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nw_biohazard
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:29 am    Post subject: Creating a bootable liveUSB on an external USB drive Reply with quote

I'm trying to install Gentoo on a system built around a P8H67-M motherboard using an external USB drive. The system does not have a floppy, cdrom, or dvd.

The only machine I have access to as a Macbook:

Code:
Gentoo64 > uname -a
Darwin Pasta.local 11.4.2 Darwin Kernel Version 11.4.2: Thu Aug 23 16:25:48 PDT 2012; root:xnu-1699.32.7~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64


The external drive is a 2TB WD My Book 1140.

Here is what I have tried so far:

I formatted the external drive to be MS-DOS(FAT) using Disk Utility.

I downloaded install-amd64-minimal-20131010.iso.

Following this thread: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-928812-start-0.html, I unmounted the disk and ran
Code:
Gentoo64 > sudo dd if=install-amd64-minimal-20131010.iso of=/dev/disk1s1 bs=1m
228+0 records in
228+0 records out
239075328 bytes transferred in 28.990372 secs (8246715 bytes/sec)


I plugged it into the linux box, escaped into the BIOS, and selected the drive from the boot menu. It appears to ignore the drive and default back to attempting to boot off the internal SSD which fails due to an improper GRUB2 installation.

Any clues would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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Maitreya
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why not treat the large harddisk like a large harddisk and just follow the manual?
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nw_biohazard
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only external media I have available to create a bootable install disk is the USB drive. The sysem has no cdrom.

The only instructions I have found for making a CD are:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml?part=1&chap=2

Could you point me at a page for how to do this on a USB hard-drive?

Thanks!
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Maitreya
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you are going to use the large usb disk as a temporary install medium.. where are you going to install gentoo on?
You might want to look into finding a smaller usb stick (256mb ought to be enough for the minimal installer)
And if needed you could try booting it over PXE (don't know if apple world has a handy application for that)


Last edited by Maitreya on Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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Maitreya
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe (someone chime in please) you could use the boot parameter "docache" and after booting repartition the install medium to OS medium.
Downside is that you have to do everything right till the end of the installation handbook or you would have to go trough making the installation medium etc again.
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nw_biohazard
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The system has an internal SSD. I'm just trying to create some sort of bootable media so that I can access it.
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mvaterlaus
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 8:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can use unetbootin [1] to create the memory stick for you. it is also available for mac. It is also possible to create a live usb media [2], but as far as I read, you need the livedvd for that.

[1]http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
[2]https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB/HOWTO
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Maitreya
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 12:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nw_biohazard wrote:
The system has an internal SSD. I'm just trying to create some sort of bootable media so that I can access it.


Well that makes things quite a bit easier...

Did unetbootin work for you or did it not accept the harddrive?
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gerard27
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

@nw_biohazard
Why not use systemrescuecd.
Link in my sig.
On their site are instructions how to make a bootable usb stick.
Gerard.
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To install Gentoo I use sysrescuecd.Based on Gentoo,has firefox to browse Gentoo docs and mc to browse (and edit) files.
The same disk can be used for 32 and 64 bit installs.
You can follow the Handbook verbatim.
http://www.sysresccd.org/Download
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fturco
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can use the GRUB2 loopback feature to load an ISO as is. I suggest you to use System Rescue CD and an USB stick (even a 512 MB one is good).
  • Set the boot flag for your USB stick partition if your system needs it; use parted, fdisk or whatever tool you like
  • Format the USB stick partition. Ext4 filesystem is OK, no need to use FAT32;
  • Mount the USB stick partition (for example to /mnt);
  • Create the /mnt/iso and /mnt/boot directories
  • Copy the systemrescuecd-x86-3.8.1.iso file to /mnt/iso
  • grub2-install /dev/sdb --boot-directory=/mnt/boot (I assume /dev/sdb is your USB stick)
  • Create the /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg file

For a 32-bit system:
Code:
menuentry "System Rescue CD 3.8.1 (32-bit)" {
   set iso=/iso/systemrescuecd-x86-3.8.1.iso
   loopback loop ${iso}
   linux (loop)/isolinux/rescue32 setkmap=it isoloop=${iso}
   initrd (loop)/isolinux/initram.igz
}

For a 64-bit system:
Code:
menuentry "System Rescue CD 3.8.1 (64-bit)" {
        set iso=/iso/systemrescuecd-x86-3.8.1.iso
        loopback loop ${iso}
        linux (loop)/isolinux/rescue64 setkmap=it isoloop=${iso}
        initrd (loop)/isolinux/initram.igz
}

The setkmap=it option is for choosing an Italian keyboard. Change it if you are not Italian.
I hope there are no mistakes in my procedure.
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paradigm-X
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If I understand the problem correctly, I have an idea. If the system had a hypervisor of some sort, you could easily have it boot off an ISO and install to an attached usb device accessible to the VM also.
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szatox
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There are several really nice ready-to-use live distributions. You can simply dd Ubuntu iso image on your usb drive and it will boot just fine. If you want something that takes less space, look at Slax, it's like 270-300MB. Afair you can dd it's iso image on usb drive too. If i'm wrong or you need more control, like adding some modules (e.g. you need software RAID or enabled sshd), or you want to drop gentoo stage and portage on the same device too, just download Slax tarball instead and have a look at README file.

Obviously you can also install gentoo on usb drive, but it's a bit like using a cannon for shooting a fly.
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paradigm-X
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This should do the trick too: emerge sys-boot/unetbootin
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