boot from usb-stick

[Michael_N]

Is it possible to install the vicibox iso file on a usb stick, and boot from it and make an install?

[williamconley]

I see no reason why not. It's just install media. But ".iso" means drive image, and unless you have a USB that can hold a CD drive image ... you may have to "remake" the .iso to fit a USB stick. If you find a forum that creates USB boot sticks, I'm sure it'd be possible.

IF you can get a boot USB for OpenSuSE ... you are on your way

[Kumba]

Here is a link to making a LiveUSB from a LiveCD.

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Live_USB_stick

[marcoe]

hi, I got curious about this and followed that link to see if this really works. Well it works, but I got some trouble until finally getting it to work and would like to share with all.

The first part of this doc shows the easy way, which didn't work for me, the windows ImageWriter records to the USB stick but it won't boot, and I don't have OpenSuse X interface to use the linux version of this tool, so I had to go to the hard way.

The HARD way: (forget the order on the doc, follow this)

Step 1: This will make your ISO bootable, I though it already was...

# zypper in syslinux
# isohybrid Vicibox_Redux......ISO (your Vicibox ISO file)


Step 2: Write the image to the stick

this will show your stick and what /dev/sd** it got, mine was /dev/sdb1.
# ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/*usb*

just to be sure, unmount
# umount /dev/sdX1

this will write to disk, if you make a mistake it will mess you HD.
# dd_rescue ISO_file /dev/sdX

Step 3: Use the remaining space on the stick

# fdisk /dev/sdX
n <= will create a new partition
p <= primary
2 <= partition number
confirm default to start and end
t <= partition type
2 <= partition number
83 <= hex value for type
w <= write table to disk

# dd_rescue /dev/zero /dev/sdX2 -m 8k

Step 4: check if everything is ok.

# fdisk /dev/sdX
p <= will show partitions, should look something like this:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 378 387072 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 379 3827 3531776 83 Linux

Step 5:

Be sure to use a USB boot compatible BIOS and boot it. It should work just like the CD.