test Digest, Vol 91, Issue 70 (dd of netinstall.iso to USB)

[Thomas C Gilliard]

>
>    1. Another issue with install and GPT (Scott Robbins)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 07:52:55 -0400
> From: Scott Robbins <scottro at nyc.rr.com>
> Subject: Another issue with install and GPT
> To: For testers of Fedora Core development releases
> 	<test at lists.fedoraproject.org>
> Message-ID: <20110917115255.GA7545 at scott1.scottro.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
>
> I accidentally sent this through a different address, so I think it's
> just going to come back to me.  If it turns out to be a double post,
> please forgive me.
>
>
>
> I'm not sure if this is a bug, or a one time fluke.  I don't have time
> or hardware to do several test installs, but perhaps someone else has
> experienced it.  
>
> What happened:  I used unetbootin (yes, I know it's not supported, but I
> believe dd-ing an image to USB is supported, and might have the same
> result.)
>
> I installed.  I was not notified of a problem with not having a small
> BIOS partition and thought the machine might have EFI support.  
>
> After installation, I was unable to boot.  (This was at work, while
> doing several things, and didn't write down the error.)  Having seen
> some bugs having to do with SELinux, also tried to boot with enforce=0
> but no luck.
>
>   
A-) Try using dd directly:
> # dd if=Fedora-16-Beta-RC1-i386-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdg bs=2M
> 132+0 records in
> 132+0 records out
> 276824064 bytes (277 MB) copied, 28.6564 s, 9.7 MB/s
The resulting USB Boots anaconda fine (just tested it on ACER ASPIRE ONE 
N450) used it to write to /dev/sdb (2nd target USB)
graphical desktop/customize now /sugar-desktop only
installing now....

B-) Here are 2 methods that work for me on f15-f16 live isos:

1-)Booted CD: use diskutility on live CD or gparted to erase USB 
(/dev/sdb?) then format as ext4
use "liveinst" to USB     custom:/ ext4 no swap
(2x time as large USB req - swap is a bad use on a USB)

2_)For fedora liveusb-creator use terminal: "liveusb-creator --reset-mbr"
choose .iso; set persistence size. ( use gparted fat formatted USB here)

Have fun....

Tom Gilliard
satellit_ on #sugar freenode IRC
> I then reinstalled, this time making a 1 or 2 MB BIOS partition,  It
> installed with problem.
>
> What I think might have happened:
>
> When I got to partitioning, the USB stick was shown as /dev/sdb.  It had
> the EFI partition on it, put there, I imagine, when Unetbootin installed
> the netinstall.iso that I used.  Therefore, Anaconda saw that there was
> a BIOS partition and didn't give a warning. 
>
> If this is the case, IMHO, it should just be pointed out in the release
> notes.  Ideally, Anaconda would figure it out and point it out, but I
> imagine that would be a lot of work, and it's late, and certainly not,
> again IMHO, a blocker.
>
> I reiterate, I don't know if that is what happened, it's just what I
> think happened, and perhaps there was some other thing that I missed
> that caused the first install to not boot.  Perhaps someone could test
> this--install, from a USB onto a drive with no BIOS boot partition (and
> no builtin EFI support), see if such a partition is shown on the USB
> stick and see if, after installation, it boots.   
>