Create a multi-version Fedora system installation U Disk

Create a multi-version Fedora system installation U Disk

At present, few people should use the CD to install the system. Almost all BIOS support USB boot. Therefore, it is normal to install the system using a USB flash drive (or mobile storage devices such as a mobile hard drive or SD card. In fact, there are few opportunities to use the installation disk (system crashes, LiveCD is required, and the system is reinstalled completely. My Fedora has been installed for three years, and it is not necessary to install the disk system until I change my computer ). In the past, I did not pay much attention to it. I did not record the process and problems when I was ready to use it. There is an extra 16 gb usb flash drive on hand this time. During the New Year's Day holiday, I want to create an installation USB flash drive that can be installed with multiple versions of Fedora, and I can use the remaining space to store other data.

Reference: How to create and use Live USB

Use the dd command

The most crude method is dd. You don't need to install any software, and the system comes with commands.

 
 

  
  
Sudo dd if = <安装盘.iso 的路径> Of = 
 
 

You can also add bs =? MB and other parameters to improve efficiency. After this command, do not forget "sync" Oh :-)

However, his shortcomings are very obvious:

• Waste of Space: The entire USB flash drive is occupied. Only one system can be installed.
• Read-Only: Since iso is a CD File System (ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem), after dd into the U disk, the system considers the U disk read-only.
• Software Error: When you insert a U disk, if you open Gparted, it will complain about the block size is incorrect.
• Hide the progress: When the command is started, wait for a few minutes. No output will be provided before the end (you can solve this problem by using killall/kill. For more information, see the following link)

SideNote: the dd command can be used to view the progress by signal. For details, refer to check the status of 'dd' in progress.
Use GUI Software

The following two software programs are not very reliable. If you are in a hurry, please skip :-)

Liveusb-creator Installation Software in the Fedora Repository

 
 

  
  
sudo yum install liveusb-creator
 
 

User Experience

Using liveusb-creator GUI software makes it easier.
However, I have never succeeded. The problem is that the software has not been well tested. After the software is completed (possibly), the MBR has not been modified, and the LiveCD function cannot be implemented (the system cannot be started from the U disk)
Advantages:

• Easy to use GUI
• You can automatically download the required Fedora image.
• Progress display
• Occupies only one partition, not a waste of space

Disadvantages:

• The system cannot be started for a boot disk (at least I have never succeeded)
• Only LiveCD burning and writing can be implemented. (A software that can only burn LiveCD, the U disk cannot implement the LiveCD function, you TM is teasing me:-p)
• Even the official Wiki of Fedora is not recommended. It is not as reliable as dd.

UNetbootin Installation Software

Go to the UNetbootin homepage to download the corresponding version for installation (with an RPM package)

User Experience

It seems like liveusb-creator, but it cannot be used in my F23:
A. After the installation is complete, use the GUI icon to start. The prompt is: root permission is required. Please start it through the command line. (You can preview the page)
B. Use the prompt command to start it with sudo/su on the terminal. A bunch of errors are displayed, and they are stuck :-(

Advantages:

• Same as liveusb-creator
• Supports multiple releases
• Cross-platform (Win, Linux, Mac OS X)

Disadvantages:

• (It is not started successfully in F23, but is not commented). It is not recommended for Wiki ora Wiki, so it is not as reliable as dd.

Use the livecd-iso-to-disk command line tool

Key PointsFinally, we found that livecd-tools is the best tool.
Although it is a command line, the key to simple operations (or even simpler than dd) is "it works ".

Advantages:

• Easy to use, almost as simple as dd
• Not only can LiveCD be processed, but also Server-version installation DVDs can be processed.
• Some progress is displayed.
• It only occupies a single partition, does not waste space, and is readable and writable.
• Multiple livecds can be installed in the same partition.

Disadvantages:

• Some manual processing is required: For the configuration file that starts the MENU

Install software

 
 

  
  
sudo dnf install livecd-tools 
 
 

How to install the first LiveCD

 
 

  
  
sudo livecd-iso-to-disk --reset-mbr --home-size-mb 1024 '/home/tekkamanninja/development/temp/Fedora-Live-Workstation-x86_64-23-10.iso' /dev/sdb1
 
 

Where

• -Reset-mbr tells livecd-iso-to-disk to update the mbr of the u disk (or memory) so that the system can start from the U disk. This is required as the first LiveCD image to be installed.
• -Home-size-mb 1024 (optional) tells livecd-iso-to-disk to create a 1024 MB img file as the user's home partition and retain user data. Note: The default value is-encrypted-home. We recommend that you add-unencrypted-home to the backend, because if you have encrypted home. img, the system may be stuck in the startup phase. The reason is that when the system prompts you to enter the password, other parallel startup information output hinders the input of the password. As a result, the password cannot be entered, and the system cannot mount home. img. This occurs in F23 security lab LiveCD, and there is no problem in WorkStation LiveCD.
• If you want to customize the partition label, you can use-label <分区label> For example,-label "Fedora-LiveCD"
• *. The Fedora LiveCD file downloaded by iso is unnecessary.
• /Dev/sdb1 is the target U disk partition installed. Note: it is a partition, not the entire U disk. You can divide the partition in advance, but remember that the target partition must be marked as "boot". Otherwise, the tool will prompt and exit.

After the command is executed, your U disk is the boot disk that can start and install Fedora.

Install Multiple livecds to the same partition (optional)

After installing the first LiveCD, I found that livecd-iso-to-disk supports multi-image installation.
The second and later commands for LiveCD installation are roughly as follows:

 
 

  
  
sudo livecd-iso-to-disk --multi --livedir "security" --home-size-mb 1024 --unencrypted-home '/home/tekkamanninja/Downloads/Fedora-Live-Security-x86_64-23-10.iso' /dev/sdb1
  
  
sudo livecd-iso-to-disk --multi --livedir "server" '/home/tekkamanninja/Downloads/Fedora-Server-DVD-x86_64-23.iso' /dev/sdb1
 
 

The main difference from the first system is that-multi-livedir is added. <安装目录名>
This option tells the tool that the LiveCD image is installed in the/dev/sdb1 directory. <安装目录名> Directory to avoid conflict with the previously installed LiveCD.
You can install several LiveCD images as long as your U disk is large enough. Note that you must manually modify the startup configuration file after executing this command. Otherwise, you cannot see the LiveCD startup option installed later at startup.

In this example, F23 Workstation LiveCD is installed, and security Live CD is installed.

   
 

    
  
menu separator
    
  
label linux0
    
  
menu label ^Start Fedora Live
    
  
kernel /security/syslinux/vmlinuz0 
    
  
append initrd=/security/syslinux/initrd0.img root=live:UUID=8fcd33eb-3dc2-4c04-8347-1b8099aa0d1c rootfstype=ext4 ro rd.live.image live_dir=security quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0
   
 

Copy to/syslinux/extlinux. conf.