[CentOS] Install CentOS directly from usb drive?

Sat Apr 4 15:21:56 UTC 2009
Tosh <toshlinux at gmail.com>

Neil Aggarwal wrote:
> Tosh:
>
>> 1) make the first partition active
>> 	fdisk /dev/sd[c]1 then a, 1 and w to write and quit
>
> I did this.
>
>> 2) format the usb stick with fat or ext3
>
> I formatted it using mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1
>
>> 	(b) ext3 : you will need to use extlinux work on the stick
>> 		extlinux /dev/sd[c]1
>
> I mounted the drive and did
> extlinux /media/disk
>
>> 4) I extract the isolinux folder from the dvd iso
>
> I copied all the files from
> http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/x86_64/isolinux/
> to the root directory of the usb drive.
>
>> 5) rename all isolinux to (a) syslinux - (b) extlinux
>
> I renamed the isolinux.bin to extlinux.bin
> and isolinux.cfg to extlinux.cfg
>
>> 6) copy the dvd/cd iso(s) to your stick
>
> I copied the iso to the root directory of the usb drive.
>
>> 7) normally you should get the same boot loader as when you
>> would pop in
>> the cd/dvd, centos install will start loading necessary
>> drivers and then
>> you will have to chose hard disk install and point to the drive where
>> your dvd/cd iso(s) are
>
> I tried to boot off the usb drive and I get a message that
> it could not boot the operating system.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> 	Neil
>
> --
> Neil Aggarwal, (832)245-7314, www.JAMMConsulting.com
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Ok, I forgot to mention if you decide to use extlinux, you will need to 
rename to extlinux.conf
also, execute the command on the drive /dev/sdc, not the mounted partition
Maybe time to make a script to do this work?

-- 
Toshaan <toshlinux at gmail.com> - http://www.toshaan.be