[CentOS] CentOS-7 on a USB stick

Thu Jul 10 23:43:10 UTC 2014
Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org>

On 07/10/2014 01:20 PM, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> I tried dd-ing the ISO onto a USB stick, as suggested in
> <http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7>,
> but it didn't boot.
> Did anyone have better luck with this?
>
> In any case, I got it working by running livecd-iso-to-disk
> on a Fedora-20 laptop.
> I've found before that this is the best program around
> for the purpose.
>
> But I've 2 queries about this:
>
> 1. Why isn't this program available on CentOS?
>
> 2. I find it strange the using a USB stick
> seems to be regarded as an out-of-the-ordinary idea.
> Are people still burning CDs or DVDs? And if so why?
>
> I would have thought the time had come
> to make USB sticks the standard installation method?
> Certainly it should be treated on a par with DVDs.
>
> I have two HP MicroServers running under CentOS,
> and these don't come with a DVD drive.
> I assumed this was becoming more or less standard?
>


I did all of my test installs from USB, so it does work.

The command is:

dd if=./<name>.iso of=/dev/<device>

Obviously the name would be something like:  
CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-DVD.iso or CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-NetInstall.iso
or any other of the isos

It is critical that the device the the device name and not a partition
name.  In CentOS-6, you can use "Application => System Tools => Disk
Utility" to find your USB stick's device name.  For example, /dev/sdd
(device) would be used, not /dev/sdd1 (partition)

You also have to run the command as root.

So, a working command would be, as root (if your usb stick was /dev/sdd):

dd if=./CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-DVD.iso of=/dev/sdd

I have boot that exact USB stick on an older BIOS only Dell Laptop
(m4500) with no UEFI, a new Thinkpad with UEFI secure boot mode on and
off, and a M5A99X EVO R2.0 motherboard with UEFI and secureboot on and
off.  Installs were conducted on all with no issues.

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