On Sat 30 Apr 2016 at 21:02:56 +0300, Piyavkin wrote: > On 29.04.2016 22:59, Brian wrote: > >On Fri 29 Apr 2016 at 21:57:53 +0300, Piyavkin wrote:
[...Snip...] > >>>It is a source of contention (and a number of bug reports) but it is by > >>design. > >> > >>Why such design? > >Suppose you want to install Debian; that's the objective after all. An > >isohybrid allows mounting the USB stick directly. You dd/cat/cp the > >image to a USB stick and boot and there you are - Debian is installed. > > > >What does loop-mounting of an ISO file with GRUB give you? > > With Ubuntu distrib you can do the same. > And still you can run it straight from .iso without additional quest and use > of shaman drum. > What's wrong with it? Nothing, but a Ubuntu live ISO serves a different purpose from the Debian installer. Which is not to say enhancing a netinst ISO is not worthwhile and would benefit a few people. Patches to have iso-scan in these ISOs' initrds were provided a couple of years ago and booting an ISO with GRUB is on the installer team's list of feature requests. Meanwhile, there is hd-media and a extra stanza in grub.cfg. > In my view, it is much more convenient to download new .iso files (or > replace old ones) straight to USB-drive and copy+paste one more menuentry in > grub.cfg (working in any OS which supports FAT), than to do the same (.iso > download in some dedicated folder, changing in grub.cfg) plus > partitioning/repartitioning (with calculation of proper partitions' sizes > every time when you want to use more then 2 distros on 1 USB-drive) and > copying (which requires *nix-like OS already running). If I understand the > process correctly. The "convenience" argument is a decent one, although it does apply to quite a narrow use-case. > And much more safer, I believe. Because in the first case there are lesser > chances that in a stressful & hasty time doing one more > > cp debian-hot-new.iso /dev/sda > sync > > you may end up like:«Oh, wait… was it sdb?.. wait… and what was sda then?.. > Oh… that was my 40+ years long project in astrophysics… THANK YOU, Debian, > for your design!» Not a decent argument. Operations such as partitioning and formatting a USB stick and installing GRUB to its MBR all require root privilege. > I think KISS principle should be applied not only to tools, but to the user > experience too. Which may be more important. Cause, in the end, everything > we do, we do for others. And who ignores it (for some their reason) will > suffer. For soft production one of the rules may sound like: «If you create > unnecessary obstacles in installation process, you hinder distribution and > hence adoption. Good luck!» Advice to a newcomer for installing Debian ------------------------------------------ cat ISO to stick. Boot. Alternative advice to a newcomer for installing Debian ------------------------------------------------------ Clean stick with dd. Partition stick. Format partition. Copy ISO to partition. Install GRUB. Construct a grub.cfg and copy to partition. Boot.
