openSUSE 11.2 RC1: Unable to boot off USB flash disk

Hi,
I’ve downloaded the RC1 LiveCD ISO (KDE4) and tried copying the iso to my flashdisk so that I can boot off it, using the command

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdc1 bs=4M

On trying to boot off it, I get an error message “ISOLINUX.BIN missing or corrupted” and proceeds to boot off my hard disk :frowning:
Any clues as to why this is happening or if I’m doing something wrong ?

There are a still a number of installation bugs in the RC1 Live disk; so you may be better posting a bug report.

Well, I have filed a bug report for the same

Ok, this is the reply I got ( and yeah the bug was closed )

LiveCD is build for booting from CD/DVD medium not for USB. IMHO only copying
data do USB flash drive is not enough.

The best way how to create bootable flash drive with KDE4 is create own image
in SUSEStudo. Please look at Welcome – SUSE Studio and there you can create
image bootable from USB flash drive.

I am sorry but creating bootable USB flash drive from LiveCD is not good idea
and it is not only about copying data via “dd”
.

  1. If its for booting only from LiveCD then why mention it in the News post?
  2. The news post specifically says,

Running openSUSE from an USB stick (especially for that we ask you for testing)

And the bug testing/tracking team says COMPLETELY the opposite version. Um, hello ?

If its “not only about copying data via dd” then why mention it so in an OFFICIAL post AND wiki ?
Yeah, good stuff.

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdc not /dev/sdc1 bs-4M

See if that works

coolpcguy wrote:
> Hi,
> I’ve downloaded the RC1 LiveCD ISO (KDE4) and tried copying the iso
> to my flashdisk so that I can boot off it, using the command
>
>
> PHP code:
> --------------------
> dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdc1 bs=4M
> --------------------
>
>
> On trying to boot off it, I get an error message “ISOLINUX.BIN missing
> or corrupted” and proceeds to boot off my hard disk :frowning:
> Any clues as to why this is happening or if I’m doing something wrong ?
>
>

If that is your command it sure does not work.
Instead of “image.iso” you need to use the real name and path of the
real .iso

It worked here with milestones, I haven’t tried RC1 cos I’ve updated
with zypper dup since.

Vahis

“Sunrise 8:11am (EEST), sunset 5:57pm (EEST) at Espoo, Finland (9:45
hours daylight)”
http://waxborg.servepics.com
Linux 2.6.25.20-0.5-default #1 SMP 2009-08-14 01:48:11 +0200 x86_64
9:30pm up 28 days 4:10, 16 users, load average: 6.75, 7.36, 6.93

Also had some problems with booting from a stick (not LIVE cd but installation DVD).

Followed the wiki page on booting from USB but when trying to boot process stops at the prompt; I had to manually type in “linux initrd=initrd” (not vmlinuz, as this is not present on the bootdisk) to get it booting.

No bug. Using dd with the correct source & target (as pointed out above, i.e. the path and filename of your LiveCD iso and the device name (only) of your USB stick) works with RC1 KDE LiveCD. Just did it.

I have seen different USB sticks not work when trying to make bootable in the past (use a different stick & same process works fine) so don’t rule out possible media problem.

The only problem I can see with 11.2 install is that it’s so quick I may have to resort to instant coffee…lol!

Indeed, that worked fine. Thank you.

/facepalm myself for being an idiot.

@ignz - it is very fast :slight_smile:

@Vahis - filename was just an indication, If I had to type the the whole path it’d prettty long & there’s no autocompletion in here :wink:

coolpcguy wrote:
> dale14846;2052934 Wrote:
>> dd if=image.iso of=/DEV/SDC not /dev/sdc1 bs-4M
>>
>> See if that works
>
> Indeed, that worked fine. Thank you.
>
> /facepalm myself for being an idiot.
>
> @ignz - it is very fast :slight_smile:
>
> @Vahis - filename was just an indication, If I had to type the the
> whole path it’d prettty long & there’s no autocompletion in here :wink:
>
>

It wouldn’t have been the first time when someone types something to be
read and means something else.

The best way to handle non-working commands is to copy/paste them as
such. Then no further questions need to be asked and no assumptions made
to debug the problem.

You could have copied/pasted the correct command from several places
where it’s been instructed officially in the first place, like:

<quote>
Get Release Candidate 1 Today!

What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are
available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ now.

Note, if you need to try the live CD on a machine with no CD-ROM drive, you
can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

Replace “image.iso” with the name of the ISO image that you have downloaded,
and replace “sdX” with the actual device name of your USB drive. Be careful!
This will erase the target device, so make sure you have the correct device
name and have any vital data backed up!
< /quote>

It also instructs there how to replace and what in the command :slight_smile:

But nice you got it working :slight_smile:

Vahis

“Sunrise 8:14am (EEST), sunset 5:54pm (EEST) at Espoo, Finland (9:40
hours daylight)”
http://waxborg.servepics.com
Linux 2.6.25.20-0.5-default #1 SMP 2009-08-14 01:48:11 +0200 x86_64
5:16pm up 28 days 23:56, 17 users, load average: 1.12, 1.23, 1.21

It wouldn’t have been the first time when someone types something to be
read and means something else.

The best way to handle non-working commands is to copy/paste them as
such. Then no further questions need to be asked and no assumptions made
to debug the problem.

Indeed. Lesson learnt :slight_smile:

But nice you got it working

Thanks to you folks :slight_smile:

I tried writing the ISO to my flash drive, but it froze before I got to the boot menu. To fix it, I ran the command “isohybrid” on the image (It’s included in syslinux 3.72 and later and you’ll find a version with that command on OBS). I wrote the patched image and it booted successfully.