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Install Live System

Dirk Krause
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Install Live System

Overview

The Disklessian live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso file can be installed on USB thumbs or other USB devices.

The DKtoolian live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso file can be installed on USB devices or DVD media.

The [Install Network Boot Live System] page describes how to set up network boot using the DKtoolian live-image-amd64.netboot.tar file and the tftpboot directory.

Installation to USB thumb

Write protection
At least for Disklessian you should use USB thumbs equipped with hardware write protection. You should enable write access to install the livesystem but deny write access afterwards.

All data lost
All data currently on the USB device used will be lost when performing the steps below. Make sure there is no valuable data on the USB device.

Packages
As root on the virtualization host install core-utils and udisks2:

apt-get install core-utils udisks2

Attach device
Attach the USB drive to the computer.

Device name
To find the device name, run

dmesg | tail -20

Example output like

[ 2062.580073] usb 7-1: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
[ 2062.713572] usb 7-1: New USB device found, idVendor=..., idProduct=...
[ 2062.713583] usb 7-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2062.713590] usb 7-1: Product: ...
[ 2062.713596] usb 7-1: Manufacturer: ...
[ 2062.713601] usb 7-1: SerialNumber: ...
[ 2062.714565] usb-storage 7-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 2062.715340] scsi7 : usb-storage 7-1:1.0
[ 2063.712971] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access                               0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 2063.715009] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 3947079 512-byte logical blocks: (2.02 GB/1.88 GiB)
[ 2063.715203] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 2063.715669] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 2063.715678] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[ 2063.718324] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Asking for cache data failed
[ 2063.718335] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 2063.864189]  sdb: sdb1
[ 2063.868175] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

indicates the name /dev/sdb for the device.
In the commands below, correct /dev/sdb to the device name for your device.

Unmount file systems
We have to make sure none of the file systems on /dev/sdb is currently mounted.
Run

mount | grep /dev/sdb

to check for mounted partitions.
For any mounted partition (/dev/sdb1 in the example) run:

umount /dev/sdb1

Install ISO
Run:

dd if=live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M conv=fdatasync

to write the ISO file to USB device.
When using a NAND FLASH device (i.e. USB thumb) the block size (bs option) must be a power-of-2 multiple of the devices erase block size. 1M (one mibibyte) should be sufficient for USB thumbs today (july 2023), may be larger sizes will be necessary later.
Wait until the activity LED on the device (if any) stops blinking.
Run

sync
sleep 5
sync

to ensure data is saved.
Wait until the activity LED on the device (if any) stops blinking again and the prompt appears.
Now run

udisksctl power-off --block-device /dev/sdb

to turn power off for the device.

Detach device
Now you can detach the USB device.

Write protection
Now you can enable hardware write protection (if any) for your USB device.

Installation to DVD media

DVD, not CD
DVD media is required, the images are too large to fit on CD now, even for DKtoolian CLI.

Brasero

Brasero package
As root on the virtualization host install the brasero package:

apt-get install brasero

Write DVD
Insert an empty DVD media into the drive, start the “brasero” program, choose “Burn image (Burn an existing CD/DVD image to disc)”, select the live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso and the DVD media, press “Start”.

Command line tools

Packages
As root on the virtualization host install the hwinfo and xorriso packages:

apt-get install hwinfo xorriso

Device name
Find DVD device name:

hwinfo --cdrom

The “Device File:” line contains the primary device name, the “Device Files:” line contains further device names.

Write DVD
In the following command replace /dev/sr0 by your DVD writers device name.
Insert empty DVD media, wait some seconds for automatic recognition, start burning:

xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=as_needed live-image-amd64.hybrid.iso

Network installation

The [Install Network Boot Live System] page describes in detail how to set up network boot live systems.

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Related

Wiki: Install Network Boot Live System
Wiki: Live Systems

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