Creating a USB key to install debian

[Mathieu Malaterre <mathieu.malaterre@gmail.com>]

Hi there,

  I am still struggling to create a USB key to install debian. I am following:
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch04s03.html#ftn.id318505

Steps:
- Pull in the USB key : SanDisk Corp. SDCZ2 Cruzer Mini Flash Drive (thin)
- Make sure it is not mounted (check status of 'df')
- Check dmesg status and retrieve dev number (/dev/sdb1 in my case)
- Clean partition:
$ sudo mkdosfs /dev/sdb1
- Copy boot.img.gz:
$ wget http://people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/hd-media/boot.img.gz
$ zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sdb1
- When command return, check status of disk:
$ sudo cfdisk /dev/sdb1

FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 0: Partition begins after end-of-disk

 Press any key to exit cfdisk

Could someone please let me know if this ok ?

By the way if I plug/unplug the USB Key, my debian system seems to
recognize the disk anyway:

$ find /media/Debian\ Inst -exec md5sum {} \;
md5sum: /media/Debian Inst: Is a directory
0e5cdf6e8a29b8e06cfb384b13668854  /media/Debian Inst/ldlinux.sys
202e35b58bc43ddb6296fd0bdf4f8b79  /media/Debian Inst/linux
0856f5fa0c0e42407baf69eb7b2c5536  /media/Debian Inst/initrd.gz
918f003b1e153a91b70d5532a3c5611f  /media/Debian Inst/initrdg.gz
f3f3811c3cb95efc388e707a2ffdf59a  /media/Debian Inst/disk.lbl
9f1bde2fa411dede8ac87579c428d8df  /media/Debian Inst/prompt.cfg
91a749c0798555327243f7fa6ba72707  /media/Debian Inst/menu.cfg
d2bb0ceb8dfc256f613a616556e88f6d  /media/Debian Inst/syslinux.cfg
5ea01089a1fc5687acd856985876cbe0  /media/Debian Inst/exithelp.cfg
faa4a2e0ad5d59206a054aea9b9c739d  /media/Debian Inst/adtxt.cfg
f6894290995f7c660a4ccec2a789ad6b  /media/Debian Inst/gtk.cfg
ae6ac6c2996be59267126aefdb875911  /media/Debian Inst/rqtxt.cfg
fc3a24cfa233894b0875faed43ee79c2  /media/Debian Inst/stdmenu.cfg
5d01575ed6707a22be510ea00d0925ef  /media/Debian Inst/adgtk.cfg
4a801bf24b5e34d1a55e7d862d458d82  /media/Debian Inst/txt.cfg
321b8ac562ff31ffbe1ef9399285e1de  /media/Debian Inst/rqgtk.cfg
6bfe0bc437db6599d86f2b33ebd89dbd  /media/Debian Inst/f1.txt
17483cab486e7b4b2c96e7269b223436  /media/Debian Inst/f10.txt
3444ef28656e8a7c92fffa810cad141f  /media/Debian Inst/f2.txt
beb19a1d07ea12a2eae695651b78262a  /media/Debian Inst/f3.txt
6f14e27c68d6c661f316de848a427a20  /media/Debian Inst/f4.txt
f0c0082b6334ccfcdd22280873ae8d9a  /media/Debian Inst/f5.txt
16e7d4b2e4c890700b9f55d143b71394  /media/Debian Inst/f6.txt
4afba850eb9c5d28aae4f5b581421e72  /media/Debian Inst/f7.txt
9a1fd208897db9fb727f5c1b93930eb9  /media/Debian Inst/f8.txt
9baa397c66190960104cbda0939256a0  /media/Debian Inst/f9.txt
1fe1ac1555cf28b17d8c90e36c92c39a  /media/Debian Inst/vesamenu.c32
3b87889af4ccfbf08a9b5f8b16b15196  /media/Debian Inst/splash.png
3b901ec9d1a4f834a24589ede27f48c2  /media/Debian Inst/setup.exe
e386fcc572c174aacce3109b1eda1240  /media/Debian Inst/g2ldr
cf16c576c3c0006ce4bd1055de3b2ff9  /media/Debian Inst/g2ldr.mbr
6bed504bfff1eda4282927e740134390  /media/Debian Inst/win32-loader.ini


And dmesg says:


[ 4733.877627] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SanDisk  Cruzer Mini
  0.2  PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 4733.881571] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 2001888 512-byte hardware sectors:
(1.02 GB/977 MiB)
[ 4733.882311] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 4733.882318] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[ 4733.882324] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4733.884657] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4733.884667]  sdb: sdb1
[ 4733.886255] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 4734.301841] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT
filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!


Thanks for hint. I am just looking for creating a simple USB Key to
install debian on a system without CDROM/DVDROM
-- 
Mathieu