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=<file> of=<device> bs=4M; sync</code></p>
+
+<p>where:</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><file> is the name of the input image, e.g. <q>netinst.iso</q>
+ <li><device> 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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