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Bug#596335: marked as done (debian-installer: build ready-to-use hd-media images)

Your message dated Mon, 3 Mar 2014 02:05:17 +0100
with message-id <20140303010517.GA18324@mraw.org>
and subject line Re: Bug#596335: debian-installer: build ready-to-use hd-media images
has caused the Debian Bug report #596335,
regarding debian-installer: build ready-to-use hd-media images
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

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-- 
596335: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=596335
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner@bugs.debian.org with problems
--- Begin Message --- 
Package: debian-installer
Severity: wishlist

Hello,

As opposed to the optical disk images, the images that are provided for
installing Debian from an hd-media are not directly usable, but need to be
manually completed by adding an optical disk image into their filesystem.

This requires a more complicated procedure, and make the installation of Debian
from an USB key more complicated than from an optical disk, whereas there is no
theoretical reason for such a difference. Compare these two typical use cases:
(preparing an installation CD)
    [optional: read the installation manual]
    [find the URL of the CD image]
    wget http://url/of/the/cd.iso
    wodim dev=/dev/cdrom cd.iso
(preparing an installation USB drive)
    [mandatory: read the installation manual]
    [find the URL of the hd-media image]
    wget http://url/of/the/hd-media.img.gz
    [optional: try to write it directly, boot on that, fail]
    gunzip hd-media.img.gz
    dd if=hd-media.img of=/dev/stick
    [optional: try to boot on that, fail]
    [optional: give up and switch to the CD way]
    [find the URL a small CD image]
    wget http://url/of/the/cd.iso
    mount /dev/stick /mnt
    cp cd.iso /mnt
    umount /mnt

The installation manual explains that in a non-straightforward way, describing
two methods, and giving only hints to find where to download the two needed
images. In addition, this procedure depends on *nix tools, and is thus
inapplicable for many user that start installing Debian from a foreign system,
which is a common case. Because of this complication, I see many beginners
failing at preparing installation USB sticks, if not failing to install Debian
at all because they do not have an optical drive.

It would be useful to build and provide ready-to-use hd-media images, that
would be as easy to use as the optical disk ones. I see four ways to implement
that:
1. work around: after building the incomplete hd-media image as it is
   currently done, post-process it to add an optical disk image on its filesystem;
2. hi-tech, space-saving: using the recent hybrid boot feature of SYSLINUX,
   that allow to build single images that are bootable either as El Torito
   optical media or as MBR on-optical media, if applicable to the Debian
   installer: cf. bug #593484;
3. clean: find a way to build autonomous hd-media image, that use data on their
   file system instead of relying on an optical disk image;
4. minimalistic: build hd-media image that use the netboot process, thus
   containing only a bootloader, a kernel and an initrd: cd. bug #505773.

Regards,

-- 
Tanguy Ortolo

-- System Information:
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--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
Tanguy Ortolo <tanguy+debian@ortolo.eu> (2010-09-10):
> As opposed to the optical disk images, the images that are provided for
> installing Debian from an hd-media are not directly usable, but need to be
> manually completed by adding an optical disk image into their filesystem.

The manual has:
   4.3.1. Preparing a USB stick using a hybrid CD or DVD image

and those images are ready to use, so closing this bug report.

Mraw,
KiBi.

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