Re: installing debian from USB... IS IT POSSIBLE?

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

On 20110727_070255, Dom wrote:
> On 27/07/11 02:57, Paul E Condon wrote:
> >On 20110726_190017, Dom wrote:
> >>
> >>The Wheezy netinst-cdrom image can certainly be used with a USB stick
> >>(and a USB hard disk too). I've successfully used this method to
> >>install a number of test systems recently.
> >>
> >I'd like to try this. Can you give some details of what you did?
> >1. How did you partition the hard disk?
> >2. Did you put a file system on the partition?  I'm thinking of
> >using a 100G hard disk that I already have and I'd like to save
> >most of it for general backup of system files. Can I do this?
> >Does putting a partition table on it help save some the left
> >over space?
> >
> >3. What did you us to write the image? dd ? something else?
> 
> I simply used  "dd if=netinst.iso of=/dev/sdX". The image contains a
> partition table and everything.
> 
> >4. Is there something else that I should be asking about?
> 
> Not that I'm aware of. Just install as normal. Have fun :-)
> 
> As some of my test systems are very low on memory (32MB), and can't
> be upgraded, I created a swap partition on the rest of the disk, used
> Expert mode and activated swap as soon as I could in order to
> complete the installation. This shouldn't be necessary on a more
> modern system.
> 

Thanks, Dom

It also works with debian-6.0.1a-i386-businesscard.iso
I have looked into putting the installer on a USB device several times 
in the past, but have always been put off by the perceived messyness
of the process, like OP. The only slightly complex issue was putting
the USB drive into the bios boot order list. This is not a complaint,
but an indication of just how trivial the process actually is. 

Was it always this easy and people writing HOWTOs just didn't know?
Or was there some feature in the debian-gnu-linux tool set that needed
a rewrite? Not really important to get an answer, but it would be nice
if all those out of date HOWTOs could somehow be hidden from view, Or
tagged with a note pointing to your email in debian lists archive.

Thanks again

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net