Re: Can debian-live-9.0.1-i386-lxde be made to install from USB?

Many people have had issues installing with the Live installer on this mailing list. The question is why Debian even offers the option if there is no interest in testing it to make it work. The initial live installer images (9.0, before 9.0.1) were completely broken and could not even begin the install[1]. Clearly, this resulted from a complete lack of testing as it would have been easily caught given that it is a deterministic error that to applied to ALL the live ISOs. I think it's unfair to blame users for using the Live media as an installer. Either test the live images to make sure it can be used for installation on a wide variety of hardware, or don't provide the option at all. It appears that the debian-devel mailing list HAS called for more testing due to this situation with the explicit threat that live images will cease to be produced if nobody wants to test them [2]. With that said, users should always use the regular d-i installer images to do an actual install. The live images are useful for testing to see if your hardware is supported and also for recovery.

Takeaway: If you want to install Debian, either use the network installer (small installation image) or use one of the DVD images (large installation images), NOT the live disks. You can download either here: https://www.debian.org/distrib/. Only use the Live ISOs to test out Debian and to ensure hardware support. If you have a need for non-free firmware to complete the install (e.g. non-free network firmware for wifi devices), use the images here https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/9.0.0+nonfree/amd64/bt-dvd/.

[1]https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/9.0.1-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/

[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2017/06/msg00335.html

On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 10:47 AM, Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> wrote:

On Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 12:14:52AM +1000, Erik Christiansen wrote:

On 18.07.17 08:20, Greg Wooledge wrote:

On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 10:55:26AM +0200, Dejan Jocic wrote:
> This release of Debian came with buggy live images. It was fixed with
> 9.0.1 live images, or at least it seemed so.

No, the 9.0.1 Debian live images are still broken when used for
installations. They fail to set a root password or to set up the primary
user account with sudo access, at least in some cases. Users in Freenode
#debian are constantly having to be told how to boot from rescue media
to set the root password.

WHY DO PEOPLE ATTEMPT TO INSTALL DEBIAN USING A LIVE CD IMAGE

www.debian.org -> "CD/USB ISO images", then choose the only possibly
viable alternative to CD/DVD, since there's no CD/DVD on the new host.

Did you read the two yellow boxes at the top of that page?

1. If you simply want to install Debian and have an Internet connection
on the target computer please consider the Network Install media which
is a smaller download.

2. On i386 and amd64 architectures, all CD/DVD images can be used on a
USB stick too.

I can see your logic, but the webpage IS telling you that "Even if
you're trying to install from USB, these are the images you REALLY
want."

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