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## Using dd to usb

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27 posts • Page 1 of 3 • 1, 2, 3

### Using dd to usb

by vsido » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:05 am

@fsmithred
I read on here or you mentioned it to me somewhere that you have a usb tool specifically for reasons concerning dd
Testing any ISO I build on a Virtual Machine (Oracle's Virtualbox) the installation is perfect, everything is installed as it should be
Using dd to burn the image to a USB, the installation fails to install grub (or at a minimum fails to run grub-update) ... I am still testing this now to get more information but grand kids keep interfering .. I will update this as I get more
Does this sound familiar to you or crazy as hell? Is this tied somehow to dd and using a usb?
Thanks
I Dev VSIDO

vsido
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### Re: Using dd to usb

by fsmithred » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:57 am

Haven't heard that one before. I thought someone ran into a problem with the script skipping grub-install, and it might even have been me. But I can't find it in the forum or the changelog. Which version installer are you using?
Did you get a particular error message? Was the system confused about which device was /dev/sda?
The problem with using dd to put an isohybrid image on usb is that you can't make additional partitions. Or at least you couldn't do it before. The current live-manual (for jessie) says you can. And rather than use dd, they suggest using cp. (cp some.iso /dev/sdX). I haven't tried this with the newer versions of live-* packages yet.
Refracta2usb puts either the contents of the iso or the iso itself on the usb, also adds a syslinux directory and installs the syslinux bootloader onto the usb. It uses a regular fat32 partition, flagged as bootable. And it has options to do other things, too, such as create a persistent partition or persistent loopback files, create multi-boot flash drive, and more.
If you want to use refracta2usb on a stick that was previously imaged with isohybrid, you should zero the beginning of the stick first. Zero the first few megabytes of the flash drive. (2mb should be enough, but sometimes it isn't.) And you'll need one of the sid versions from the testing folder at sourceforge.

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### Re: Using dd to usb

by vsido » Tue Mar 10, 2015 1:18 am

Thanks for the explanation fsmithred
This is looking more like the aufs issue has creeped down into the SID 3.16 kernel in a recent set of updates
[s]failed to get canonical path of 'aufs'[/s] (This error was from an attempt to install grub from a liveCD session and is a standard error)
is the error we are seeing... we do see that error with a USB but when using a cd to install
This is disturbing for two reasons.. One it works fine in Virtualbox and two, the refractainstaller 'thinks' everything works fine... I have installed it several times from a USB and it 'says' everything installed fine, but grub does not install and there are no error messages
We are using the latest non uefi tools 9.1.4 Installer and 9.1.6 Snapshot
I will let you know when I fully trace it down
Last edited by vsido on Thu Mar 12, 2015 2:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
I Dev VSIDO

vsido
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### Re: Using dd to usb

by fsmithred » Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:20 am

I don't know if the fix has made it into live-boot in experimental yet. Once that's done, I think (hope) all you'll need to do is change the boot command to 'union=overlay'.
https://lists.debian.org/debian-live/20 ... 00050.html

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### Re: Using dd to usb

by vsido » Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:24 am

Not yet.. the fix is known, and the patch is ready but the build for experimental is not happening yet
You can see where the tails group has worked on the patch here
https://git-tails.immerda.ch/live-boot/ ... /overlayfs
Once it does get applied all of this should go away
I Dev VSIDO

vsido
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### Re: Using dd to usb

by fsmithred » Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:01 am

Try patching those files in the initrd. Unpack the initrd from the usb stick, patch the files, repack and copy it back to the usb.
Guess I need to test the tools after today's update.

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### Re: Using dd to usb

by fsmithred » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:28 pm

Can't reproduce the problem in virtualbox, but I did find an error on the grub-install line in refractainstaller-yad 9.1.4, line 1391, change "$DIALOG" to "yad". I don't think that's your problem, as it only generates an error message - "command not found".
To be sure, I tried it a second time after wiping the first 440 bytes. Still worked correctly. You say this happens only when you boot it from usb?

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### Re: Using dd to usb

by jedi » Wed Mar 11, 2015 10:42 pm

Hey fsmithred, great tool you've created here. I am a tester for VastOne and VSIDO. This all came about when I tried one of our latest ISO's on bare-metal. Blank drive. Tried with CD and USB. Same issue with booting every time. Immediately upon post, or right after, just a blinking cursor. No Grub. Upon looking at the install while still logged in via the live session, it was apparent that Grub was indeed installed. It finally dawned on me to look at Gparted where I immediately noticed the 'Boot Flag' was not present on 'dev/sda1' (where the MBR would be). I changed this and then went to 'etc/fstab' for a look. The first value in the fstab (proc?) was something like ROOT=TARGET. Wish I could remember exactly what it was. Anyway, I changed fstab to reflect the '/' and '/home' partitions with 'dev/sda1' and 'dev/sda2' and rebooted. This resolved the issue.
Hope this helps in some way. Seems like at some point during the install process, it is using a naming scheme with TARGET in it and then when the install is completed it is not passing the correct drive info to fstab as well as forgetting that 'dev/sda' (or wherever you choose to have your MBR) should have the 'Boot Flag' set...
everything in the ' ' single quotes above should have a forward slash. Couldn't post with the forward slash in there....
No matter how smart you are you can never convince someone stupid that they are stupid.

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### Re: Using dd to usb

by jedi » Wed Mar 11, 2015 10:50 pm

oh yeah, 'dd' for the USB, and 'Xfburn' for the CD...
No matter how smart you are you can never convince someone stupid that they are stupid.

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### Re: Using dd to usb

by vsido » Thu Mar 12, 2015 2:13 am

I have witnessed this too.. I have gone back to the 9.1.4 installer and it does the same thing
It looks as if the setup of grub written to the MBR is not happening, grub is definitely installed but a failure is happening that I cannot locate
Why this happens on bare metal but not a V-Box session is beyond me... It maybe possible that Jedi and I have a similar HW scheme that may be causing this (incorrect sda config?) but I doubt it... I am grasping at straws now
Please advise on how to proceed with any additional information needed
Thanks
Last edited by vsido on Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
I Dev VSIDO

vsido
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