how to create a bootable SD card?

dEnDrOn · 08-10-2012, 08:38 AM

like a live USB drive...

I need to install fedora17 without using a DVD drive or, USB flash drive (both are not working and i don't see any other use of them either!)....so all i have is a 32GB SD card and live image of fedora...

How to use them both to create live SD card? Please elaborate as much as you can and if possible, try and tell if the method worked for you.

yancek · 08-10-2012, 09:16 AM

Read the link here to another members post at LQ from last year. Succeeded in booting Fedora 15 from a hard drive after extracting. He posted his Grub2 menuentry in the last post. If you don't have Grub2 installed it obviously won't work but you should be able to do it with Grub Legacy. You don't indicate how you are trying to boot?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...needed-882796/

273 · 08-10-2012, 09:26 AM

If your BIOS allows you to boot from SD card then it's as simple as using the same procedure you would use to make a USB drive bootable.

dEnDrOn · 08-10-2012, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

If your BIOS allows you to boot from SD card then it's as simple as using the same procedure you would use to make a USB drive bootable.

are you sure? i mean...i tried creating live SD card using unetbootin but it didn't recognize any SD card attached.

273 · 08-10-2012, 09:44 AM

Well, that always works on my EEEPC, once I found out how to set the BIOS to boot from it (it turns up in the hard drive menu and not the removable disc one).
As I said, that's provided your BIOS allows SD card boot also.

dEnDrOn · 08-10-2012, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

Well, that always works on my EEEPC, once I found out how to set the BIOS to boot from it (it turns up in the hard drive menu and not the removable disc one).
As I said, that's provided your BIOS allows SD card boot also.

So, are you saying that i can just create LIVE sd card just like live USB and then boot if my BIOS supports that??

273 · 08-10-2012, 10:28 AM

Yes, that's how I've always done it. Worked with a USB card reader too.
I've tended to use unetbootin but even dd ought to work.
What kind of PC is it? What kind of card reader? I'd check the manual and google for booting from SD to find the setting and give it a go.

dEnDrOn · 08-10-2012, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

Yes, that's how I've always done it. Worked with a USB card reader too.
I've tended to use unetbootin but even dd ought to work.
What kind of PC is it? What kind of card reader? I'd check the manual and google for booting from SD to find the setting and give it a go.

I'm running fedora15 on my laptop....i don't use card reader...there is port where the SD card directly fits in....like the one in cameras..

273 · 08-10-2012, 12:31 PM

It ought to boot from SD then if you can set it in the BIOS boot order.

jefro · 08-10-2012, 04:34 PM

I would get a usb to sd if the laptop doesn't have support built in.

I would be tempted to run a virtual machine to create the sd. The sd would be replace the virtual hard drive so you install to the sd just as if it were a real hard drive. Complete with grub and able to fully update kernel.

Almost all of the new linux treats usb,cf,sd and such like a real hard drive. You bios may show the device as a hard drive order choice and not a usb choice when you boot to bios.

The single problem with flash drive apps is they take the live image and you can't easily update the core files.