rgs, Mark
Mark Ryden wrote:
Hello,
I have downloaded Fedora 10 installation iso.
I want to install it from USB disk on key as my DVDrom is not working.
Will this work: first: dd if=linux_f10_iso.iso of=/dev/sdb and boot will start installation ? and then boot from the USB disk on key (after setting the BIOS to boot from USB disk on key, which is possible with my motherboard)
No - the boot image on a DVD is at a different location then on a hard drive. (The USB key is seen as a hard drive.
(/dev/sdb is my USB disk on key).
Second question: suppose I take a live cd of Feodra 9 and then try to install fedora 10 iso (from the HD) - will such thing work?
No - it will want a F9 install media.
Or **MUST** I use a live cd of the same version as the Fedora which I want to install (namely, the live cd and the fedora iso (which is on the disk) I am installing must be of the same version, namely fedora 10?
You can use a live CD from the same version. You can use the instructions on installing from a hard drive to install F10.
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f10/en_US/sn-installing-from-har...
But I can not find the instructions to make the USB key boot into the install image. If someone else does not have the URL, or remember the instructions, you can use the directions for making a bootable USB drive with the live CD using the install image from the DVD. (<loop mounted DVD image>/images/boot.iso)
Mikkel
On Fri, 2009-02-06 at 16:50 +0200, Mark Ryden wrote:
Hello,
I have downloaded Fedora 10 installation iso.
I want to install it from USB disk on key as my DVDrom is not working.
Will this work: first: dd if=linux_f10_iso.iso of=/dev/sdb and boot will start installation ? and then boot from the USB disk on key (after setting the BIOS to boot from USB disk on key, which is possible with my motherboard)
(/dev/sdb is my USB disk on key).
Second question: suppose I take a live cd of Feodra 9 and then try to install fedora 10 iso (from the HD) - will such thing work? Or **MUST** I use a live cd of the same version as the Fedora which I want to install (namely, the live cd and the fedora iso (which is on the disk) I am installing must be of the same version, namely fedora 10?
---- see... https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2009-January/msg03114.html
which uses tool kit here... https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo
Craig
Mark Ryden wrote:
I have downloaded Fedora 10 installation iso.
I want to install it from USB disk on key as my DVDrom is not working.
Will this work: first: dd if=linux_f10_iso.iso of=/dev/sdb and boot will start installation ? and then boot from the USB disk on key (after setting the BIOS to boot from USB disk on key, which is possible with my motherboard)
Do you have a running Fedora system on that machine already?
If so there is a good alternative way to do it which I will detail below. You simply copy the iso file as an iso file onto the usb key first (i.e. not using dd).
Then if you have more than one partition on your machine you can copy the iso onto a non-root partition on your machine, as an iso file.
Then make a directory such as /mnt/tmp and then loop mount the iso onto that mount point by doing as root: # mount -o loop /path/to/Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso /mnt/tmp
Now as root still, copy the two key boot files from the iso into the /boot area: # cd /boot # cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/vmlinuz f10.install # cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/initrd.img f10.install.img
Now you have these two files in /boot Now add a suitable grub stanza to your grub.conf by doing # cd /boot/grub # vim grub.conf
Once in the editor add a set of lines after the last normal stanza in this file that boots Fedora, in the form: title Fedora 10 Install root (hd0,5) kernel /boot/f10.install initrd /boot/f10.install.img
Make sure that the line with root (hd0,5) matches the line in the previous stanza so that it picks the correct partition to boot from. i.e. select the correct drive and partition. Making it the same as the values from another stanza that boots your normal previous Fedora should be fine.
Exit vim using the "esc" button followed by ":" to get a command prompt and then "wq" to write the changed file to disk.
Now check the partition and path to the Fedora install iso file that you have on disk and write it down.
eg Let's say that you have /opt mounted on /dev/sda7 (check using "df -h") and the path was /opt/isos/Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso
You need to remember /dev/sda7 and the "relative" path will be /isos/Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso
Now all you need to do is to reboot the machine and interrupt grub so that you can select "Fedora 10 Install" to boot instead of the normal boot process.
If all has gone well you should now start to boot the Fedora 10 installer - and be able to start off the install. If you select a hard drive install, then select /dev/sda7 (or whatever it is on your machine for the partition containing your iso) and your correct relative path, then the install should proceed as normal. Note that you will not be able to format the partition containing your iso during the install.
If you use LVM then you will have to modify this approach accordingly.
This approach allows a full normal install.
If you do not have Linux already on the machine but just Windows then an alternative is to make a Live usbkey and boot that, and then once running you can select to install to HD from the desktop, but this has a much smaller selection of packages available than the DVD install.
On certain netbooks the advertised method of making a Live usbkey may not work - eg in my Samsung NC-10 that did not work when I first got it - and it does not have a DVD drive at all! So I ended up making a live usbkey using Unetbootin (google for it), and that worked fine.
So the basic message is that there are alternative methods to using optical media for installing Fedora - and of course there are also http, vnc, or network boot options also. However the DVD iso method from HD I described above as served me well for some years.
I hope this helps.
Mike Cloaked wrote:
# mount -o loop /path/to/Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso /mnt/tmp
Now as root still, copy the two key boot files from the iso into the /boot area: # cd /boot # cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/vmlinuz f10.install # cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/initrd.img f10.install.img
There is another important point that I forgot to add - when copying files out of the loop mounted iso you also need to copy the "images" directory into the SAME directory that the iso is residing in so at this stage you also need to do:
# cp -R /mnt/tmp/images /path/to/ (where /path/to is the path to the directory holding the Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso file).
The rest of the guide should work as described.
Mike Cloaked wrote:
On certain netbooks the advertised method of making a Live usbkey may not work - eg in my Samsung NC-10 that did not work when I first got it - and it does not have a DVD drive at all! So I ended up making a live usbkey using Unetbootin (google for it), and that worked fine.
If you do want to use Unetbootin the basic method I used for the Samsung NC-10 was: since I only had XP running on the system, as purchased, I used UNetbootin running in XP to create a bootable usbkey containing PartedMagic 3.4 since I wanted to partition the drive before installing Fedora on it for added safety in case the install went wrong. http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNetbootin
The PartedMagic iso is available from http://partedmagic.com/
So booting PartedMagic from the bootable usbkey that resulted allowed me to create two ext3 partitions (one to be used for root /) and a swap partition but also leave the original XP c: drive and shrink the d: drive to accommodate the linux ext3 partitions. There is also a hidden recovery partition which I did not touch. The intention was to use manual disk partitioning during F10 install to control where Fedora 10 would install and also to control how the non-root partition would be mounted.
In this case I decided to use the Gnome LiveCD iso for Fedora 10 as the install media but to make a bootable usbkey for this using Unetbootin a second time and generate a second bootable Live usbkey.
I still don't know why the method of making a bootable Live usbkey detailed in the Fedora wiki did not allow the system to boot from the key in this case. However the bootable key made using Unetbootin worked just fine which was why I took this method to install.
I suppose it would have been just as easy to make a bootable usbkey copy of the DVD iso instead of the LiveCD iso although it would have been a little tighter on disk space since the iso would have to be copied onto the c: drive in windows to use with Unetbootin. It could have been done on another machine entirely of course if you have one available.
No doubt other people will post their favourite method for achieving an install when no optical drive is available but these one or other of the methods outlined should get you going.
Of course starting with an install to hard drive from a LiveCD image means that more applications will likely need to be installed after the new system is running and more work will need to be done to optimise the system later compared to a DVD install unless the system runs a basic desktop only and minimal server functions are needed.