Install from a USB Pen Drive

airedale · 03-08-2006, 02:06 PM

I have been looking all over for an answer to this and can not find one!

Does anyone have any idea on how to get this to work?

I am not looking to run linux from a usb pen drive, but actually install with it.

Gethyn · 03-08-2006, 05:04 PM

You can install Ubuntu from a pen drive, no idea about Fedora though. The Fedora FAQ for FC2 say that you can install from a pen drive, although no instructions are apparent, but this section seems to have disappeared from the FC4 FAQ.

rfuller · 03-08-2006, 07:42 PM

It's pretty simple if you happen to have a usb disk larger than 4GB. If you know of one let me know you could just copy the iso to it using dd. There are other ways. You can use a usbdrive to start the install process then install via network. Note anything with < > needs to be replaced with actual values. First you'll need the boot.img from the fedora installation iso you could mount it with "mount -t iso9660 -o loop <filename> /mnt/<mntpoint>"(of course mntpoint has to exist first) then "dd if=/mnt/<mntpoint>/images/boot.img of=<usb device dev>". When you boot with the stick enter "linux askmethod" and install via a remote option(http, ftp, nfs). Then install as normal.

Actually the section(s) for install via this method do exist at:

http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora...otherbootmedia

and

http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora...-method-server

not to mention they are better tutorials

.

airedale · 03-09-2006, 11:14 AM

There are 4 GB ones out there - and I think you might be able to get away with a 2 GB one whice I currently have on order...

You mention using DD - but does that work for ISO's?

rfuller · 03-09-2006, 12:34 PM

Hmm I'm not sure a pen drive will work with iso9660. The FC4 dvd is 2623M which is a little too big. I would recommend trying a lan install as it is not that painfull and the instructions above worked for me. I made a boot with the usbdrive then installed via http from a local server. Of course you could also do it over the internet but I really don't recommend that as that is painfully slow even with a fast connection.

airedale · 03-09-2006, 02:18 PM

could I include a KickStart file? If so - what would the syntax be?

rfuller · 03-10-2006, 10:00 AM

You would still need to make the boot.img on the stick as above. The kickstart file goes into a subdirectory kickstart under the doc root to host the Kickstart config files. In my case I used my web server. Boot with the usb stick and enter "linux ks=http://<yourhostname or ip>/kickstart/ks.cfg"
There is an excellent tutorial on creating your kickstart file at http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/...rt.html?page=2
if you don't already have one.

EDIT: Please note the instructions above include an unneccesary component to config a kickstart file using a gui and you are far better off learning and editing kickstarts from a text editor(gui or not).