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69Rixter 10-21-2019 06:26 PM

CD vs. Installer program
 
I got into a rather animated discussion about what method to use burning an .iso onto a flashdrive. Personally, I D/l the .iso and use a program such as Rufus-Unetbootin-LiLi-or any of many other .iso/bootable flashdrive programs. An opposing and very adamant view stated I MUST get the .iso, burn it to a CD/DVD, then use the CD/DVD to burn it to the flashdrive. So, what method do you use and why? In responding, please give good, solid reasonable answers and, if possible, "links" to validate your viewpoint.

Thank You;

:hattip:Rick

BW-userx 10-21-2019 06:30 PM

what, huh? burn it to a CD then use that CD to burn it to a USB Stick???? why?

69Rixter 10-21-2019 06:34 PM

RE: BW-userx

My exact same question to the person whom insisted I must do it that way. Why...I D K?

Rick

BW-userx 10-21-2019 06:38 PM

it is one or the other. I use a usb stick because its easier and reusable.
Code:

#dd if=distro.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=1m conv=sync

Firerat 10-21-2019 06:52 PM

with bsd and debian I have just used dd bs=4M if=the.iso of=/dev/sdX
as per the instructions
https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb

But they are specially crafted iso


but I agree, the logic of burning to Optical in order to put on flash is bizarre

the only reason I can think of is manually partitioning the flash, putting filesystems on and copying files to the flash and installing a bootloader

but that could be done by loop mounting the iso, no need to burn.



regards bsd, I may have recalled that incorrectly
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook...bsdinstall-usb
they have a specific img for usb

michaelk 10-21-2019 07:03 PM

At one time I thought the Fedora media writer application was only available from the DVD. There might be other distributions that have a USB media creation software included on live DVD, Mint or Ubuntu maybe.

Most of then mainstream distros documentation installation guide seem to include what applications are known to work the best.

Firerat 10-21-2019 07:11 PM

I guess some confusion could have arised from liveCD with persistent storage
or using the install CD/DVD to install a working system to the usb

ondoho 10-22-2019 05:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 69Rixter (Post 6049388)
An opposing and very adamant view stated I MUST get the .iso, burn it to a CD/DVD, then use the CD/DVD to burn it to the flashdrive.

That is complete nonsense, I strongly suspect you misunderstood sth there.
Esp. given your long history of not "getting" USB with persistence.

jsbjsb001 10-22-2019 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BW-userx (Post 6049391)
what, huh? burn it to a CD then use that CD to burn it to a USB Stick???? why?

Probably because they don't understand the difference between "burning" a CD/DVD, and writing an ISO image to a USB stick.

@69Rixter, as you've probably already been told at least a couple of times now; you "burn" a ISO image to a CD/DVD because they are optical media and the "burner" uses a laser to actually "burn" the data onto the disc. Whereas, you use a software program to "write" the same ISO image to a USB stick - which is NOT optical media.

Why do you find that so hard to understand 69Rixter ? It's not as if you have to build your own CD/DVD burner, let alone write your own USB imaging software...

cynwulf 10-22-2019 09:00 AM

You can create a disk image from an .iso file without burning the .iso to optical media, you would just need to mount the .iso as a virtual disc and proceed from there. There used to be a complex procedure to create USB flash installation media in OpenBSD, but that's no longer necessary as *.fs images have existed for quite a few years and it's been a simple matter of e.g.:

Code:

# dd if=install66.fs of=/dev/rsd2c bs=1m
To my knowledge Linux distributions have provided "isohybrid" images for years, which can either be burnt to optical media or written to USB flash? So either way I can see no reason to burn optical media / mount an .iso as a virtual disc first.

//edit:

https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index...shell_commands

Timothy Miller 10-22-2019 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BW-userx (Post 6049396)
it is one or the other. I use a usb stick because its easier and reusable.
Code:

#dd if=distro.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=1m conv=sync


This is what I do. Or use balena etcher if I'm too lazy to type.

69Rixter 02-06-2020 07:06 PM

RE: Timothy Miller

I'm still laughing at your response. TY!!! BTW...could you be a "Cats" fan? I am !!!

RICK

dugan 02-06-2020 07:15 PM

Not sure why this program was funny: https://www.balena.io/etcher/

jefro 02-06-2020 09:33 PM

I guess it would depend on the distro and if I wanted it live or real install.

I do keep some DVD-RAM disc's around just for burning to. Doesn't make sense to use disposable disc's.

ondoho 02-07-2020 01:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 6087042)
Not sure why this program was funny: https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Maybe because it wraps a several-hundred-megabyte full fledged, not updateable, chromium browser with all the scurity and other problems that entails, around a few kilobytes of code actually doing things?


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