Partial (clumsy) success [Re: Copying complete SET of installation DVDs to a USB stick]
Rick Thomas wrote:
On Apr 12, 2014, at 7:01 AM, Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:
I will be installing Debian at locations which DO NOT have internet.
Instead of juggling a stack of DVDs, I want everything on a USB stick.
I am using Debian 6.0.5 as test case - it's what I have available.
There was no problem copying the first DVD to the beginning of the USB stick with dd.
I did a preliminary test by booting to the USB stick and the install
program apparently worked OK.
[snip what didn't work at all ;]
Hi Richard,
Have you tried using dd to make images of the DVDs on the extended part of the USB stick? E.g.:
# put DVD1 in the drive
dd if=/dev/cdrom0 of=/media/mydrive/DVD1.iso bs=1M
eject cdrom
# put DVD2 in the drive
dd if=/dev/cdrom0 of=/media/mydrive/DVD2.iso bs=1M
# and so on...
them loop-mounting the images?
That was the way to go ;)
I'm not sure what you would have to do inside the installer to get the loop-mounted images into the installers "sources.list" file, but I'm sure a bit of wiki and/or FAQ scratching would answer that question. Once you figure out the necessary magic, you can probably pre-seed it into your installer image on the front part of the USB stick.
I know this is just a sketch of a solution, but it's all I've got time for right now. Anyway, it's the approach I'd take if I had the problem.
Hope it helps!
Good luck and let us know if you come up with something that works!
I will try to give enough detail that someone could duplicate
what I've done.
My environment:
1. Lenovo R61 ThinkPad with intentionally no network connectivity
2. 64 GB USB flash drive
3. Set of physical install DVDs (Debian 6.0.5 was all
available when I started)
4. A reasonably typical install of Squeeze using Gnome2 DE
My procedure:
1. Copy DVD 1 of 8 to beginning of flash drive using dd
2. Create an ext2 partition on remainder of drive using
Gparted, labeling
it squeeze_dvds
3. Copy each of the 8 DVDs to that partition using dd
I now have files dvd1.iso thru dvd8.iso on that partition.
Remembering to mount the partition - (guess who didn't ;)
4. Create mount points with
mkdir /home/richard/tst/dvd1
thru
mkdir /home/richard/tst/dvd8
5. Loop mount the files with
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop /media/squeeze_dvds/dvd1.iso
/home/richard/tst/dvd1
thru
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop /media/squeeze_dvds/dvd8.iso
/home/richard/tst/dvd8
6. Replace contents of /etc/apt/sources.list with {no
"contrib" files on last DVD}
deb file:/home/richard/tst/dvd1 squeeze contrib main
thru
deb file:/home/richard/tst/dvd7 squeeze contrib main
deb file:/home/richard/tst/dvd8 squeeze main
7. In Synaptic type Ctrl+R to reload package information
8. Install desired additional packages
*UNRESOLVED PROBLEM*
When marking a package as "to install", a warning message is
triggered saying the package cannot be authenticated. I don't
understand. I assumed that by copying with dd all relevant
information would be available.
*TO BE INVESTIGATED*
As my eventual goal is to do semi-automated installs at a remote
site without carrying a clutter of DVDs, I need to answer:
1. how to have preseed.cfg on the flash drive?
2. how to loop mount the ISO images during install?
*REFERENCES FOUND USEFUL &/or ENLIGHTENING*
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch09.en.html
http://manpages.debian.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=mount
http://manpages.debian.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=losetup
http://manpages.debian.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=sources.list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_device
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