Rufus has two modes for making a USB installation media from the DVD ISO image. One is ISO Image mode, and the other is DD image mode.
If I got it correct, ISO Image mode first makes a bootable USB stick by partitioning and formatting it into proper scheme and then copies the content of the DVD ISO image into a proper partition on the USB drive, so that this USB stick can be used to boot both in Legacy and EFI mode for installing a system.
And, the DD Image mode has the same mechanism as dd command in Linux to create a installation USB media from DVD ISO installation image.
I have installed my system using the former mode. But I want to make sure I can use dd command to make the USB media because as I understand, the dd command method should be a basic one based on its principle. As a reference, all the methods/software which use the same binary copy mode as dd, such as SUSE Image Writer (on Linux) and ImageUSB (on Windows), don’t work for me on this machine. And they all fails with the same symptom as described in the first post in this thread.
Thanks for your recommendation. But as I said previously, I can install the system using another way. I am just trying to understand why does the dd copying method not work for me on this machine.
Yes, you’re right. I just want to figure out why does a correctly made USB stick using dd binary copy not work in my case.
Good question and I don’t have an answer. The ISO is MBR/EFI boot ready so should work.Since the exact same image works with DVD and apparently with sysLinux option Rufus It seems to come down to possible hardware oddness. From experience related here on the forum the sysLinux rufus install should not work and dd/cp should
Yes, and this is part of the reason I want to find out what’s the problem here as I can only success by using Rufus amongst all the methods I’ve tried (listed in post #1).
That’s why I mentioned Knoppix. It needs legacy boot support or at least seems to. I mentioned it because your machine may have more than one boot from usb option. My machine also has usb3 ports - and a couple of usb2 as well.
I have little interest in how iso’s boot but do know that the mechanism used can vary and why. For more detail this looks like a good place to start. It’s also worth looking at the links that are provided especially relating to mac’s but more for interest unless that problems crops up at some point.
You’ll need to look around a lot more to fully explain your problem also very likely look at what has actually been written to the sticks. I’ve never needed to use one on Linux but there are probably some forensic disk utilities about that will allow that.
Hi John, thanks for bring this up. But I still don’t know what to do with Knoppix. As you mentioned, Knoppix needs legacy support but I want only EFI boot USB stick so that I didn’t even test my USB stick with legacy boot. (But I think it will work with legacy mode. Also, I don’t know whether changing my current machine from UEFI boot to legacy will damage my current systems or not. But I don’t want to risk it.)
Furthermore, I have only USB 3.0 ports on this machine.
Could you be more specific on what should I do with Knoppix? Please forgive my ignorance on this.
I’ve read the link you provided but I am not sure I could get any useful information from it.
I’ve read a lot regarding to the topic in this thread. I think I explained my problem and aim very clearly, which is to use dd command on Linux (openSUSE Tumbleweed to be specific) to do a binary copy of the installation DVD ISO image of openSUSE Tumbleweed to a USB stick for installing the Linux OS into my current machine which is a Lenovo ThinkPad T470s.
As an additional information to this, I have achieved part of the aim which is successfully installing the openSUSE Tumbleweed OS under EFI boot with Secure Boot set to ON by using Rufus with ISO Image mode other than DD Image mode to make the USB stick. Now I just want to make sure the dd command method working for me too (I am sure the dd command method is the same as Rufus with DD Image mode, or at least they both are plain binary copy).
In addition, I also have made another USB drive using dd method on openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshot 20170510. This still gives me the same failure symptom: after choosing the USB stick from EFI boot menu, the screen turns black for a second or so and then back to the EFI boot menu with the first entry highlighted.
After booting into my current system, I mount the USB stick and list the contents in it. It seems no abnormal thing happened. Here is the commands and outputs (raw).
===== Making USB stick using dd
a:/data # umount /dev/sdb1
a:/data # umount /dev/sdb
umount: /dev/sdb: not mounted
a:/data # dd if=openSUSE-Tumbleweed-DVD-x86_64-Snapshot20170510-Media.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M status=progress && sync
3992977408 bytes (4.0 GB, 3.7 GiB) copied, 168.089 s, 23.8 MB/s
3814+0 records in
3814+0 records out
3999268864 bytes (4.0 GB, 3.7 GiB) copied, 453.901 s, 8.8 MB/s
a:/data # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: EC9B8EBF-FC01-48FD-BE03-6ED092A10756
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 534527 532480 260M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 534528 567295 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3 567296 126404607 125837312 60G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 126404608 210298879 83894272 40G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p5 210298880 214501375 4202496 2G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p6 214501376 298395647 83894272 40G Linux root (x86-64)
/dev/nvme0n1p7 298395648 424232959 125837312 60G Linux home
/dev/nvme0n1p8 424232960 927557631 503324672 240G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p9 998166528 1000214527 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment
Disk /dev/sdb: 7.2 GiB, 7736072192 bytes, 15109516 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x20e3fd0e
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 3816 11627 7812 3.8M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdb2 * 11628 7811071 7799444 3.7G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
===== Mount the USB stick and show the contents
a:/home/cnzhx # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: EC9B8EBF-FC01-48FD-BE03-6ED092A10756
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 534527 532480 260M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 534528 567295 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3 567296 126404607 125837312 60G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 126404608 210298879 83894272 40G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p5 210298880 214501375 4202496 2G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p6 214501376 298395647 83894272 40G Linux root (x86-64)
/dev/nvme0n1p7 298395648 424232959 125837312 60G Linux home
/dev/nvme0n1p8 424232960 927557631 503324672 240G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p9 998166528 1000214527 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment
Disk /dev/sda: 7.2 GiB, 7736072192 bytes, 15109516 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x20e3fd0e
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 3816 11627 7812 3.8M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda2 * 11628 7811071 7799444 3.7G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
a:/home/cnzhx # mount /dev/sda /mnt/iso
mount: mount point /mnt/iso does not exist
a:/home/cnzhx # ls -al /mnt
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 May 11 06:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 192 May 3 00:01 ..
a:/home/cnzhx # mkdir /mnt/iso
a:/home/cnzhx # mount /dev/sda /mnt/iso
mount: /dev/sda is write-protected, mounting read-only
a:/home/cnzhx # ls -al /mnt/iso
total 42508
dr-xr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 May 11 08:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6 May 15 10:46 ..
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 8861290 May 11 08:55 ARCHIVES.gz
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 98 Apr 12 16:50 autorun.inf
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 May 11 08:55 boot
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 34020296 May 11 08:53 ChangeLog
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 13504 May 11 08:55 content
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 481 May 11 08:55 content.asc
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 988 May 11 08:55 content.key
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 52807 May 10 20:56 control.xml
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 270 May 11 08:55 directory.yast
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 6144 May 11 08:50 docu
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 May 11 08:50 EFI
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 673 Mar 22 04:08 gpg-pubkey-307e3d54-4be01a65.asc
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1059 Mar 22 04:08 gpg-pubkey-3dbdc284-53674dd4.asc
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 18092 Mar 22 04:08 GPLv2.txt
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 35147 Mar 22 04:08 GPLv3.txt
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 64181 May 11 08:55 INDEX.gz
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 59267 Mar 22 04:08 license.tar.gz
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 98469 May 11 08:55 ls-lR.gz
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 May 11 08:55 media.1
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 274122 Apr 12 16:50 openSUSE_installer.exe
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1250 Mar 22 04:08 README
dr-xr-xr-x 5 root root 2048 May 11 08:50 suse
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 2238 Mar 22 04:08 SuSEgo.ico
I used the USB stick made using dd mentioned in last post on my machine. The symptom is the same.
Then I used it on a machine of my colleague’s. This machine is a HP Pavilion, forgot the specific model, which has a Windows 10 booting with UEFI and the Secure Boot is ON. It boots from the USB stick smoothly into the installation menu. I stopped here. It may be worth to note that before entering the installation menu, a screen asking “Trust openSUSE Certificate” kicks in.
So, it confirms that the USB stick is properly made using dd command and the failure is caused by hardware or BIOS restrictions.
Note that on my machine, I can install openSUSE Tumbleweed using a USB stick made with Rufus ISO image mode under UEFI boot mode with Secure Boot ON.
If you want to explore further try GeckLinix a Live version of openSUSE https://geckolinux.github.io/ I believe it may use sysLinux rather then grub to boot the iso (could wrong but I think I heard that)
Exactly at what point do things fail?? do you see a flash on upper left corner of the screen saying loading grub ( it goes by fast) do you get a menu or a grub prompt (grub>)? How about a BIOS/UEFI error about no file system found?
I download GeckLinux static KDE version and make a dd copy to my USB stick. One thing is different to former openSUSE Tumbleweed one is that after the dd-copying, the USB stick is recognised by system immediately and the OS prompt that a CDROM device is plugged in. I had never noticed this while making the USB stick using openSUSE Tumbleweed ISO.
As a reference, here is the commands I used to make the GeckLinux USB stick:
a:/data # umount sdb2
umount: sdb2: mountpoint not found
a:/data # umount /dev/sdb2
umount: /dev/sdb2: not mounted
a:/data # umount /dev/sdb1
umount: /dev/sdb1: not mounted
a:/data # umount /dev/sdb
umount: /dev/sdb: not mounted
a:/data # dd bs=4M if=GeckoLinux_Plasma_Stable.x86_64-422.170302.0.iso of=/dev/sdb && sync
261+0 records in
261+0 records out
1094713344 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 125.06 s, 8.8 MB/s
a:/data # fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 7.2 GiB, 7736072192 bytes, 15109516 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1fbb9cb6
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 4212 12403 8192 4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdb2 * 12404 2138111 2125708 1G 83 Linux
I will report back later to record the boot status using this USB drive.
a:/data # fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 7.2 GiB, 7736072192 bytes, 15109516 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x44cea619
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1 4028 11839 7812 3.8M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdc2 * 11840 8110079 8098240 3.9G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
This new USB stick works fine at least to the installation menu. I didn’t check the rest of the installation process as I don’t want to do a reinstallation.
But I did check the “Rescue” option, and the loading of rescue system results in an error of “*** signal 11 ***” at the bottom left corner of the screen. After stalking for about 2 minutes, the machine rebooted automatically.