Gentoo Archives: gentoo-doc-cvs

From: Lukasz Damentko <rane@×××××××××××.org>
To: gentoo-doc-cvs@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-doc-cvs] cvs commit: liveusb.xml
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 23:29:40
Message-Id: 200601072329.k07NTKwX009141@robin.gentoo.org
1 rane 06/01/07 23:29:20
2
3 Added: xml/htdocs/doc/en liveusb.xml
4 Log:
5 #118179, Gentoo LiveUSB installation HOWTO
6
7 Revision Changes Path
8 1.1 xml/htdocs/doc/en/liveusb.xml
9
10 file : http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xml/htdocs/doc/en/liveusb.xml?rev=1.1&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup&cvsroot=gentoo
11 plain: http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xml/htdocs/doc/en/liveusb.xml?rev=1.1&content-type=text/plain&cvsroot=gentoo
12
13 Index: liveusb.xml
14 ===================================================================
15 <?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
16 <!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
17 <!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/liveusb.xml,v 1.1 2006/01/07 23:29:20 rane Exp $ -->
18
19 <guide link="/doc/en/liveusb.xml">
20 <title>Gentoo Linux LiveUSB HOWTO</title>
21
22 <author title="Author">
23 <mail link="brix@g.o">Henrik Brix Andersen</mail>
24 </author>
25
26 <abstract>
27 This HOWTO explains how to create a Gentoo Linux LiveUSB or, in other words,
28 how to emulate a Gentoo Linux Installation CD using an USB flash drive.
29 </abstract>
30
31 <!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
32 <!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
33 <license/>
34
35 <version>1.0</version>
36 <date>2006-01-04</date>
37
38 <chapter>
39 <title>Introduction</title>
40 <section>
41 <title>The LiveUSB</title>
42 <body>
43
44 <p>
45 This HOWTO explains how to create a <e>Gentoo Linux LiveUSB</e> or, in other
46 words, how to emulate a Gentoo Linux Installation CD using an USB flash drive.
47 This is particularly useful for installing Gentoo Linux on a modern laptop with
48 no CD-ROM drive.
49 </p>
50
51 <p>
52 Although the instructions found in this document aims at emulating a Gentoo
53 Linux Installation CD using an USB flash drive, they should work for any
54 arbitrary block device as long as you adjust the device names accordingly.
55 </p>
56
57 </body>
58 </section>
59 <section>
60 <title>Prerequisites</title>
61 <body>
62
63 <p>
64 In order to use a Gentoo Linux LiveUSB you need the following:
65 </p>
66
67 <ul>
68 <li>Bootable USB flash drive (at least 64MB)</li>
69 <li>x86 computer with support for booting from USB</li>
70 </ul>
71
72 <p>
73 You will also need access to the following for creating the LiveUSB:
74 </p>
75
76 <ul>
77 <li>
78 A computer running Gentoo Linux (or alternatively another Linux
79 distribution)
80 </li>
81 </ul>
82
83 </body>
84 </section>
85 </chapter>
86 <chapter>
87 <title>Preparing the USB flash drive</title>
88 <section>
89 <title>Partitioning the drive</title>
90 <body>
91
92 <warn>
93 These instructions will erase all data from the USB flash drive. Make sure to
94 backup your data first.
95 </warn>
96
97 <impo>
98 This HOWTO assumes that the <path>/dev/sda</path> device node corresponds to
99 your USB flash drive. If you have other SCSI-like devices make sure to use the
100 correct device node.
101 </impo>
102
103 <p>
104 Create a FAT32 partition on your USB flash drive and mark it bootable using
105 <c>fdisk</c>. An example partitioning scheme can be seen below:
106 </p>
107
108 <pre caption="Example partitioning scheme">
109 # <i>fdisk -l /dev/sda</i>
110
111 Disk /dev/sda: 1048 MB, 1048313856 bytes
112 33 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1017 cylinders
113 Units = cylinders of 2013 * 512 = 1030656 bytes
114
115 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
116 /dev/sda1 * 1 1017 1023580 b W95 FAT32
117 </pre>
118
119 </body>
120 </section>
121 <section>
122 <title>Creating the filesystem</title>
123 <body>
124
125 <p>
126 Create a FAT32 filesystem on the USB flash drive using <c>mkdosfs</c>:
127 </p>
128
129 <pre caption="Running mkdosfs">
130 <comment>(Make sure you have sys-fs/dosfstools installed)</comment>
131 # <i>emerge -av sys-fs/dosfstools</i>
132 # <i>mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1</i>
133 mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
134 </pre>
135
136 </body>
137 </section>
138 <section>
139 <title>Installing a Master Boot Record</title>
140 <body>
141
142 <p>
143 Install the precompiled Master Boot Record (MBR) from <c>syslinux</c> on the
144 USB flash drive:
145 </p>
146
147 <pre caption="Installing a master boot record">
148 <comment>(Make sure you have sys-boot/syslinux-3.00 or later installed)</comment>
149 # <i>emerge -av '>=sys-boot/syslinux-3*'</i>
150 # <i>dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda</i>
151 0+1 records in
152 0+1 records out
153 </pre>
154
155 </body>
156 </section>
157 </chapter>
158 <chapter>
159 <title>Copying the files</title>
160 <section>
161 <title>Mounting the Gentoo Linux Installation CD</title>
162 <body>
163
164 <p>
165 Download the <path>install-x86-minimal-2005.1-r1.iso</path> file from your
166 local Gentoo Linux <uri link="/main/en/where.xml">mirror</uri> site and mount
167 the ISO image on <path>/mnt/cdrom/</path> as shown below:
168 </p>
169
170 <pre caption="Mounting the Gentoo Linux Installation CD ISO image">
171 <comment>(Create the /mnt/cdrom/ mount point if needed)</comment>
172 # <i>mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom</i>
173 # <i>mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 install-x86-minimal-2005.1-r1.iso /mnt/cdrom/</i>
174 </pre>
175
176 </body>
177 </section>
178 <section>
179 <title>Mounting the LiveUSB</title>
180 <body>
181
182 <p>
183 Mount the newly formatted USB flash drive on <path>/mnt/usb/</path> as shown
184 below:
185 </p>
186
187 <pre caption="Mounting the USB flash drive">
188 <comment>(Create the /mnt/usb/ mount point if needed)</comment>
189 # <i>mkdir -p /mnt/usb</i>
190 # <i>mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/</i>
191 </pre>
192
193 </body>
194 </section>
195 <section>
196 <title>Copying the files</title>
197 <body>
198
199 <p>
200 Copy the files from the Gentoo Linux Installation CD to the LiveUSB. The files
201 needs to be reordered a bit as we will be using the <c>syslinux</c> bootloader
202 instead of <c>isolinux</c>:
203 </p>
204
205 <pre caption="Copying the files">
206 # <i>cp -r /mnt/cdrom/* /mnt/usb/</i>
207 # <i>mv /mnt/usb/isolinux/* /mnt/usb/</i>
208 # <i>mv /mnt/usb/isolinux.cfg /mnt/usb/syslinux.cfg</i>
209 # <i>rm -rf /mnt/usb/isolinux*</i>
210
211 <comment>(The memtest86 kernel needs to be renamed for loading it via syslinux)</comment>
212 # <i>mv /mnt/usb/memtest86 /mnt/usb/memtest</i>
213 </pre>
214
215 <p>
216 You can now unmount the ISO image:
217 </p>
218
219 <pre caption="Unmounting the ISO image">
220 # <i>umount /mnt/cdrom/</i>
221 </pre>
222
223 </body>
224 </section>
225 <section>
226 <title>Adjusting the bootloader configuration</title>
227 <body>
228
229 <p>
230 Adjust the syslinux configuration file using <c>sed</c> as shown below. The
231 <c>scandelay=10</c> parameter will introduce a 10 seconds delay before
232 attempting to mount the filesystem. This is needed to allow the USB flash drive
233 to settle upon detection.
234 </p>
235
236 <pre caption="Adjusting the boot parameters">
237 # <i>sed -i \
238 -e "s:cdroot:cdroot scandelay=10:" \
239 -e "s:kernel memtest86:kernel memtest:" \
240 /mnt/usb/syslinux.cfg</i>
241 </pre>
242
243 <note>
244 Consider adding <c>docache</c> to the boot parameters. This will allow running
245 <c>umount /mnt/cdrom/</c> after booting so that you can unplug the USB flash
246 drive.
247 </note>
248
249 </body>
250 </section>
251 </chapter>
252 <chapter>
253 <title>Installing a bootloader</title>
254 <section>
255 <title>Unmounting the drive</title>
256 <body>
257
258 <p>
259 Make sure you unmount the USB flash drive drive before installing the
260 bootloader:
261 </p>
262
263 <pre caption="Unmounting the USB flash drive">
264 # <i>umount /mnt/usb/</i>
265 </pre>
266
267 </body>
268 </section>
269 <section>
270 <title>Installing syslinux</title>
271 <body>
272
273 <p>
274 Finally install the <c>syslinux</c> bootloader on the USB flash drive:
275 </p>
276
277 <pre caption="Running syslinux">
278 # <i>syslinux /dev/sda1</i>
279 </pre>
280
281 <impo>
282 You will need to rerun <c>syslinux /dev/sda1</c> each time you modify the
283 <path>syslinux.cfg</path> file for the configuration changes to take affect.
284 </impo>
285
286 </body>
287 </section>
288 </chapter>
289 <chapter>
290 <title>Using the LiveUSB</title>
291 <section>
292 <title>Booting</title>
293 <body>
294
295 <p>
296 Insert the USB flash drive and turn on the computer, making sure the BIOS is
297 set to boot from USB. If all goes well you should be presented with a standard
298 syslinux prompt.
299 </p>
300
301 <p>
302 You should be able to follow the generic installation instructions found in the
303 <uri link="/doc/en/handbook/">Gentoo Handbook</uri> from here on.
304 </p>
305
306 </body>
307 </section>
308 </chapter>
309 </guide>
310
311
312
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