I've been poking at this for quite a while, and have never been able to get it to work. I've found a couple links with some partial truths: http://syslint.com/syslint/how-to-make-a-usb-boot-disk-for-centosrhel-from-i... http://brakkee.org/site/2013/05/09/creating-a-usb-install-for-centos-6-4/
The first one talks about converting a standard iso to a 'hybrid' image, using: 'isohybrid'. But it then instructs the reader to make a vfat partition on the thumbdrive, and DD the image to that partition. This seemed odd to me, since the image itself should have all that info. I've used hybrid images before, such as Linux Mint, and was simply able to dd directly to the device itself, ie: dd if=/path/to/hybrid.iso of=/dev/sdb (where sdb is the thumbdrive). But, I went along with it, and it failed-- unable to find 'isolinux.bin'. I've read this error is due to old/incompatible firmware, but I've booted other thumbdrive hybrid-built images many times, and have never seen this except in CentOS installations. So, I tried doing a dd directly to the thumbdrive device, rather than the partition.
This actually looked like it was going to work. I got to the initial installer page, and proceeded through the Language and Keyboard questions. It then forgot where itself was, and asked me where the media for installation was. I selected Hard Drive, and /dev/sda1 showed up as default. I hit enter, and it continued further. But then it again forgot where the media was, and couldn't find the installation media.
The second URL/instruction wouldn't boot at all.
Has anyone successfully installed via USB? I remember reading some multi part instructions where the USB drive is formatted with some special tools, often involving Windows, and various files need to be copied to the USB drive. But I was hoping we were passed that by now. But then again, Dell firmware updates still want me to make a DOS bootable floppy. So, I'm usually not surprised when I hear something like this. :)
Thanks!
Regards, Joseph Spenner
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