Ah ha! Found my error!!
/dev/sda *is* my USB, not the system disk. I was confused on which device was the system disk and which one was the USB. I was expecting the system disk to be the larger of the two. System disk is only 32 Gb. USB is 64 Gb. <sheepish grin> I'm okay - system is installing....../.\.-.|. Excuse the spam. ----- Original message ----- From: Nancy E Davis <neda...@fastmail.fm> To: debian-boot@lists.debian.org Subject: Problems with usb installation verions 9.2.1 Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2017 07:20:04 -0400 Hi Debian Folks! I am attempting to install the current stable 9.2.1 on an ASUS E200HA laptop using a USB drive as installation media. I have tried using the non-free firmware update from this location: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/ I have tried using the regular installation .iso from this location: http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/ Both end in the same problem. Problem: During the disk partitioning portion of the installation program, I am unable to *deslect* the USB device I am installing from. The result is the system repartitions the USB device I'm installing from. I have tried setting all the partitions on the USB drive to "do not use", but the partition table re-write appears to destroy access to the information on the USB drive. When I escape out to a shell, I am unable to find any handy tools like cfdisk in order to partition the system drive. If I can skip the partition step, I think I could get through this. What partitioning tools are available to me in the shell? I am getting really good at dd'ing a fresh copy of the installation software back to my USB ;-D Suggestions most welcome. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information to assist. Best regards, Nancy Davis
