[GLLUG] Bootable USB Stick

[Marr]

On Thu, 5 Nov 2015 21:47:25 -0500
Chick Tower <c.e.tower at gmail.com> wrote:
> Does anyone have any advice for creating a bootable USB?

Hey, Chick!

Earlier this year, I successfully used 'IsoHybrid':

   http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Isohybrid

I needed to run Ubunutu 15.04 to test something, so I downloaded the
1.2-GB, 32-bit 'Desktop' version as an ISO file.  I'm guessing that
they didn't provide a USB-bootable version, but my recall could be
faulty.

Making that ISO file into a USB-flash-stick-bootable ISO was as simple
as this:

   ==> isohybrid ubuntu-15.04-desktop-i386.iso 

It took a mere second to run, but be warned that it alters the original
ISO file, so it's best to do it on a copy of the ISO file!

Then you (CAREFULLY!) 'dd' that to the USB stick's bare device, using a
command something like this:

   ==> dd if=/tmp/ubuntu-15.04-desktop-i386.iso bs=2048 of=/dev/sdg

But, of course, be EXCEEDINGLY CAREFUL about the device name you use
with 'of=' to avoid trashing your HDD or some other mounted device!  In
fact, the wiki URL I quote above even suggests an "innocent" command
like this, to be sure that the device you're trying to write to is
really the USB stick:

   ==> dd if=/dev/sdg of=/dev/null bs=1024 count=100000

If 'sdg' is the proper USB-stick device, you should see the LED on it
flashing as it's being read.

When I did that earlier 'dd' command (the one that actually writes the
ISO file), it took about 5.5 minutes and resulted in a USB stick that
booted Ubuntu 15.04 just fine on my 2007-era laptop PC (i.e. using
BIOS, not UEFI).

> Is it possible to create one using a distro that is not related
> in any way to the one in the .iso file?

Yes.  All of these commands to create the USB stick were done under
Slackware, as you've surely guessed, my fellow Slackware
aficionado.  :^)  BTW, my notes didn't show that I had to download or
install 'isohybrid', so it must've come with Slackware 14.1's full
installation.

Aside:

   At first, I thought Ubuntu 15.04 wasn't fully booting the
   laptop from the USB stick because it seemed to do nothing
   (no visible mouse pointer and most keys just beeping
   loudly) after showing a startup screen that I was
   unfamiliar with, showing 2 icons and an 'equals' sign
   between them.  But it eventually (1 or 2 minutes later?)
   booted into a working Ubuntu.  I almost never run Ubuntu,
   so I wasn't familiar with its startup screens, but I
   still cannot explain the long delay for it to become
   functional when booting from the USB stick.

If you need any more info, just let me know.  Hope that helps.  Good
luck!

Regards,
Bill