dd, diskboot.img, and count ?

[Gerardmen]

Hi all,

My goal is to install Fedora 12 x86-64 on a netbook which is not equipped with a CD/DVD drive. I want to create an USB bootable drive (caution, very small size = 128 MB).

My plan is to boot the minimum starting files, and then switch to NFS installation with the "linux askmethod" option (the installation files are hosted on another Fedora).

So I'm gonna use the associated boot.iso and the typical commands :

[root@localhost ~]# cd /tmp/
[root@localhost tmp]# mkdir pendrive
[root@localhost tmp]# cd pendrive/
[root@localhost pendrive]# dd if=/dev/zero of=diskboot.img bs=1M count=???
[root@localhost pendrive]# mkdosfs diskboot.img
[root@localhost pendrive]# syslinux diskboot.img
[root@localhost pendrive]# mkdir mount
[root@localhost pendrive]# mount diskboot.img mount/ -o loop
[root@localhost pendrive]# cp -r /mnt/isolinux/∗ mount/
[root@localhost pendrive]# grep -v local mount/isolinux.cfg > mount/syslinux.cfg
[root@localhost pendrive]# rm -f mount/isolinux.∗
[root@localhost pendrive]# umount -f mount
[root@localhost pendrive]# rm -rf mount/
[root@localhost pendrive]# cd
[root@localhost ~]# umount -f /mnt
[root@localhost ~]#

I just want to know how to figure out how many blocks I should reserve with the dd command :

dd if=/dev/zero of=diskboot.img bs=1M count=???

I really have no clue !
Thanks for your help !

Hello,

The past two or three releases of fedora I have not been able to install using the method you are attempting. I now use the image from http://boot.fedoraproject.org/faq and it has saved me lots of hassle.

You might want to check out http://boot.fedoraproject.org/ if for no other reason than it keeps things simple.

Hope this Helps,

Ky

[pankajp]

Also the new iso's are dual mode, i.e. you can simply dd them to a pendrive and your pendrive will automatically be bootable, just as a cd. (I think i tried it in F12)

Originally Posted by pankajp

Also the new iso's are dual mode, i.e. you can simply dd them to a pendrive and your pendrive will automatically be bootable, just as a cd. (I think i tried it in F12)

I can confirm that it works in f12.

Ky