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Re: Add an extra item to the CD faq: write image to USB



Hi,

Alexander Reichle-Schmehl <tolimar@debian.org> wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> * Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com> [110908 18:01]:
> 
> > +<toc-add-entry name="write-usb">How do I write a CD image to a USB flash drive?</toc-add-entry>
> [..]
> 
> It would be cool to also add some hints how that is done on non Linux
> systems.

Yes, that sounds reasonable to me IMHO.

I have modified Steves patch: (Steve: I hope this is ok for you.)
- add a paragraph to mention the graphical GUI "Ubuntu ImageWriter"
- add instructions for Windows machines
- add instructions for MacOSX machines 


Holger



Index: CD/faq/index.wml
@@ -663,6 +663,38 @@ Mac OS X</a> as well.
 
 # ============================================================
 
+<toc-add-entry name="write-usb">How do I write a CD image to a USB flash drive?</toc-add-entry>
+
+<p>Several of the Debian CD and Debian Live images are created using
+<i>isohybrid</i> technology, which means that they may be used in two
+different ways:</p>
+
+<ul>
+  <li>They may be written to CD/DVD and used as normal for CD/DVD booting.</li>
+  <li>They may be written to USB flash drives, bootable directly from the BIOS of most PCs.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The most common way to copy an image to a USB flash drive is to use
+the <q>dd</q> command on a Linux machine:</p>
+
+<p><code>dd if=&lt;file&gt; of=&lt;device&gt; bs=4M; sync</code></p>
+
+<p>where:</p>
+<ul>
+  <li>&lt;file&gt; is the name of the input image, e.g. <q>netinst.iso</q>
+  <li>&lt;device&gt; is the device matching the USB flash drive,
+  e.g. /dev/sda, /dev/sdb. Be careful to make sure you have the right
+  device name, as this command is capable of writing over your hard
+  disk just as easily if you get the wrong one!</li>
+  <li><q>bs=4M</q> tells dd to read/write in 4 megabyte chunks for
+  better performance; the default is 512 bytes, which will be much
+  slower
+  <li>The <q>sync</q> is to make sure that all the writes are flushed out
+  before the command returns.
+</ul>
+<p>If you prefer to use a graphical tool for writing the image on a
+   Debian/Ubuntu machine, see
+   <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImgFiles#Ubuntu";>.
+</p>
+
+<p>On a Windows machine you can use <q>Image Writer for Windows</q>.
+   Instructions and an URL where to download that tool can be found
+   under <a
+   href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImgFiles#Windows";>.
+</p>
+
+<p>Performing this task on a MacOS X machine is also possible, see <a
+   href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImgFiles#Mac_OS_X";>.
+</p>
+
+# ============================================================
+
 <toc-add-entry name="whatlabel">How should I label the
 CDs?</toc-add-entry>




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