Hmmm, you might have to use isohybrid (in the syslinux package) to make the
ISO bootable when dd'ed to a USB key. See
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/blog/iso2usb.

On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 11:16 AM, Hendrik Boom <hendrik@???>
wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 04:35:47PM -0500, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> > On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 04:30:39PM -0500, william moss wrote:
> > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > > Hash: SHA256
> > >
> > > On 02/23/2015 04:24 PM, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> > > > I have a three-or-four year-old laptop on which I am replacingg the
> hard drive. It
> > > > seems to be old enough not to have proper virtualisatoin hardware.
> It currently
> > > > dual-boots Debian testing, and, once in a blue moon, Windows XP.
> > > >
> > > > (So far the main problems I have had is to copy Windows' three
> partitions -- the one
> > > > that runs, the so-called restore partition, and the EFI partition.
> I'm hoping that
> > > > grub will find a way to make the running partition bootable. I
> managed to get
> > > > clonezilla to copy the three partitions (even though the EFI
> partition seemed to
> > > > violate what I know of the EFI specs in that it didn't have a FAT
> 12, 16, or 32
> > > > filesystem. Maybe grub will be able to figure out how to boot what
> needs booting.)
> >
> > Oh yes, Despite the EFI partition it is still a BIOS machine. Go
> figure.
> >
> > > >
> > > > But maybe this is the ideal time to try the iso on the new drive and
> try it on real
> > > > hardware instead of a virtual machine. If things were to go
> > > > massively wrong, I could always put the old disk back in.
> > > >
> > > > Except I need instructions just how to do this. It does not have a
> CD or DVD drive,
> > > > but will boot from USB stick.
> > > >
> > > > How do I go about putting the installation .iso onto a USB stick so
> it will boot?
> > > > Debian should be good enough to accomplish that, riight?
> > > >
> > > > Or is there another installation method it might be more useful to
> test?
> > > >
> > > > -- hendrik
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Dng mailing list
> > > > Dng@???
> > > > https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
> > > >
> > > If you insist, there is an application to do this in Linux (one for
> > > windows also, do not remember the name):
> > > unetbootin
> > >
> > > or
> > >
> > > dd if=Fully-qualified-path-to-the-image of=Raw-USB-Device
> > >
> > > for example
> > > dd if=/home/daffyduck/download/devian.iso of=/dev/sde
>
> Did that.
>
> Wouldn't boot.
>
> Booting with the USB stick plugged in, pressed ESC to get a boot menu,
> the USB stick appeared as one of the devices I could boot from, but
> when booting, just got a blank screen with a blinking cursor.
>
> The same as when I tried booting from my new hard drive, on which no
> boot sector has ever been written.
>
> Tried seeing if there was anything on the stick (after booting
> from my old hard drive, which still has Debian on it. It told
> me:
>
> root@notlookedfor:/home/hendrik# fdisk /dev/sdb
>
> Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.25.2).
> Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
> Be careful before using the write command.
>
> /dev/sdb: device contains a valid 'iso9660' signature, it's strongly
> recommended to wipe the device by command wipefs(8) if this setup is
> unexpected to avoid possible collisions.
>
> Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
> Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xfcf3453e.
>
> Command (m for help): q
>
> root@notlookedfor:/home/hendrik#
>
> so evidently the dd succeeded in putting something on the disk.
>
> Had my son (on an Ubuntu system) use his graphical disk
> contents display and it told him is was a CDROM, and the file system on
> it appeared to contain a Debian system.
>
> Oh, yes. He tried to boot his machine, which is one of the thinkpad
> models that's guaranteed to run Linux, from the USB stick. It wouldn't
> boot either.
>
> Looks as if there's something else that needs to be done than just dd.
>
> -- hendrik
>
> > >
> > > use blkid to get the USB device.
> >
> > Ah! That easy! I just need to copy the iso file as is to the USB stick
> and that's
> > enough to make it boot? There's nothing special about it being a USB
> stick or a CD?
> >
> > marvellous!
> >
> > -- hendrik
> > _______________________________________________
> > Dng mailing list
> > Dng@???
> > https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
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>