[ Prev ] [ Index ] [ Next ]

FC Installation from USB

Created 9/5/2010

This document describes installing a full FC Linux distribution from a usb flash device. It is assumed that the FC DVD ISO distribution is to be intalled. In this example, the Fedora Unity 64bit ISO (Fedora-Unity-20100303-12-x86_64-DVD.iso) is used.

1. Preparation of the USB Flash device

The target flash device needs to be partitioned correctly the partition needs to be bootable. The following uses fdisk(1) to partition the usb flash as a linux partition

Note: Aassume the flash device is /dev/sdb1

bash # fdisk /dev/sdb
    d        <-- delete option
    1            <-- for partiation 1
    n        <-- add new partition
    p            <-- primary partiation
    1                <-- partition number 1
    t        <-- change filesystem type
    83            <-- to Linux
    a        <-- toggle bootable
    1            <-- for partiation 1
    w        <-- write partiation table

Next, make an ext3 filesystem on the new partition:

bash # mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1

2. Prerequisite applications

Warning 1: unetbootin in seems to work only with debian. It should be possible to set the boot flag on the flash device and then use dd(1) to transfer the image

Warning 2: if creating bootable image on x86_64, be sure to install the i386 version of libfreetype

The simplest way to transfer an ISO image to a bootable flash device is to use unetbootin. Note that unetbootin requires p7zip.

bash # wget http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/12/x86_64/Fedora-Unity-20100303-12-x86_64-DVD.iso
bash # yum install p7zip-full
bash # yum install libfreetype.i386

3. Mount the target usb drive

Note: assume the flash device is /dev/sdb1

bash # mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/flash

4. Write the ISO

Start unetbootin as root

bash # unetbootin-linux-442

select "Diskimage", type "ISO" and provide pathname to ISO DVD image downloaded in #2. Select "Type" "USB Drive". If the target usb device is not shown, select the "Show All Drives (Use with Care)" checkbox (be sure to select the flash drive and not a SATA device). Figure 1 shows the unetbootin application with the above selections:

Stuart Moorfoot © May 2010 foo@bund.com.au

** assumes booting from a Fedora install (including livecd)
** adapted from [http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo#How_to_Make_a_bootable_USB_Drive_to_Install_Fedora_instead_of_using_a_physical_DVD|Bootable usb for Fedora install] **

1. download livecd-tools (or otherwise locate the livecd-iso-to-disk script)
2. download fc dvd iso image
3. download fc rawhide boot.iso image
4. umount target usb media
3. mount the DVD iso as loop

bash # mount -o loop /tmp/Fedora-13-x86_64-DVD.iso /mnt/loop

4. prepare the usb device

fdisk - partition (see above)
mkfs.ext3 (to format)

5. install the dvd iso to usb

** assume target usbdevice is /dev/sdb1 and is mounted to /mnt/usbdevice **

Need to have the usb device unmounted. There are 3 steps: a) copy the original iso to the target usb device, b) copy the loop mounted images directory to the target usb device and c) make the usb device bootable by writing (using livecd-iso-to-disk) the boot.iso image

bash # cp /tmp/Fedora-13-x86_64-DVD.iso /mnt/usbdevice
bash # cp -r /mnt/loop/images /dev/sdb1
bash # umount /dev/sdb1
bash # livecd-iso-to-disk /tmp/boot.iso /mnt/usbdevice

6. boot
choose bios settings to boot from usb reader of choice. This can often be done by entering the 'boot device' menu (typically F12). From here, the usb bootable device will appear under 'HDD', along with other disks. Once booted, the LiveCD can be installed to disk using the 'install to hd' application on the desktop.

7. Configure apps

yum:
Install 'fastestmirror' plugin and rpmfusion repo. Configure fc repo for access via a local or unmetered mirror. E.g., for telstra bigpond, use mirror.files.bigpond.com.

install rpm fusion repo's:

nvidia:

mp3:

Backlinks: