On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 12:03:22PM -0500, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 11:21:03AM -0500, Jude Nelson wrote:
> > 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.
>
> Did that. dd'd it again. Now it boots, though, as expected, it still
> seems to think it's a Debian installer.
>
> Will proceed with installation when I've got the right hard drive in the
> laptop again.
>
> -- hendrik

The installer booted nicely. I decided to use the expert install becuase
there's another OS (Windows XP) already copied to the target hard drive.

It isn't bootable at the moment, but (a) grub may be able to boot it,
and (b) in any cse, I'll want access to its file system even if I end
up running everythine under wine.

Everythiong went smoothly until I got to partitioning.. I got it so
look at the hard drive rather than trying to install to the USB stick I
booted from (there has been a bit of discussion about this on one of the
mailing lists (I think debian's)) But picked manual paritioning, but all
the options I seem to find look like they're going to wipe the entire
existing partition table and set up a new one, wiping everything that's
there.

If that's the only way to go ahead with this thing I will. Have I
missed something along the way? Or is the warning prose just overly
dramatic?

(details, in case relevant: I have three existong partitions, copied
from the old hard drive -- numbers 1, 3, and 4. 4 is the EFI
partition, (even though this is a BIOS machine) and doesn't seem to
contain a recognisable file system).

I plan to make partiotn 2 (with most of the disk space) into an extended
partitions, place a few small secondary partitions on it so serve as
/boot for Linuxes and for experimenting with a few other OS's,
and then put the bulk of the space into LVM, for devuan.s /, /home, and so
forth.)

-- hendrik

>
> >
> > 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
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Dng mailing list
> > > Dng@???
> > > https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
> > >
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