USB flash installation medium: Difference between revisions
(→In Windows: Added Rufus since it's actually the easiest and most versatile tool on windows (IMO). The other tools either require CLI or do not work very reliably on windows as you need to preformat the USB drives.) |
(→Using Universal USB Installer: websites using dark patterns have no place on archwiki) |
||
Line 49: | Line 49: | ||
This method does not require any workaround and is as straightforward as {{ic|dd}} under Linux. Just download the Arch Linux ISO, and with local administrator rights use the [http://sourceforge.net/p/usbwriter/wiki/Documentation/ USBwriter] utility to write to your USB flash memory. | This method does not require any workaround and is as straightforward as {{ic|dd}} under Linux. Just download the Arch Linux ISO, and with local administrator rights use the [http://sourceforge.net/p/usbwriter/wiki/Documentation/ USBwriter] utility to write to your USB flash memory. | ||
===== Using Cygwin ===== | ===== Using Cygwin ===== |
Revision as of 17:50, 20 March 2015
ro:Instalare prin USB zh-CN:USB flash installation media zh-TW:USB Installation Media
This page discusses various multi-platform methods on how to create a Arch Linux Installer USB drive (also referred to as "flash drive", "USB stick", "USB key", etc) for booting in BIOS and UEFI systems. The result will be a LiveUSB (LiveCD-like) system that can be used for installing Arch Linux, system maintenance or for recovery purposes, and that, because of the nature of SquashFS, will discard all changes once the computer shuts down.
If you would like to run a full install of Arch Linux from a USB drive (i.e. with persistent settings), see Installing Arch Linux on a USB key. If you would like to use your bootable Arch Linux USB stick as a rescue USB, see Change root.
BIOS and UEFI Bootable USB
Using dd
/dev/sdx
.In GNU/Linux
lsblk
. Make sure that it is not mounted.Run the following command, replacing /dev/sdx
with your drive, e.g. /dev/sdb
. (do not append a partition number, so do not use something like /dev/sdb1
)
# dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync
In Windows
Using Rufus
Rufus is a multi-purpose USB iso writer.
You can get Rufus at [1]. Simply select the Arch Linux ISO, the USB drive you want to create the bootable Arch Linux onto and click start.
Since Rufus does not care if the drive is properly formatted or not and provides a GUI it may be the easiest and most robust tool to use.
Using USBwriter
This method does not require any workaround and is as straightforward as dd
under Linux. Just download the Arch Linux ISO, and with local administrator rights use the USBwriter utility to write to your USB flash memory.
Using Cygwin
Make sure your Cygwin installation contains the dd
package.
dd
for Windows from here. See the next section for more information.Place your image file in your home directory:
C:\cygwin\home\John\
Run cygwin as administrator (required for cygwin to access hardware). To write to your USB drive use the following command:
dd if=image.iso of=\\.\x: bs=4M
where image.iso is the path to the iso image file within the cygwin
directory and \\.\x:
is your USB flash drive where x
is the windows designated letter, e.g. \\.\d:
.
On Cygwin 6.0, find out the correct partition with:
cat /proc/partitions
and write the ISO image with the information from the output. Example:
dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
dd for Windows
A GPL licensed dd version for Windows is available at http://www.chrysocome.net/dd. The advantage of this over Cygwin is a smaller download. Use it as shown in instructions for Cygwin above.
To begin, download the latest version of dd for Windows. Once downloaded, extract the archive's contents into Downloads or elsewhere.
Now, launch your command prompt
as an administrator. Next, change directory (cd
) into the Downloads directory.
If your Arch Linux ISO is elsewhere you may need to state the full path, for convenience you may wish to put the Arch Linux ISO into the same folder as the dd executable. The basic format of the command will look like this.
# dd if=archlinux-2015-XX-YY-dual.iso od=\\.\x: bs=4M
od
parameter, which is used in the commands above. Note however that this parameter is specific to dd for Windows and cannot be found in other implementations of dd.od
is used, all partitions on the selected disk will be destroyed. Be absolutely sure that you are directing dd to the correct drive before executing.Simply replace the various null spots (indicated by an "x") with the correct date and correct drive letter. Here is a complete example.
# dd if=ISOs\archlinux-2015.01.01-dual.iso od=\\.\d: bs=4M
\\.\PhysicalDriveX
, where X
is the physical drive number (starts from 0). Example:
# dd if=ISOs\archlinux-2015.01.01-dual.iso of=\\.\PhysicalDrive1 bs=4M
You can find out the physical drive number by typing wmic diskdrive list brief
at the command prompt or with dd --list
In Mac OS X
To be able to use dd
on your USB device on a Mac you have to do some special maneuvers. First of all insert your usb device, OS X will automount it, and in Terminal.app
run:
$ diskutil list
Figure out what your USB device is called with mount
or sudo dmesg | tail
(e.g. /dev/disk1
) and unmount the partitions on the device (i.e., /dev/disk1s1) while keeping the device proper (i.e., /dev/disk1):
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
Now we can continue in accordance with the instructions above (but, if you are using the OS X dd
, use /dev/rdisk
instead of /dev/disk
, and use bs=1m
. rdisk
means "raw disk" and is much faster on OS X, and bs=1m
indicates a 1 MB block size).
# dd if=image.iso of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=1m
20480+0 records in 20480+0 records out 167772160 bytes transferred in 220.016918 secs (762542 bytes/sec)
It is probably a good idea to eject your drive before physical removal at this point:
$ diskutil eject /dev/disk1
How to restore the USB drive
Because the ISO image is a hybrid which can either be burned to a disc or directly written to a USB drive, it does not include a standard partition table.
After you install Arch Linux and you are done with the USB drive, you should zero out its first 512 bytes (meaning the boot code from the MBR and the non-standard partition table) if you want to restore it to full capacity:
# dd count=1 bs=512 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx && sync
Then create a new partition table (e.g. "msdos") and filesystem (e.g. EXT4, FAT32) using gparted, or from a terminal:
- For EXT2/3/4 (adjust accordingly), it would be:
# cfdisk /dev/sdx # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx1 # e2label /dev/sdx1 USB_STICK
- For FAT32, install the dosfstools package and run:
# cfdisk /dev/sdx # mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1 # dosfslabel /dev/sdx1 USB_STICK
Using manual formatting
In GNU/Linux
This method is more complicated than writing the image directly with dd
, but it does keep the flash drive usable for data storage (that is, the ISO is installed in a specific partition within the already partitioned device without altering other partitions).
/dev/sdXn
. In any of the following commands, adjust X and n according to your system.- Make sure that the latest syslinux package (version 6.02 or newer) is installed on the system.
- If not done yet, create the partition table and/or partition on the device before continuing. The partition
/dev/sdXn
must be formatted to FAT32.
- Mount the ISO image, the FAT32 filesystem located in the USB flash device, and copy the contents of the ISO image to it. Unmount the ISO image, but keep the FAT32 partition mounted for following steps:
# mkdir -p /mnt/{iso,usb} # mount -o loop archlinux-2015.01.01-dual.iso /mnt/iso # mount /dev/sdXn /mnt/usb # cp -a /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usb # sync # umount /mnt/iso
- To boot either a label or an UUID to select the partition to boot from is required. By default the label
ARCH_2015XX
(with the appropriate release month) is used. Thus, the partition’s label has to be set accordingly, for example using gparted. Alternatively, you can change this behaviour by altering the lines ending byarchisolabel=ARCH_2015XX
in files /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux/archiso_sys32.cfg and archiso_sys64.cfg, as well as /mnt/usb/loader/entries/archiso-x86_64.conf or similar for a 32-bit ISO (the last being useful only, if you want to boot the USB flash device from an EFI system). To use an UUID instead, replace those portions of lines witharchisodevice=/dev/disk/by-uuid/YOUR-UUID
. The UUID can be retrieved withblkid -o value -s UUID /dev/sdXn
.
- Syslinux is already preinstalled in /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux. Install it completely to that folder by following Syslinux#Manual_install. Instructions are reproduced here for convenience.
- Overwrite the existing syslinux modules (
*.c32
files) present in the USB (from the ISO) with the ones from the syslinux package. This is necessary to avoid boot failure because of a possible version mismatch. - Run:
- Overwrite the existing syslinux modules (
# extlinux --install /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux
- Unmount the partition (
umount /mnt/usb
) and install the MBR or GPT partition table to the USB device as described in the page mentioned.
- Unmount the partition (
- Mark the partition as active (or “bootable”).
In Windows
- For manual formatting, do not use any Bootable USB Creator utility for creating the UEFI bootable USB. For manual formatting, do not use dd for Windows to dd the ISO to the USB drive either.
- In the below commands, X: is assumed to be the USB flash drive in Windows.
- Windows uses backward slash
\
as path-separator, so the same is used in the below commands.
- All commands should be run in Windows command prompt as administrator.
>
denotes the Windows command prompt.
- Partition and format the USB drive using Rufus USB partitioner. Select partition scheme option as MBR for BIOS and UEFI and File system as FAT32. Uncheck "Create a bootable disk using ISO image" and "Create extended label and icon files" options.
- Change the Volume Label of the USB flash drive
X:
to match the LABEL mentioned in thearchisolabel=
part in<ISO>\loader\entries\archiso-x86_64.conf
. This step is required for Official ISO (Archiso) but not required for Archboot. This step can be also performed using Rufus, during the prior "partition and format" step.
- Extract the ISO (similar to extracting ZIP archive) to the USB flash drive (using 7-Zip.
- Download official syslinux 6.xx binaries (zip file) from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ and extract it. The version of Syslinux should be the same version used in the ISO image.
- Run the following command (in Windows cmd prompt, as admin):
X:\boot\syslinux\
for Archboot iso.> cd bios\ > for /r %Y in (*.c32) do copy "%Y" "X:\arch\boot\syslinux\" /y > copy mbr\*.bin X:\arch\boot\syslinux\ /y
- Install Syslinux to the USB by running (use
win64\syslinux64.exe
for x64 Windows):
-d /boot/syslinux
for Archboot iso.> cd bios\ > win32\syslinux.exe -d /arch/boot/syslinux -i -a -m X:
- The above step installs Syslinux's
ldlinux.sys
to the VBR of the USB partition, sets the partition as "active/boot" in the MBR partition table and writes the MBR boot code to the 1st 440-byte boot code region of the USB.
- The
-d
switch expects a path with forward slash path-separator like in *unix systems.
Other Methods for BIOS systems
In GNU/Linux
Using a multiboot USB drive
This allows booting multiple ISOs from a single USB device, including the archiso. Updating an existing USB drive to a more recent ISO is simpler than for most other methods. See Multiboot USB drive.
Using UNetbootin
UNetbootin can be used on any Linux distribution or Windows to copy your iso to a USB device. However, Unetbootin overwrites syslinux.cfg, so it creates a USB device that does not boot properly. For this reason, Unetbootin is not recommended -- please use dd
or one of the other methods discussed in this topic.
syslinux.cfg
; this must be restored before the USB device will boot properly.Edit syslinux.cfg
:
sysconfig.cfg
default menu.c32 prompt 0 menu title Archlinux Installer timeout 100 label unetbootindefault menu label Archlinux_x86_64 kernel /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz append initrd=/arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img archisodevice=/dev/sdx1 ../../ label ubnentry0 menu label Archlinux_i686 kernel /arch/boot/i686/vmlinuz append initrd=/arch/boot/i686/archiso.img archisodevice=/dev/sdx1 ../../
In /dev/sdx1
you must replace x with the first free letter after the last letter in use on the system where you are installing Arch Linux (e.g. if you have two hard drives, use c
.). You can make this change during the first phase of boot by pressing Tab
when the menu is shown.
In Windows
Win32 Disk Imager
First, download the program from here. Next, extract the archive and run the executable. Now, select the Arch Linux ISO under the Image File
section and the USB flash device letter (for example, [D:\]) under the Device
section. Finally, click Write
when ready.
USBWriter for Windows
Download the program from http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbwriter/ and run it. Select the arch image file, the target USB stick, and click on the write
button. Now you should be able to boot from the usb stick and install Arch Linux from it.
The Flashnul way
flashnul is an utility to verify the functionality and maintenance of Flash-Memory (USB-Flash, IDE-Flash, SecureDigital, MMC, MemoryStick, SmartMedia, XD, CompactFlash etc).
From a command prompt, invoke flashnul with -p
, and determine which device index is your USB drive, e.g.:
C:\>flashnul -p
Avaible physical drives: Avaible logical disks: C:\ D:\ E:\
When you have determined which device is the correct one, you can write the image to your drive, by invoking flashnul with the device index, -L
, and the path to your image, e.g:
C:\>flashnul E: -L path\to\arch.iso
As long as you are really sure you want to write the data, type yes, then wait a bit for it to write. If you get an access denied error, close any Explorer windows you have open.
If under Vista or Win7, you should open the console as administrator, or else flashnul will fail to open the stick as a block device and will only be able to write via the drive handle windows provides
Loading the installation media from RAM
This method uses Syslinux and a Ramdisk (MEMDISK) to load the entire Arch Linux ISO image into RAM. Since this will be running entirely from system memory, you will need to make sure the system you will be installing this on has an adequate amount. A minimum amount of RAM between 500 MB and 1 GB should suffice for a MEMDISK based, Arch Linux install.
For more information on Arch Linux system requirements as well as those for MEMDISK see the Beginners' guide and here[dead link 2014-12-01]. For reference, here is the preceding forum thread.
Preparing the USB flash drive
Begin by formatting the USB flash drive as FAT32. Then create the following folders on the newly formatted drive.
Boot
Boot/ISOs
Boot/Settings
Copy the needed files to the USB flash drive
Next copy the ISO that you would like to boot to the Boot/ISOs
folder. After that, extract from the following files from the latest release of syslinux from here and copy them into the following folders.
./win32/syslinux.exe
to the Desktop or Downloads folder on your system../memdisk/memdisk
to theSettings
folder on your USB flash drive.
Create the configuration file
After copying the needed files, navigate to the USB flash drive, /boot/Settings and create a syslinux.cfg
file.
INITRD
line, be sure to use the name of the ISO file that you copied to your ISOs
folder!/Boot/Settings/syslinux.cfg
DEFAULT arch_iso LABEL arch_iso MENU LABEL Arch Setup LINUX memdisk INITRD /Boot/ISOs/archlinux-2015.01.01-dual.iso APPEND iso
For more information on Syslinux see the Arch Wiki article.
Final steps
Finally, create a *.bat
file where syslinux.exe
is located and run it ("Run as administrator" if you are on Vista or Windows 7):
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\install.bat
@echo off syslinux.exe -m -a -d /Boot/Settings X:
Troubleshooting
- For the MEMDISK Method, if you get the famous "30 seconds" error trying to boot the i686 version, press the
Tab
key over theBoot Arch Linux (i686)
entry and addvmalloc=448M
at the end. For reference: If your image is bigger than 128MiB and you have a 32-bit OS, then you have to increase the maximum memory usage of vmalloc. [2]
- If you get the "30 seconds" error due to the
/dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_XXXXYY
not mounting, try renaming your USB media toARCH_XXXXYY
(e.g.ARCH_201501
).