install debian via usb
this little howto shows how to get a usb stick to act like an install cd for debian.. .
need:
- the image file: boot.img.gz (hd-media)
- the iso image: iso debian-xxx-netinst.iso
- a usb stick
partitioning and formatting
simply plug the usb stick into the computer somewhere and just do not mount it. in this example the usb stick is/dev/sda
fdisk /dev/sda
now with the menu and options and stuff we'll have to make a clean slate and repartition.
WARNING all data and the usb stick will be erased
- start from zero : o
- create a new partition : n then p then 1 then accept default responses for the next 2 options
- make bootable : a then 1
- change to fat16 : t then 6
- apply settings and quit fdisk: w
now we can format
mkdosfs /dev/sda1
a little MBR is always nice
lilo -M /dev/sda
copy de debian images
we will push boot.img.gz into /dev/sda1 and then copy the iso image onto the stick
zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sda1
mkdir /mnt/debianusb
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/debianusb
cp debian-xxx-netinst.iso /mnt/debianusb
umount /dev/sda1
rmdir /mnt/debianusb
and that's it, you can install debians all over the place now :]
alind
bit it will not work on iso's greater than 256 MB. I think that only option left is to go thru the lenghty process of mksidkimage and syslinux and copying contents of boot.img.gz etc.