I would probably set all my rubber points here to get some real help for creating a boot device on a usb-stick. There is no CD-drive on this machine, thats why I need to use a usb-stick. And scrumming in a CD-drive to fuddle around in the fstab or something like that is out of reach.
My wisdom so far told me to type the following code to shovel the iso to the usb-stick, but under bsd it does not.
Code:
dd if=/your/path/to/distro.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=16k
the bsd root terminal tells me
Code:
dd: /dev/sdx: Operation not supported
no matter if upper or lower case the x, no other explanation naming the device sdc1, sdb1.
Another commandline like
Code:
cp /path/to/distro.iso /dev/sdc1
gives me no result either. The usb-stick is formatted, but even typing in the root terminal
Code:
mkfs.ext3 -I /dev/sdc1
it tells me
Code:
command not found
I am using ghostbsd.
Any hints are highly appreciated. Thanks in advance. to correct my error I typed
Code:
fdisk -BI /dev/da0
to make it work on a non-BSD system I would furthermore type
Code:
newfs_msdosfs /dev/da0s1
but I get the message
Code:
fdisk: Failed to write MBR. Try to use gpart(8)
Doing so,
Code:
gpart -BI /dev/da0
I spend the weekend and more time reading and testing all ways to format that usb-stick, so may there is someone who can give me a clue and to get the iso on that same usb-drive. The only information about the usb-drive with Gsmartcontrol about the usb-drive and gpart in the root terminal I can get is the following, one shows me the entire 8GB, command line tells the following
There's quite of lot of knowledge needed to create a bootable USB stick manually from the command line. I've forgotten more than I can remember about that because nowadays I always cheat.
Do you want to know how to do this manually as a learning exercise or do you just want to get it done anyway you can?
Do you have a Windows machine available to you?
I see the media you are starting with is an iso and you can't just dd an iso image to a USB stick and expect it to boot.
My preference would be to put the iso file on a Windows platform and then download (free) a copy of Rufus. Tell Rufus that it's an iso file as input and it will do the whole thing for you.
If you don't have a Windows box take a look at Unetbootin. That will do the same thing on unix/Linux.
Of course, the bios of your machine that you want to boot from USB must support that and have that function enabled but I guess you already know that.
It depends what you want/need to learn about this but, as I say, I just cheat. Other members on here might be able to tell you how to do it manually but I can't remember all the details.
just bsd at reach, unetbootin on bsd I never tried
I will have to do it the hard way, no windows or linux at reach. Format a usb-stick, make it bootable, put on the iso just to set up a linux without a CD-drive but UEFI, my true honey.
Last edited by 1in10; 03-26-2016 at 11:34 AM..
Reason: grammar and spelling
I am working on both, two machines, one with GhostBSD, the second (today) PCBSD. So I tried a lot with the command line gpart(8) like this.
The following steps had to be done, with some success just to get a simple usb-stick to be seen and formatted.
It is about to create a bootable usb-stick with a linux iso for an UEFI machine, to be created on that very one BSD machines.
Code:
gpart destroy -F da0
da0 destroyed
Code:
newfs_msdos /dev/da0
newfs_msdos: trim 16 sectors to adjust to a multiple of 32
/dev/da0: 2001440 sectors in 62545 FAT16 clusters (16384 bytes/cluster)
BytesPerSec=512 SecPerClust=32 ResSectors=1 FATs=2 RootDirEnts=512 Media=0xf0 FATsecs=245 SecPerTrack=32 Heads=64 HiddenSecs=0 HugeSectors=2001984
I tried
Code:
newfs_ext2 /dev/da0
with no success.
This one shows at least what has been done so far
Code:
diskinfo -v da0
But any further gpart command results in
Code:
gpart add -t pclinuxos64-mate-2016.03-boot -l gpboot -b 40 -s 512K da0
gpart: Invalid number of arguments.
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 da0
gpart: No such geom: da0.
It is an iso of about 795MB, nothing special.
Once again creating the drive (I guess not the slice on it)
Code:
gpart create -s gpt da0
da0 created
Make it e UEFI memory stick of a certain size (I took 820MB)
Code:
gpart add -t efi -s 820MB da0
da0p1 added
gpart bootcode -b /boot/mbr da0
bootcode written to da0
What comes now is not what I want to!!!! But it is part of that instruction.......
THIS IS WHAT I DON'T WANT FOR SURE, I AM AIMING FOR THAT DISTRO MENTIONED ABOVE!
Code:
# gpart add -t freebsd da0
# gpart set -a active -i 1 da0
So should I type like this????
Code:
gpart add -t pclinuxos64-mate-2016.03
gpart set -a active -i 1 da0
Here comes a sample how to create a boot.iso (note: I am trying to copy an .iso)
This is taken from Disk Setup On FreeBSD
I did not yet dare to haul it all over, thats why I am asking here.
I will get me another coffee, later on I will try again the part. This machine does not offer a CD-drive, so it has to be done the hard way. Or I will go to burn a DVD or CD in a netcafe. And last but not least, I want to erase a usb-stick that is already a bootable-usb-drive, but this doesn't work at all with gpart(8).
after a while I came across not only the man pages but some other explanation, that should help, but it doesn't
First create a partition
Code:
gpart create -s gpt da0
then having a look
Code:
gpart show da0
=>
slicing and dicing a partition
Code:
gpart add -t mbr da0
gpart: geom 'da0': Operation not permitted
gpart add -t mbr da0s1
gpart: No such geom: da0s1.
newfs /dev/da0s1
newfs: /dev/da0s1: could not find special device
newfs /dev/da0
newfs: /dev/da0: failed to open disk for writing
mount -t msdosfs /dev/md0 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/efi/boot
cp loader.efi /mnt/efi/bootx64.efi
cp: loader.efi: No such file or directory
umount /mntmdconfig -d -u 0
This remains unsolved, on the list to be done the hard way, just learned that I first delete a slice and afterwards I destroy it. Another laptop and a DVD saved my day. If I find a way to create a bootable usb-stick from a BSD machine to set up a linux image, I put it here.
Last edited by 1in10; 03-29-2016 at 08:12 PM..
Reason: remains unsolved, but on the list to get things done
Well it took me sometime until I discovered on distrowatch.com a kind of new distro. So I loaded it down an here it comes, it is the good old unetbootin (unetbootin-source-625.tar.gz) that handles my task just the way it should, creating a bootable usb-drive.
Going one step further I could do so as well with bleachbit, but I see what is left after the cleaning, I hang on to my command line
Last edited by rbatte1; 01-18-2017 at 07:47 AM..
Reason: Merged in to original thread, so removed the comment about old thread being closed.
For debian iso, for instance, a simple dd on whole device (not partition) should create usb bootable disk.
As i see online, it should work for PCBSD as well, if whole device is used not partition.
This will, of course leave no space, but you can resize carefully after (with parted or similar tool, dunno in BSD really) and create additional partition and filesystem from remaining space.
My suggestion is, if machine supports PXE and has network, use it.
It's much easier to handle, supporting all kinds of goodies.
I am trying to use a USB (Pen?) drive on Unixware 7.1.4.
The USB stick is in the machine and the machine recognises it when I enter usbprobe as follows:
Path - Address Description
-----------------------------
+++++++ BUS #2
0 - 1 - HUB "UHCI Root Hub"
1 - 2 - HID "Chicony Wireless Device"... (1 Reply)
I'd like to install the OS on my stick. I would like to be able to save my works there and install apps or customize the OS.
What can I do
Ps. At home I use an iMac, but in the school where I work there are only PC...
Ty (2 Replies)
hi
Howto mount an USB stick under SCO 5.0.7?
BTW ist it possible to mount USB stick in the command line using 'tools' at the Boot: prompt from OpenServer Release 5.0.7 installation CD? (1 Reply)
Hey Guys
I have an Ubuntu CD and I was thinking of creating like a bootable hard drive with various OS so that I can just boot OSs with t drive and not require the CDs. I was just wondering is there a way I can do this, like have Ubuntu boot from a USB stick? If yes how is that possible(even if I... (3 Replies)
Hello,
i am using a solaris thinclient that tries to connecting to a terminalserver. (RDP) Everything works fine, but the usb redirection. If i put in a usb stick i always get 2 usb-drives mounted. If i look in /tmp/SUNWut/mnt/<name of the host> i see 2 devices. One with the name of the... (2 Replies)
When mounting a USB stick or pen drive on a FreeBSD machine I always issue the following command:
mount -t msdosfs /dev/da0s1 /mnt
Something I have always wondered is what the option msdosfs stands for and more importantly, why it is necessary. (7 Replies)
Dummies questions, perfect for this. I cannot mount my idiotic usb stick on Slackware, I input the following on non-graphic mode as root:
Mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1/usbstick
usbstick is the folder i created for mounting my USB, the file system is FAT, and everytime I input that I get some kind... (2 Replies)
I inserted a 8GB usb stick in a number of machine with FreeBSD 7.1, but the medium was not detected:
$ dmesg | grep MB
usable memory = 4263022592 (4065 MB)
avail memory = 4082540544 (3893 MB)
pci0: <serial bus, SMBus> at device 31.3 (no driver attached)
ad0: 238475MB <WDC WD2500BEVT-00ZCT0... (6 Replies)
I have a P-Series Machine running AIX 5.3, it has a USB Port on the front of the server, can I use a USB Stick on AIX platforms?? if so how..:rolleyes: (2 Replies)
Hello Everybody
I am planning to install Fedora core 8 on an extra PC I have; what I wanna do is to boot from a USB stick then install Fedora from an ISO image I already have via FTP. Could any one tell me how to create bootable USB Stick for Fedora as I already found how to install from FTP... (0 Replies)
