[CentOS] Building an install disk on a USB key, solved

Fri May 21 15:14:46 UTC 2010
Bowie Bailey <Bowie_Bailey at BUC.com>

m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>> m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>>     
>>> Ok, there's been discussion, including, I think, on the wiki web page,
>>> that syslinux is not correct. At any rate, after enough experimentation,
>>> I have a working install on a USB key. The procedure is:
>>>
>>> Using fdisk, partition your key: one partition, VFAT (type b, and toggle
>>> the bootable flag), about 9M or 10M, and a second partition big enough
>>> to hold a DVD. That should be type 83 (Linux native).
>>>
>>> mkfs -t vfat <the DOS partition)
>>> mkfs <the Linux partition
>>>
>>> liveCD-iso-to-disk <.iso, w/ full path> /dev/<USB DOS partition>
>>> mount <USB Linux partition> /mnt
>>> cp <CentOS.iso> /mnt/
>>>
>>> You're done. You do have to tell it "install from hard disk", and then
>>> point it to the Linux partition.
>>>
>>> I just did this and tested it (or at least as far as the "searching for
>>> existing CentOS installations).
>>>
>>>       
>> Following these instructions, what iso do I use for the
>> livecd-iso-to-disk step?
>>     
>
> I used the full, one DVD .iso.
>   

That doesn't work for me.

    # livecd-iso-to-disk /home/bowieb/CentOS-5.5-i386-bin-DVD.iso /dev/sda1
    Verifying image...
    /home/bowieb/CentOS-5.5-i386-bin-DVD.iso:  
97c0b2ed5d08f0e24e1e516362059032
    Fragment sums:
67686679ec95a9255099cbed11cc51d998abee91a1f91fc7a2361554e54e
    Fragment count: 20
    Percent complete: 100.0%   Fragment[20/20] -> OK
    100.0
    The supported flag value is 0
    The media check is complete, the result is: PASS.
   
    It is OK to install from this media.
    Unable to fit live image + overlay on available space on USB stick
    Size of live image: 3991
    Overlay size:
    Available space: 13
    Cleaning up to exit...

The DVD iso is 4GB and the DOS partition is only 10M (per your
instructions).  Shouldn't the boot.iso or something else go here?

-- 
Bowie