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Create a USB Drive

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Chris Vidler edited this page Aug 28, 2017 · 2 revisions

Create a USB Drive

Writing the ISO to a USB drive will enable you to install directly from the USB without a disc.

Windows

Use the utility Win32 Disk Image to write the ISO file to a USB drive.

Note: There's a similar application called Rufus, it's known to NOT work, it makes its' own changes the ISO (creating a new file system) as it is written to the USB drive which prevents it from booting.

Linux

You'll need root/sudo access to write the image to a USB drive. Warning: This process can destroy your system if you get the wrong device node, it'll also completely overwrite the target USB drive. backup backup backup.

  • Insert USB drive
  • check kernel log to determine the drive device node. (e.g. /dev/sdb), ensure this is correct, using the wrong node will overwrite the wrong drive potentially your boot or data drives. You'll get no warning.
  • Use DD to copy the ISO directly to the USB drive. the USB drive will be overwritten - use a blank one of at least 2GB capacity.

sudo dd if=isofilename of=/dev/usbdevice bs=512k

isofilename is the full path to the downloaded build disc ISO file, /dev/usbdevice is the full path to the USB drive device node, e.g. /dev/sdb

  • wait, no progress is reported, it's finished when the command prompt returns.

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