more stuff about installing from memory stick

[Terry D. Cudney]

Hi Randy, Samuel et al,

	I wasn't able to do much  with this until today. I have been able to do an install using my usb stick, basically following >exactly< the instructions in the D-I documentation.

	I have a 4 GB stick, so I decided to partition it. Partition #1 is fat32, partition #2 is ext2. Make sure to make the fat32 partition bootable while in fdisk (linux' fdisk, I don't know about windows fdisk... doubt it will work). Use the mtools utility (or your windows machine) to format the fat32 partition.

	Mount the fat32 partition. Copy linux and initrd.gz from the "other images (netboot, USB stick, etc)" (I suspect this may be your problem, as the other initrd images are set up to mount the .iso from CD, HD or whatever. This initrd.gz is for mounting the .iso from the usb stick.) (If I am misunderstanding this, please feel free to set me straight, Samuel or anyone).

	Copy the .iso you want to use to the fat32 partition. (I used the net-inst image for my amd64)

	Create your  syslinux.cfg file on the fat32 partition. Mine looks like:
	default linux
	append initrd=initrd.gz speakup.synth=ltlk
 
	do "syslinux /dev/usb-stick" after you unmount the stick.

	That should do it... Boot from the stick and it should come up talking in the installer, no G-I menu, straight into the installer.

	I don't know about filing bug reports, etc, but after the installation completed (apparently successfully), when I do the initial boot, the system does not talk. My son looked at the screen, there is an error from grub2 and the system refuses to boot. I'll have to get grml going and see what needs fixing in the grub config, I guess.

	HTH,

	--terry


On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 05:33:27PM -0500, Kitty Litter wrote:
> Samuel,
> I talked to Kirk about this the other day and among other things he insists 
> that if I copied the .iso image to the stick with dd if=blah of=blah it 
> would boot. Well, my computer won't recognize the stick as bootable when I 
> do this, it goes to the next boot device which is the normal hard disk. I 
> also tried reformatting the stick with ext2 and grub and syslinux but 
> couldn't get it to boot. Vfat and syslinux is the only thing that will 
> boot. Even if I load the loop module from busybox before doing any steps of 
> the install, The .iso file I previously put in the root of the stick 
> doesn't get mounted unless I do it from the shell. I really don't feel 
> qualified to file a good bug report on this. Obviously this was never 
> really tested, maybe it's something they hoped would work, who knows. So 
> how about asking them to at least include loop.ko in initrd.gz? If they 
> should come up with a fix I would be more than happy to try it. Is it 
> possible to be more than happy?
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
Name:	Terry D. Cudney
Phone:	705-812-4949
SIP: 8978 at ekiga.net
E-mail:	terry at octothorp.org

Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like...
having a peeing sectionin a swimming pool.

Tired of technology? Check this out: http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm