On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 12:41 PM, Patrick Bartek <nemomm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Nov 2017 10:58:58 -0600 Kent West <we...@acu.edu> wrote: > > > I wanted to create a Live Debian USB stick (using an existing Debian > > system). I remember doing such a few years ago with "unetbootin", but > > when I looked for "unetbootin" via aptitude search, I couldn't find > > it, so I did a quick "unetbootin debian" search, and found a Debian > > bug report from 2015 > > (https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=775689) that led > > me to believe I should not use unetbootin, but to use the newer > > method of simply dd'ing the .ISO to the USB drive. > > > > So I went to > > https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/ > > and downloaded the AMD64 Cinnamon version of 9.2.0, and then inserted > > my USB stick, found it on /dev/sdc, and ran the command: > > > > sudo if=debian-live-9.2.0-amd64-cinnamon.iso > > I'd give the complete path to the downloaded ISO. dd's pretty stupid. > > > <https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/ > iso-hybrid/debian-live-9.2.0-amd64-cinnamon.iso> > > Remove this. > That's just an artifact of my copy/paste into GMail; the actual command did not include the web address. > > > of=/dev/sdc > > > > I walked away then and came back in a few minutes to find it had > > finished, but didn't pay attention to any other messages, and then > > tried booting it on another year-old Dell PC. It gave me the grub > > menu, but then when I tried to boot Debian Live, I got an error about > > an invalid magic number and a need to load a kernel first. > > > > Not finding any documentation that might help, I checked the md5sum > > on the downloaded file (it was correct), and tried the dd again. Same > > result. > > > > I tinkered a bit, and then the next time I tried a dd, I noticed that > > it was giving me an input/output error for /dev/sdc. Still, it seemed > > to finish properly, but the boot attempt gave the same failed result. > > > > So I decided to try a different download; I tried the Mate flavor. > > Same result. > > > > So I decided to try a different USB stick. Same result. > > > > And now, both my sticks are complaining about being mounted > > read-only, and I can't seem to fix that. > > > > I tried "hdparm -r0 /dev/sdc", and that reports that it's set the > > read-only flag to off, but the stick still is read-only. > > > > So it appears that dd'ing a Debian .iso to a USB stick, at least > > using my hardware, bricks the USB stick. > > > > I'm assuming my attempt has cost me two USB sticks, and has just left > > a bad experience with Debian under my belt, and there's nothing I can > > do about it. (I don't even know where a bug report might go.) But I > > thought I'd put this info on the User's list, just for the record, > > and perhaps at the chance that someone might have a solution. > > An install CD/DVD ISO is usually read-only and gets "designated" that > way when dd'ed to a USB stick. This is normal. If you > repartition/reformat/etc the stick, then you can "correct" that and > make it writeable, again, but the ISO file is gone, of course. > > B > That's good to know. Thanks! -- Kent West <")))>< Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com
