bootable USB flash memory sticks for installation

[Kevin Cozens]

On 12-08-07 11:39 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> As far as I can make out, there are several schemes for making a bootable
> USB stick from a .iso, and I don't understand why.
>
> I think some use grub and some (more?) use syslinux.
[snip]
> Typically the programs to create bootable USBs don't explain what they are
> doing.  They can have mysterious failure modes too.

When I was working on a project where I needed to make bootable USB devices 
I first tried using syslinux. The results were inconsistent. Sometimes the 
device would boot and sometimes it wouldn't. Partly due to the inconsistent 
results I got and also because I wanted to do the whole setup process from 
Linux I gave up on syslinux and tried grub.

With grub I got consistent results. I never tried any of the other scripts 
mentioned here. I wrote up a web page detailing the steps I used to make a 
bootable USB device. The process is not that different from making a 
bootable hard drive.

You can find my notes at http://www.ve3syb.ca/software/bootableusb.html and 
they include a few comments about remastering an ISO file for use on a 
memory stick.

-- 
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/           |"Nerds make the shiny things that distract
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172      | the mouth-breathers, and that's why we're
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