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<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
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<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/liveusb.xml,v 1.10 2006/09/18 10:51:48 nightmorph Exp $ -->
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<guide link="/doc/en/liveusb.xml">
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<title>Gentoo Linux LiveUSB HOWTO</title>
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<author title="Author">
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<mail link="henrik@brixandersen.dk">Henrik Brix Andersen</mail>
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</author>
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<abstract>
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This HOWTO explains how to create a Gentoo Linux LiveUSB or, in other words,
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how to emulate a Gentoo Linux Installation CD using an USB flash drive.
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</abstract>
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<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
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<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
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<license/>
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<version>1.6</version>
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<date>2006-09-18</date>
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<chapter>
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<section>
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<title>The LiveUSB</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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This HOWTO explains how to create a <e>Gentoo Linux LiveUSB</e> or, in other
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words, how to emulate a Gentoo Linux Installation CD using an USB flash drive.
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This is particularly useful for installing Gentoo Linux on a modern laptop with
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no CD-ROM drive.
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</p>
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<p>
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Although the instructions found in this document aim at emulating a Gentoo
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Linux Installation CD using an USB flash drive, they should work for any
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arbitrary block device as long as you adjust the device names accordingly.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Prerequisites</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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In order to use a Gentoo Linux LiveUSB you need the following:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Bootable USB flash drive (at least 64MB)</li>
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<li>
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x86 computer with support for booting from USB
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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You will also need access to the following for creating the LiveUSB:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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A computer running Gentoo Linux (or alternatively another Linux
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distribution)
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</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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<chapter>
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<title>Preparing the USB flash drive</title>
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<section>
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<title>Partitioning the drive</title>
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<body>
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<warn>
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These instructions will erase all data from the USB flash drive. Make sure to
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backup your data first.
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</warn>
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<impo>
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This HOWTO assumes that the <path>/dev/sda</path> device node corresponds to
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your USB flash drive. If you have other SCSI-like devices make sure to use the
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correct device node.
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</impo>
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<p>
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Create a FAT32 partition on your USB flash drive and mark it bootable using
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<c>fdisk</c>. An example partitioning scheme can be seen below:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Example partitioning scheme">
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# <i>fdisk -l /dev/sda</i>
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Disk /dev/sda: 1048 MB, 1048313856 bytes
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33 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1017 cylinders
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Units = cylinders of 2013 * 512 = 1030656 bytes
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Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
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/dev/sda1 * 1 1017 1023580 b W95 FAT32
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Creating the filesystem</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Create a FAT32 filesystem on the USB flash drive using <c>mkdosfs</c>:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Running mkdosfs">
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<comment>(Make sure you have sys-fs/dosfstools installed)</comment>
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# <i>emerge -av sys-fs/dosfstools</i>
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# <i>mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1</i>
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mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Installing a Master Boot Record</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Install the precompiled Master Boot Record (MBR) from <c>syslinux</c> on the
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USB flash drive:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Installing a master boot record">
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<comment>(Make sure you have sys-boot/syslinux-3.00 or later installed)</comment>
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# <i>emerge -av '>=sys-boot/syslinux-3*'</i>
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# <i>dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda</i>
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0+1 records in
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0+1 records out
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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<chapter>
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<title>Copying the files</title>
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<section>
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<title>Mounting the Gentoo Linux Installation CD</title>
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<body>
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<warn>
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This guide is designed only to be used with Gentoo 2006.0. Do not attempt to
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use a 2006.1 CD or newer; you will end up with an unbootable USB disk.
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</warn>
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<p>
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Download the <path>install-x86-minimal-2006.0.iso</path> file from your
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local Gentoo Linux <uri link="/main/en/where.xml">mirror</uri> site and mount
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the ISO image on <path>/mnt/cdrom/</path> as shown below:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Mounting the Gentoo Linux Installation CD ISO image">
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<comment>(Create the /mnt/cdrom/ mount point if needed)</comment>
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# <i>mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom</i>
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# <i>mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 install-x86-minimal-2006.0.iso /mnt/cdrom/</i>
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</pre>
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<note>
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If you receive a <e>Could not find any loop device</e> error message when
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mounting the iso, you need to enable the <c>Loopback device support</c> option
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in your kernel configuration.
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</note>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Mounting the LiveUSB</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Mount the newly formatted USB flash drive on <path>/mnt/usb/</path> as shown
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below:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Mounting the USB flash drive">
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<comment>(Create the /mnt/usb/ mount point if needed)</comment>
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# <i>mkdir -p /mnt/usb</i>
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# <i>mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/</i>
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Copying the files</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Copy the files from the Gentoo Linux Installation CD to the LiveUSB. The files
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need to be reordered a bit as we will be using the <c>syslinux</c> bootloader
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instead of <c>isolinux</c>:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Copying the files">
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# <i>cp -r /mnt/cdrom/* /mnt/usb/</i>
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# <i>mv /mnt/usb/isolinux/* /mnt/usb/</i>
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# <i>mv /mnt/usb/isolinux.cfg /mnt/usb/syslinux.cfg</i>
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# <i>rm -rf /mnt/usb/isolinux*</i>
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<comment>(The memtest86 kernel needs to be renamed for loading it via syslinux)</comment>
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# <i>mv /mnt/usb/memtest86 /mnt/usb/memtest</i>
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</pre>
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<p>
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You can now unmount the ISO image:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Unmounting the ISO image">
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# <i>umount /mnt/cdrom/</i>
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Adjusting the bootloader configuration</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Adjust the syslinux configuration file using <c>sed</c> as shown below. The
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<c>dobladecenter</c> parameter will introduce some extra delays before
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attempting to mount the filesystem. This is needed to allow the USB
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flash drive to settle upon detection.
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</p>
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<pre caption="Adjusting the boot parameters">
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# <i>sed -i \
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-e "s:cdroot:cdroot dobladecenter:" \
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-e "s:kernel memtest86:kernel memtest:" \
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/mnt/usb/syslinux.cfg</i>
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</pre>
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<note>
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Consider adding <c>docache</c> to the boot parameters. This will allow running
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<c>umount /mnt/cdrom/</c> after booting so that you can unplug the USB flash
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drive. Do not enable this unless the target computer has at least 128MB RAM.
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</note>
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<!--
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(2006.1 workaround) posted by nightmorph
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Background:
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After some lengthy discussion with Robin Johnson (robbat2) on IRC, it turns out
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that the reason why 2006.1 fails to work with this guide is because inside the
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initramfs, it specifies -t iso9660..but usb flash isn't this filetype, it's
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vfat. 2006.0 was much better and just specified mount -t auto. so the thing is
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to install an ~arch version of genkernel (3.4.4, still ~arch as of 2006-11-04)
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and reconfigure syslinux.config to point at the renamed files.
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Obviously, unmasking an ~arch version is never desirable in documentation, so we
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need some more alternatives...since 3.4.4 was only created at the end of
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october; not likely to go stable all that soon.
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Procedure:
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After adjusting the parameters, and before the disk is unmounted/bootloader
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installed, the following must be done for ~arch genkernel. Please replace (dash)
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with an actual - , since the damned xmllint throws a "comment not terminated"
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error.
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# echo "sys-kernel/genkernel" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
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# genkernel (dash)(dash)bootdir=/mnt/usb (dash)(dash)install all
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(not sure if syslinux has been installed previously yet)
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# nano -w syslinux.cfg
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(Edit it to point at the new filenames installed by genkernel)
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(might be worth renaming to the ones normally used by syslinux, as
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if the kernel name is too long, "vfat might bite")
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(might need to re-run syslinux as specified below to pick up the new names,
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though maybe this renaming step should be in the section below?)
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# syslinux /dev/sda1
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TODO:
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- if/when this document changes, brix requested some time ago that he be renamed
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"Original Author" and be moved to the bottom of the credits list.
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- if/when this fix goes in, robbat2 deserves credit: this is his solution after
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all, and it works.
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-->
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</body>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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<chapter>
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<title>Installing a bootloader</title>
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<section>
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<title>Unmounting the drive</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Make sure you unmount the USB flash drive before installing the bootloader:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Unmounting the USB flash drive">
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# <i>umount /mnt/usb/</i>
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Installing syslinux</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Finally install the <c>syslinux</c> bootloader on the USB flash drive:
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</p>
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<pre caption="Running syslinux">
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# <i>syslinux /dev/sda1</i>
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</pre>
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<impo>
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You will need to rerun <c>syslinux /dev/sda1</c> each time you modify the
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<path>syslinux.cfg</path> file for the configuration changes to take affect.
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</impo>
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</body>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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<chapter>
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<title>Using the LiveUSB</title>
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<section>
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<title>Booting</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Insert the USB flash drive and turn on the computer, making sure the BIOS is
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set to boot from USB. If all goes well you should be presented with a standard
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syslinux prompt.
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</p>
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<p>
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You should be able to follow the generic installation instructions found in the
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<uri link="/doc/en/handbook/">Gentoo Handbook</uri> from here on.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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</guide>
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