Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[mick crane]

On 2019-10-07 17:26, lwhona...@gmail.com wrote:
Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be.  I am totally blind, retired 
computer
specialist with most of my work experience in the Windows world.  I do 
have

a passing knowledge of Unix.

I am attempting my first install of Debian and I must be missing 
something

from the Install Guide.  I was under the impression

Any thoughts or pointers would be welcome.  Thank you.


From windows I have successfully used linux usb creator.
to make bootable usb sticks of linux isos
https://www.linuxliveusb.com/

mick

--
Key ID4BFEBB31

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[David]

On Wed, 9 Oct 2019 at 23:51, Brian  wrote:

> I run 'lsblk' before
> and after plugging the USB device in. Writing an image to a USB stick is
> not something to rush if you don't want a system disk to suffer.

I like to use 'watch lsblk -f'.
It makes it obvious when the "plugging in" has been detected.

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Paul Sutton]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512


>> 
>> Yeah. This is a big problem. We'd need a desktop-user-safe GUI
>> tool which by some AI detects the USB stick which is least worthy
>> of preservation.


Seems to me, what is perhaps needed is more localized support, or
knowing where the people with the right skills to create these usb
disks are (I have a few Debian 10 install usb disks made up, usually
for the South Devon Tech Jam - just in case I need one)

This adds weight to the value of social meet ups, we can communicate
on all manner of e-mail lists, irc, social media, but actually having
a face to face meet up makes life so much easier when providing support.

I would urge people to ask about basic Linux courses at places where
they may run basic computer courses using Windows,  if we can try and
create the demand maybe things will change, until then your basic
course will just be how to use windows, word, facebook, outlook,
google etc.  With no mention of the fact there are alternatives.

Paul

- -- 
Paul Sutton
http://www.zleap.net
gnupg : 7D6D B682 F351 8D08 1893  1E16 F086 5537 D066 302D
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Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Brian]

On Tue 08 Oct 2019 at 14:48:08 +0200, Thomas Schmitt wrote:

> Tony van der Hoff wrote:

[...]

> > To create a bootable image from a .iso, you need 'dd', i.e.
> 
> dd is a great tool, indeed, and i use it for the purpose out of tradition.
> But it does nothing essential for the copied image to be able to work.
> Any program run which produces a correct byte-by-byte copy of the image on
> the USB stick will do.
> 
> For example some useless use of "cat":
>   cat image.iso >/dev/sde

I still use this command out of habit on occasion, but it ceased to be a
recommended Debian method some time ago. See #660776:

 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=660776

> > Make sure you identify the correct usb stick for sdx, or you may end up
> > overwriting something important.
> 
> Yeah. This is a big problem. We'd need a desktop-user-safe GUI tool which
> by some AI detects the USB stick which is least worthy of preservation.

The cp or dd commands must run with root privileges. I run 'lsblk' before
and after plugging the USB device in. Writing an image to a USB stick is
not something to rush if you don't want a system disk to suffer.

-- 
Brian.

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Michael Lange]

Hi,

On Tue, 8 Oct 2019 13:38:25 - (UTC)
Curt  wrote:

> On 2019-10-08, Dejan Jocic  wrote:
> >
> > Anyway, most of Linux newbies will not create usb from Linux machine
> > anyway, so I doubt that any of this will help OP. Personally, can't
> > even remember when I was creating usb image from anything but Linux,
> > so can't be of much help there.
> 
> Right, and as the guy is totally blind to boot, I'm sure he'll enjoy
> wading through the usual digressive, thread-hijacking shitload of
> extraneous and sometimes erroneous verbiage in search of a precious
> nugget of useful information.
> 

I think you confused the OP (Larry Honaker, see:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2019/10/msg00339.html)
with the OP of another recent thread ("goleo", see:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2019/10/msg00281.html, though I
believe you probably referred rather to the follow-up:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2019/10/msg00288.html).

At least I cannot see anything in the OP's question that might justify
your conclusion.

Regards

Michael

.-.. .. ...- .   .-.. --- -. --.   .- -. -..   .--. .-. --- ... .--. . .-.

The face of war has never changed.  Surely it is more logical to heal
than to kill.
-- Surak of Vulcan, "The Savage Curtain", stardate 5906.5

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Curt]

On 2019-10-08, Dejan Jocic  wrote:
>
> Anyway, most of Linux newbies will not create usb from Linux machine
> anyway, so I doubt that any of this will help OP. Personally, can't even
> remember when I was creating usb image from anything but Linux, so can't
> be of much help there.

Right, and as the guy is totally blind to boot, I'm sure he'll enjoy
wading through the usual digressive, thread-hijacking shitload of
extraneous and sometimes erroneous verbiage in search of a precious
nugget of useful information.

> All best,
> Dejan
>
>


-- 
"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign."
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

after not finding in the man page a description of cp behavior with
existing target file, i looked up POSIX

  https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/cp.html
  "3. If source_file is of type regular file, [...]
 a. [...] if dest_file exists, the following steps shall be taken:
  [...]
  ii. A file descriptor for dest_file shall be obtained by performing
  actions equivalent to the open() function defined in the System
  Interfaces volume of POSIX.1-2017 called using dest_file as the
  path argument, and the bitwise-inclusive OR of O_WRONLY and
  O_TRUNC as the oflag argument.
  "

open() is descibed by man 2 open:
  "The  argument  flags  must  include  one of the following access modes:
   O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, or O_RDWR.  These request opening  the  file  read-
   only, write-only, or read/write, respectively.
   [...]
  O_TRUNC
  If  the file already exists and is a regular file and the access
  mode allows writing (i.e., is O_RDWR or  O_WRONLY)  it  will  be
  truncated to length 0.  If the file is a FIFO or terminal device
  file, the O_TRUNC flag is ignored.   Otherwise,  the  effect  of
  O_TRUNC is unspecified.
   "

So bitrot could indeed happen if open(2) decides to change its unspecified
behavior for block devices.
(I have difficulties to imagine what one must smoke in order to come to
 the idea of unlinking the device file and creating a data file instead.)


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Greg Wooledge]

On Tue, Oct 08, 2019 at 01:13:18PM +0100, Tony van der Hoff wrote:
> cp copies a file onto s file system, bit that's not what's wanted here.
> To create a bootable image from a .iso, you need 'dd'

I know I'm repeating what others have said, but this misunderstanding
is so damned pervasive that it *requires* repetition to drive it out
of people's heads.

cp copies bytes to a target.  That target *could* be a file within a
file system.  Or it could be a raw disk device.

dd also copies bytes to a target.  That target *could* be a file within
a file system.  Or it could be a raw disk device.

Either one will work.  You just have to specify the correct target.

The Debian installation guide gives the exact instructions, and it
chooses cp, because it's the simplest command to type.

In fact, so few people actually READ THE INSTALL GUIDE that I will just
copy it here.  Maybe someone will read it here, if I copy it for them.

https://www.debian.org/releases/buster/amd64/ch04s03.en.html

  The CD or DVD image you choose should be written directly to the USB
  stick, overwriting its current contents. For example, when using an
  existing GNU/Linux system, the CD or DVD image file can be written
  to a USB stick as follows, after having made sure that the stick
  is unmounted:

# cp debian.iso /dev/sdX
# sync

  ! Important
  The image must be written to the whole-disk device and not a partition,
  e.g. /dev/sdb and not /dev/sdb1. Do not use tools like unetbootin
  which alter the image.

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Dejan Jocic]

On 08-10-19, Tony van der Hoff wrote:
> On 07/10/2019 19:04, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > lwhona...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> I was under the impression, if I copied the dvd image to a usb stick,
> >> I could boot from the stick and start the install.
> > 
> > This is true. You have to put it as image onto the raw USB stick device.
> > 
> >   https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb
> > proposes for GNU/Linux something like
> >   cp debian-10.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso /dev/sdd
> > where /dev/sdd is the device file representing the USB stick.
> 
> I've been following this thread with interest, as right from the start
> it talks about "copying" the .iso image to the ssd. At risk of
> displaying some ignorance, and attracting flames, I think this is
> misleading and take issue with the FAQ.
> 
> cp copies a file onto s file system, bit that's not what's wanted here.
> To create a bootable image from a .iso, you need 'dd', i.e.
> sudo dd bs=4M \
> if=/path-todebian-10.iso\
> of=/dev/sdx\
> oflag=sync
> 
> Make sure you identify the correct usb stick for sdx, or you may end up
> overwriting something important.
> 
> This is explained in detail at
> https://linuxize.com/post/create-bootable-debian-10-usb-stick-on-linux/
> 
> It worked for me.
> Good luck, Tony
> -- 
> Tony van der Hoff| mailto:t...@vanderhoff.org
> Buckinghamshire, England |
> 

You do not need dd command to make bootable usb with iso image. You can
do that also with cat, or cp. All 3 ways will do, if you are doing it
from Linux system. For cat: 

cat /path-to-downloaded-image.iso > /dev/sdX; sync ( X is number of the
drive, usually "b" but you need to check anyway, or you'll wipe some
drive instead )

for cp:

cp /path-to-downloaded-image.iso /dev/sdX; sync ( same as above applies )

sync is recommended to make sure that any data from RAM will be written
where it should go ( that all reads and writes will be executed and that
there will be nothing left in pending status ). To check on which device
you would like to write your image, you can use lsblk. 

dd is useful command for creating various backup images, testing storage
devices and similar, but is certainly not required for making bootable
installation images on the usb devices.

Anyway, most of Linux newbies will not create usb from Linux machine
anyway, so I doubt that any of this will help OP. Personally, can't even
remember when I was creating usb image from anything but Linux, so can't
be of much help there.

All best,
Dejan

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

(We are discussing this for the archive, as Larry Honaker probably needs
 advise for doing it on MS-Windows.)

Tony van der Hoff wrote:
> cp copies a file onto s file system, bit that's not what's wanted here.

It does indeed. But (at least with our GNU coreutils cp) copying a
data file to a block device file does not replace the device file by
a copied data file but rather copies the data file content into the
block device file.

The proposals at
  https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb
have been tested at least once. debian-cd will surely accept a bug report
if they do not work any more due to bitrot.


> To create a bootable image from a .iso, you need 'dd', i.e.

dd is a great tool, indeed, and i use it for the purpose out of tradition.
But it does nothing essential for the copied image to be able to work.
Any program run which produces a correct byte-by-byte copy of the image on
the USB stick will do.

For example some useless use of "cat":
  cat image.iso >/dev/sde


> Make sure you identify the correct usb stick for sdx, or you may end up
> overwriting something important.

Yeah. This is a big problem. We'd need a desktop-user-safe GUI tool which
by some AI detects the USB stick which is least worthy of preservation.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Tony van der Hoff]

On 07/10/2019 19:04, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> lwhona...@gmail.com wrote:
>> I was under the impression, if I copied the dvd image to a usb stick,
>> I could boot from the stick and start the install.
> 
> This is true. You have to put it as image onto the raw USB stick device.
> 
>   https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb
> proposes for GNU/Linux something like
>   cp debian-10.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso /dev/sdd
> where /dev/sdd is the device file representing the USB stick.

I've been following this thread with interest, as right from the start
it talks about "copying" the .iso image to the ssd. At risk of
displaying some ignorance, and attracting flames, I think this is
misleading and take issue with the FAQ.

cp copies a file onto s file system, bit that's not what's wanted here.
To create a bootable image from a .iso, you need 'dd', i.e.
sudo dd bs=4M \
if=/path-todebian-10.iso\
of=/dev/sdx\
oflag=sync

Make sure you identify the correct usb stick for sdx, or you may end up
overwriting something important.

This is explained in detail at
https://linuxize.com/post/create-bootable-debian-10-usb-stick-on-linux/

It worked for me.
Good luck, Tony
-- 
Tony van der Hoff| mailto:t...@vanderhoff.org
Buckinghamshire, England |

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

i wrote:
> > ... or from a fresh attempt to install the ISO onto the USB stick by
> > one of the ISO-to-stick converters (unetbootin, Rufus, ...).

to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> Oh, they do that? Thanks for teaching me something new :-/

I have no comprehensive knowledge of that topic. Just what i learned
during bug hunts and conversations with people whose projects are
neighbors of mine in respect to bootable ISOs.
Possibly one should explore
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tools_to_create_Live_USB_systems

In case of Rufus (of which i know the developer as being helpful):
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_%28software%29
  "Rufus supports a variety of bootable .iso files, including various
   Linux distributions and Windows installation .iso files, [...]
   If needed, it will install a bootloader such as SYSLINUX or GRUB
   onto the flash drive to render it bootable."

The art (and popular point of failure) is to connect the operating system
files from the ISO with the bootloader of the USB stick. This demands
knowledge about what projects like debian-cd or live-wrapper have prepared
for booting, and where in these preparation to join-in by the own bootloader.

For Debian ISOs on USB sticks, i tend to propose Rufus in its no-fuzz "dd"
mode, which is supposed to do what our good old Unix dd does.
This leaves the whole work of booting to debian-cd and live-wrapper
where the user can complain in case of failure.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[tomas]

On Tue, Oct 08, 2019 at 09:35:09AM +0200, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > The error message quoted by the original poster strongly suggests
> > that he's got that part right: it is the boot loader complaining.
> 
> No. It is the wrong flavor of SYSLINUX software and much too old.

Yep. I retracted that, as you notice:

> Next mail from to...@tuxteam.de:
> > so yes, this could be just the "leftovers"
> > from an older use of that USB stick.
> 
> ... or from a fresh attempt to install the ISO onto the USB stick by
> one of the ISO-to-stick converters (unetbootin, Rufus, ...).

Oh, they do that? Thanks for teaching me something new :-/

Cheers
-- tomás


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Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> The error message quoted by the original poster strongly suggests
> that he's got that part right: it is the boot loader complaining.

No. It is the wrong flavor of SYSLINUX software and much too old.
Even debian-8.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso has "ISOLINUX 6.03 20150107"
and debian-9.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso has "ISOLINUX 6.03 20171018".
(mount as /mnt/iso and do
   strings /mnt/iso/isolinux/isolinux.bin | fgrep ISOLINUX | less
 to see the message text of the boot program.
)

Our new friend Larry sees "Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22", which i would
blame on boot preparations on the USB stick which should have been
overwritten by the ISO, if it was copied correctly.


Next mail from to...@tuxteam.de:
> so yes, this could be just the "leftovers"
> from an older use of that USB stick.

... or from a fresh attempt to install the ISO onto the USB stick by
one of the ISO-to-stick converters (unetbootin, Rufus, ...).


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[tomas]

On Mon, Oct 07, 2019 at 08:04:16PM +0200, Thomas Schmitt wrote:

[...]

> > Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD © © 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al
> 
> This does not look like the first bootloader message of a contemporary
> Debian ISO image. If booted via legacy BIOS it should say "ISOLINUX"
> rather than "Syslinux" and, depending on the age of your ISO image,
> tell a younger age and higher revision.

Ah, good catch, as always: so yes, this could be just the "leftovers"
from an older use of that USB stick.

So my other post in this thread is most probably wrong.

Thanks
-- tomás


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Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[tomas]

On Mon, Oct 07, 2019 at 04:40:00PM -, Dan Purgert wrote:
> -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
> Hash: SHA256
> 
>  wrote:
> >
> > Greetings All,
> >
> > Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be [...]

Welcome!

[...]

> If I'm understanding you properly, yes.  You need to take it from an
> "iso image" and actually have the data itself on the USB key (for lack
> of a better word, you need to "burn the image" to the USB key). 

The error message quoted by the original poster strongly suggests
that he's got that part right: it is the boot loader complaining.

Had he failed in the way you suggest, he wouldn't have reached
that error message.

Cheers
-- t


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Description: Digital signature

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

lwhona...@gmail.com wrote:
> I was under the impression, if I copied the dvd image to a usb stick,
> I could boot from the stick and start the install.

This is true. You have to put it as image onto the raw USB stick device.

  https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb
proposes for GNU/Linux something like
  cp debian-10.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso /dev/sdd
where /dev/sdd is the device file representing the USB stick.

For MS-Windows it proposes to use
  https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
An alternative is program Rufus with its "dd" mode. (I.e. not the mode by
which it installs GNU/Linux onto USB stick.)

It will not work if you put the ISO image into a partition of the USB stick
or as data file into a filesystem on the USB stick.
The copy operation is only credible if you afterwards (and after re-plugging)
see a new partition table on the USB stick. Maybe MS-Windows will complain
about a messed up GPT partition table. That's normal. Do not allow it to
"repair" it.


> Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD © © 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al

This does not look like the first bootloader message of a contemporary
Debian ISO image. If booted via legacy BIOS it should say "ISOLINUX"
rather than "Syslinux" and, depending on the age of your ISO image,
tell a younger age and higher revision.
debian-10.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso has in its boot image the strings
  ISOLINUX 6.04 20190226
  Copyright (C) 1994-2015 H. Peter Anvin et al

I assume you fell victim to some installation tool which unpacks ISOs
and tries prepare an own bootloader to boot the unpacked system. Typically
those programs offer to put several Linuxes onto the same stick.

This might work or not work. In any case it circumvents the prepared
boot procedure, which begins for legacy BIOS by the ISO's Master Boot
Record and then hops to the same boot program image that is used when
booting from DVD.


> Do I need something else other than the iso image on a 32 GB thumb drive in
> order to begin the install for Debian?

You will need an internet connection for (semi-)automatic downloading of
the bulk of Debian packages. (The advantage is that you can use a small
"netinst" ISO of only a few hundred MB and a smaller USB stick.)

Alternatively you could work with a Blu-ray sized ISO, which needs some
effort to download if you do not yet have a running Debian system.
E.g. debian-10.1.0-amd64-BD-1 from
  https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-bd/
by help of an intermediate Debian Live system
  https://wiki.debian.org/JigdoOnLive

-
For the archives:

A. Söldner wrote:
> I think you've to make the USB-Stick bootable and write the first ISO to the
> Stick.

This is outdated since about Debian 6 (2012 ?).
We now have "isohybrid".


Gene Heskett wrote:
> Done right, you see the contents, but not the iso file.

True. But you would see the many files also if you copied the ISO onto
a partition instead onto the whole stick.
In this case, the stick's partition table would not change.
(It would not boot because the ISO's MBR would not be in place for the
 legacy BIOS to find it.)


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 07 October 2019 12:40:00 Dan Purgert wrote:

>  wrote:
> > Greetings All,
> >
> > Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be.  I am totally blind, retired
> > computer specialist with most of my work experience in the Windows
> > world.  I do have a passing knowledge of Unix.
> >
> > I am attempting my first install of Debian and I must be missing
> > something from the Install Guide.  I was under the impression if I
> > copied the dvd image to a usb stick, I could boot from the stick and
> > start the install.
> >
> > Do I need something else other than the iso image on a 32 GB thumb
> > drive in order to begin the install for Debian?
>
> If I'm understanding you properly, yes.  You need to take it from an
> "iso image" and actually have the data itself on the USB key (for lack
> of a better word, you need to "burn the image" to the USB key).
>
> I think Win10 can do this natively through the right-click context
> menus (essentially right-click the ISO -> select the "burn disc image"
> option, then select your USB drive as the target).  Bear in mind that
> I haven't used Windows in ages, so I might be off the mark here.
>
> > I have tried on two different computers and I am receiving the
> > following message when I boot from the USB drive:
> >
> > Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD C C 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al
> >
> > Error: No configuration file found
> >
> > No default or u/I configuration directive found!
> >
> > Maybe I went too far, in that I copied the first three dvd iso
> > images to the 32 GB stick.  Is that an issue?
>
> That could definitely be a problem, especially if you "properly"
> burned the images to the USB, they'd have overwritten each other.

Each "iso" is a self-contained disk image. said another way, if you look 
at the contents of that usb drive, and see a file whose name ends 
in .iso, its burnt wrong, you should see the contents of that iso. It is 
a complete file system useing the iso9660 file system, designed to work 
with the spiral tracks, from the inside out, of the optical medium. 
burning it to the usb drive in raw mode, leaves an image that looks 
normal to a non-iso9660 file system. Done right, you see the contents, 
but not the iso file.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Dan Ritter]

lwhona...@gmail.com wrote: 
> 
> Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be.  I am totally blind, retired computer
> specialist with most of my work experience in the Windows world.  I do have
> a passing knowledge of Unix.

Good news: you're not the only blind Linux user on this list. If
it helps, the installer has support for braille terminals and speech
output.

> Maybe I went too far, in that I copied the first three dvd iso images to the
> 32 GB stick.  Is that an issue?

Yes. You want to copy the first DVD image only, to the raw disk.

If you were starting from another UNIX machine, you might be
doing something like:

dd if=Debian_image.iso  of=/dev/sdc

Where /dev/sdc indicates the unpartitioned destination disk, not
a partition on it (which would be sdc1 or sdc2 ...)

-dsr-

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[A . Söldner]

Am 07.10.2019 um 18:26 schrieb lwhona...@gmail.com:


Greetings All,

Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be.  I am totally blind, retired
computer specialist with most of my work experience in the Windows
world.  I do have a passing knowledge of Unix.

I am attempting my first install of Debian and I must be missing
something from the Install Guide.  I was under the impression

, if I copied the dvd image to a usb stick, I could boot from the
stick and start the install.

Do I need something else other than the iso image on a 32 GB thumb
drive in order to begin the install for Debian?

I have tried on two different computers and I am receiving the
following message when I boot from the USB drive:

Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD © © 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al

Error: No configuration file found

No default or u/I configuration directive found!

Maybe I went too far, in that I copied the first three dvd iso images
to the 32 GB stick.  Is that an issue?

Any thoughts or pointers would be welcome. Thank you.

Larry Honaker

lwhona...@gmail.com 


Hi there,

I think you've to make the USB-Stick bootable and write the first ISO to
the Stick.

Regards

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[Dan Purgert]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA256

 wrote:
>
> Greetings All,
>
> Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be.  I am totally blind, retired
> computer specialist with most of my work experience in the Windows
> world.  I do have a passing knowledge of Unix.
>
> I am attempting my first install of Debian and I must be missing something
> from the Install Guide.  I was under the impression if I copied the
> dvd image to a usb stick, I could boot from the stick and start the
> install.
>
> Do I need something else other than the iso image on a 32 GB thumb
> drive in order to begin the install for Debian?

If I'm understanding you properly, yes.  You need to take it from an
"iso image" and actually have the data itself on the USB key (for lack
of a better word, you need to "burn the image" to the USB key). 

I think Win10 can do this natively through the right-click context menus
(essentially right-click the ISO -> select the "burn disc image"
option, then select your USB drive as the target).  Bear in mind that I
haven't used Windows in ages, so I might be off the mark here.

>
> I have tried on two different computers and I am receiving the following
> message when I boot from the USB drive:
>
> Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD C C 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al
>
> Error: No configuration file found
>
> No default or u/I configuration directive found!
>
> Maybe I went too far, in that I copied the first three dvd iso images
> to the 32 GB stick.  Is that an issue?

That could definitely be a problem, especially if you "properly" burned
the images to the USB, they'd have overwritten each other.


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|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
|O|O|O| PGP: 05CA 9A50 3F2E 1335 4DC5  4AEE 8E11 DDF3 1279 A281

Re: New Linux User needs some guidance

[john doe]

On 10/7/2019 6:26 PM, lwhona...@gmail.com wrote:
> Greetings All,
>
>
>
> Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be.  I am totally blind, retired computer
> specialist with most of my work experience in the Windows world.  I do have
> a passing knowledge of Unix.
>
>
>
> I am attempting my first install of Debian and I must be missing something
> from the Install Guide.  I was under the impression
>
> , if I copied the dvd image to a usb stick, I could boot from the stick and
> start the install.
>
>
>
> Do I need something else other than the iso image on a 32 GB thumb drive in
> order to begin the install for Debian?
>

No, only the first cd/dvd is required to install Debian.

>
>
> I have tried on two different computers and I am receiving the following
> message when I boot from the USB drive:
>
>
>
> Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD C C 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al
>
> Error: No configuration file found
>
> No default or u/I configuration directive found!
>
>
>
> Maybe I went too far, in that I copied the first three dvd iso images to the
> 32 GB stick.  Is that an issue?
>
>
>

Try to install Debian with the first dvd iso that you have.

--
John Doe

New Linux User needs some guidance

[lwhonaker]

Greetings All,

 

Briefly, I am a new Linux want-to-be.  I am totally blind, retired computer
specialist with most of my work experience in the Windows world.  I do have
a passing knowledge of Unix.

 

I am attempting my first install of Debian and I must be missing something
from the Install Guide.  I was under the impression

, if I copied the dvd image to a usb stick, I could boot from the stick and
start the install.

 

Do I need something else other than the iso image on a 32 GB thumb drive in
order to begin the install for Debian?

 

I have tried on two different computers and I am receiving the following
message when I boot from the USB drive:

 

Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD C C 1994-2010 H. Peter Aanvin et al

Error: No configuration file found

No default or u/I configuration directive found!

 

Maybe I went too far, in that I copied the first three dvd iso images to the
32 GB stick.  Is that an issue?

 

Any thoughts or pointers would be welcome.  Thank you.

 

Larry Honaker

 

lwhona...@gmail.com