Re: Add an extra item to the CD faq: write image to USB
Hi,
Holger Wansing <linux@wansing-online.de> wrote:
> Raf Czlonka <rjc@linuxstuff.pl> wrote:
> > On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 11:27:29AM BST, Holger Wansing wrote:
> > > Where is that information provided on Debian-own web pages?
> >
> > As my colleague already mentioned and so did I - it is not there.
> >
> > > Why not point to Ubuntu website?
> >
> > IMHO, it sends the wrong message, e.g. "we can't be bothered writing our
> > own documentation" or "Ubuntu's got better documentation than Debian"*
> > or "why start with Debian in the first place, use Ubuntu" - after all
> > Debian links to their pages, they have to be better, right?
Ok, so I have modified my proposal patch.
Comments?
Holger
Index: CD/faq/index.wml
@@ -663,6 +663,38 @@ Mac OS X</a> as well.
# ============================================================
+<toc-add-entry name="write-usb">How do I write a CD image to a USB flash drive?</toc-add-entry>
+
+<p>Several of the Debian CD and Debian Live images are created using
+<i>isohybrid</i> technology, which means that they may be used in two
+different ways:</p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li>They may be written to CD/DVD and used as normal for CD/DVD booting.</li>
+ <li>They may be written to USB flash drives, bootable directly from the BIOS of most PCs.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The most common way to copy an image to a USB flash drive is to use
+the <q>dd</q> command on a Linux machine:</p>
+
+<p><code>dd if=<file> of=<device> bs=4M; sync</code></p>
+
+<p>where:</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><file> is the name of the input image, e.g. <q>netinst.iso</q>
+ <li><device> is the device matching the USB flash drive,
+ e.g. /dev/sda, /dev/sdb. Be careful to make sure you have the right
+ device name, as this command is capable of writing over your hard
+ disk just as easily if you get the wrong one!</li>
+ <li><q>bs=4M</q> tells dd to read/write in 4 megabyte chunks for
+ better performance; the default is 512 bytes, which will be much
+ slower
+ <li>The <q>sync</q> is to make sure that all the writes are flushed out
+ before the command returns.
+</ul>
+
+<p>On a Windows machine you can use <a
+ href="https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download";>Image Writer
+ for Windows</a>:
+</p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li>Download and unpack Image Writer.</li>
+ <li>Plug in your USB storage device; look carefully for the letter which is
+ assigned to that device.</li>
+ <li>Execute <q>Win32DiskImager.exe</q>, select the debian iso file you have
+ downloaded and the target device. </li>
+ <li>Click <q>Write</q>. Don't remove the USB device until the
+ operation is finished!</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>On a Mac OS machine it should be possible to use the <q>dd</q> command
+ similar to that on a Linux machine. The command <q>diskutil list</q>
+ can help you determine which device name is assigned to your USB storage
+ device.
+</p>
+
+# ============================================================
+
<toc-add-entry name="whatlabel">How should I label the
CDs?</toc-add-entry>
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