Installing BLAG from a USB key

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INTRO

This is a guide to installing BLAG from a USB key, also known as flash drives. Use this method for installation if you have a box with no CD trays, a decent connection and your BIOS allows you to boot from USB. This method has been tested with the 50k, 60k and 70k --alpha-- series but should work with any version of BLAG.

Tested on IBM Thinkpad X30.

PREPARATION

Back up all of your files on the disk(s) of the main box and the USB key. This method wipes the USB key clean.

You need to grab a disk image from the BLAG repo. I grabbed the diskimage file. 

wget ftp://blagblagblag.org/pub/BLAG/linux/70000/en/os/i386/images/diskboot.img

Note that this image is also on BLAG CDs under /images.

Connect the USB key to the box and run fdisk -l as user root. This should give you a listing of all of the disks connected to the box so look out for scsi-type devices. An example follows; 

fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1          12       96358+  83  Linux
/dev/hda2              13        2623    20972857+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3            2624        3276     5245222+  83  Linux
/dev/hda4            3277        4864    12755610    5  Extended
/dev/hda5            3277        4603    10659096   83  Linux
/dev/hda6            4604        4864     2096451   82  Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sda: 1040 MB, 1040187392 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 992 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          50       51184    6  FAT16
/dev/sda2              51         992      964608    b  W95 FAT32


Ensure that the key is umounted. Remember that Gnome and KDE tend to automount disks. The diskboot.img file is only 8Mb in size so you can put it onto most USB keys like this 

dd if=/path/to/diskboot.img of=/dev/sdn

where sdn reflects the scsi device shown by fdisk -l. You'll get your prompt back fairly quicky.

A limitation with this method is the fact that all of the USB key is wiped clean, so that it can only be used for booting. So grab a BLAG iso image and place it on the disk of the box, (/dev/hdn), or onto another USB key if you have one large enough.

Backed up your files?

INSTALLATION

Set your BIOS to boot from usb and ensure that the key is the first bootable disk on the list of your bootable media. Some BIOSes allow booting from floopy, SCSI, hdd, zip drives and so on.

Boot with the key in the machine and start the installation with 

linux askmethod

You'll presented with a text-based screen.

  • choose your language
  • choose your keymap/keyboard

You’ll be presented with a list of installation methods; http; ftp; cd-rom, nfs and hard disk. The rest is a standard installation of BLAG which is pretty much the same as Fedora’s. From hereon the steps in the installation are illustrated by screenshots. Note that during a graphical install you can hit shift+PrtSc to take screenshots of your install. Most handy for passing on the knowledge that you may have aquired onto others, or discussing bugs.

  • Select hard disk
  • Choose the location of the disk where the BLAG iso image is. If it's on anothe USB key, scroll down to the bottom of the list of disks. Otherwise scroll to the partition on the box where the iso image is. You may have to type in the directory where the image is in this case.
  • Let anaconda find and read the image. This takes a while on a laptop with USB1.1
  • You should then see the 'welcome screen'
  • Select 'Install' for a fresh installation or 'upgrade'. The latter option has not been tested by me.
  • Ignore partition of USB key Don’t format the key as that’s what we use to install the OS!
  • Select the installation target In my case it’s hda.
  • Add a SCSI target if required
  • For the partitioning of the disk(s) on the box, I prefer to use Custom layout So that I can define my own partitions. You couls also let disk druid create a partition layout for you.

Note that the partitions shown and thier sizes work for me. Use what works for you

  • Specify the /boot partition
  • Specify the swap partition
  • Specify /home partition. I tend to use a separate /home partition in order to simplify backups and transfer my settings to other machines.
  • I’ve found that 5GB is adequate for my needs when specifying /root partition
  • I create a separate partition for virtualisation optional
  • Review your settings
  • Confirmation of changes. If you've defined your own partition table, take your time and review the list for a final time.
  • Specify location of grub

Note that anaconda wants to put grub onto the USB key and not the disk of the laptop. There is a simple work around for this. The trick is to move the disk order and that’s it. Grub will be installed onto the disk of your box or laptop.

  • Specify network device(s)] Note that wireless cards should be inserted so that they can be detected by anaconda.
  • Set the hostname as required.
  • Set the timezone
  • Set the root password
  • Set up repositaries. You can add BLAG extras this stage but let anacona connect to the extras repo.

BLAG is a flexible distro and you can customize the packages to be insalled

  • Hit next to continue

During the installation, disks get formatted and partitions are created. Once the installation is complete you’ll be greeted with a final screen, telling you that all is well.

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