Re: New Linux User needs some guidance
Hi,
lwhonaker@gmail.com wrote:
> I was under the impression, if I copied the dvd image to a usb stick,
> I could boot from the stick and start the install.
This is true. You have to put it as image onto the raw USB stick device.
https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb
proposes for GNU/Linux something like
cp debian-10.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso /dev/sdd
where /dev/sdd is the device file representing the USB stick.
For MS-Windows it proposes to use
https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
An alternative is program Rufus with its "dd" mode. (I.e. not the mode by
which it installs GNU/Linux onto USB stick.)
It will not work if you put the ISO image into a partition of the USB stick
or as data file into a filesystem on the USB stick.
The copy operation is only credible if you afterwards (and after re-plugging)
see a new partition table on the USB stick. Maybe MS-Windows will complain
about a messed up GPT partition table. That's normal. Do not allow it to
"repair" it.
> Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD © © 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al
This does not look like the first bootloader message of a contemporary
Debian ISO image. If booted via legacy BIOS it should say "ISOLINUX"
rather than "Syslinux" and, depending on the age of your ISO image,
tell a younger age and higher revision.
debian-10.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso has in its boot image the strings
ISOLINUX 6.04 20190226
Copyright (C) 1994-2015 H. Peter Anvin et al
I assume you fell victim to some installation tool which unpacks ISOs
and tries prepare an own bootloader to boot the unpacked system. Typically
those programs offer to put several Linuxes onto the same stick.
This might work or not work. In any case it circumvents the prepared
boot procedure, which begins for legacy BIOS by the ISO's Master Boot
Record and then hops to the same boot program image that is used when
booting from DVD.
> Do I need something else other than the iso image on a 32 GB thumb drive in
> order to begin the install for Debian?
You will need an internet connection for (semi-)automatic downloading of
the bulk of Debian packages. (The advantage is that you can use a small
"netinst" ISO of only a few hundred MB and a smaller USB stick.)
Alternatively you could work with a Blu-ray sized ISO, which needs some
effort to download if you do not yet have a running Debian system.
E.g. debian-10.1.0-amd64-BD-1 from
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-bd/
by help of an intermediate Debian Live system
https://wiki.debian.org/JigdoOnLive
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For the archives:
A. Söldner wrote:
> I think you've to make the USB-Stick bootable and write the first ISO to the
> Stick.
This is outdated since about Debian 6 (2012 ?).
We now have "isohybrid".
Gene Heskett wrote:
> Done right, you see the contents, but not the iso file.
True. But you would see the many files also if you copied the ISO onto
a partition instead onto the whole stick.
In this case, the stick's partition table would not change.
(It would not boot because the ISO's MBR would not be in place for the
legacy BIOS to find it.)
Have a nice day :)
Thomas
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