[CentOS] CentOS-7 on a USB stick

Sat Jul 12 18:51:17 UTC 2014
Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu>

On 07/10/2014 02:20 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?
>
I just tried the USB stick method, using the 
CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-Everything.iso as the media.  The command line I 
used to copy the iso to the stick was:

ddrescue --force CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-Everything.iso /dev/sdb

where /dev/sdb is my USB stick.  I use ddrescue simply because it tends 
to be faster than dd for large images and it gives a progress display 
(and it's in the repos for CentOS 6).

The stick booted just fine into the installer, and while I did the media 
verification step I did not proceed to install (it was just a test boot).

The USB stick involved is a low-end PNY 8GB stick, and here is the lsusb 
-v output:
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 154b:007a PNY
Device Descriptor:
   bLength                18
   bDescriptorType         1
   bcdUSB               2.00
   bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
   bDeviceSubClass         0
   bDeviceProtocol         0
   bMaxPacketSize0        64
   idVendor           0x154b PNY
   idProduct          0x007a
   bcdDevice           11.00
   iManufacturer           1 PNY Technologies
   iProduct                2 USB 2.0 FD
   iSerial                 3 AA00000000009494
   bNumConfigurations      1
   Configuration Descriptor:
     bLength                 9
     bDescriptorType         2
     wTotalLength           32
     bNumInterfaces          1
     bConfigurationValue     1
     iConfiguration          0
     bmAttributes         0x80
       (Bus Powered)
     MaxPower              500mA
     Interface Descriptor:
       bLength                 9
       bDescriptorType         4
       bInterfaceNumber        0
       bAlternateSetting       0
       bNumEndpoints           2
       bInterfaceClass         8 Mass Storage
       bInterfaceSubClass      6 SCSI
       bInterfaceProtocol     80 Bulk-Only
       iInterface              0
       Endpoint Descriptor:
         bLength                 7
         bDescriptorType         5
         bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
         bmAttributes            2
           Transfer Type            Bulk
           Synch Type               None
           Usage Type               Data
         wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
         bInterval             255
       Endpoint Descriptor:
         bLength                 7
         bDescriptorType         5
         bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
         bmAttributes            2
           Transfer Type            Bulk
           Synch Type               None
           Usage Type               Data
         wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
         bInterval             255
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
   bLength                10
   bDescriptorType         6
   bcdUSB               2.00
   bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
   bDeviceSubClass         0
   bDeviceProtocol         0
   bMaxPacketSize0        64
   bNumConfigurations      1
Device Status:     0x0000
   (Bus Powered)