As per debian list etiquette my reply is at the bottom... On Apr 12, 2014, at 7:01 AM, Richard Owlett <rowl...@cloud85.net> wrote:
> I will be installing Debian at locations which DO NOT have internet. > Instead of juggling a stack of DVDs, I want everything on a USB stick. > I am using Debian 6.0.5 as test case - it's what I have available. > There was no problem copying the first DVD to the beginning of the USB stick > with dd. > I did a preliminary test by booting to the USB stick and the install program > apparently worked OK. > > I rebooted to an operable system and created a large partition on the > remainder of the flash drive. I then attempted to copy DVDs to the flash > drive using first > cp -r -l /media/cdrom0 /media/mydrive/disk1 > I aborted when started receiving error messages of failure with link files. > I then tried > cp -r -l /media/cdrom0 /media/mydrive/disk1 > I aborted that also reviving similar error messages. > > How should I be doing this? Hi Richard, Have you tried using dd to make images of the DVDs on the extended part of the USB stick? E.g.: # put DVD1 in the drive dd if=/dev/cdrom0 of=/media/mydrive/DVD1.iso bs=1M eject cdrom # put DVD2 in the drive dd if=/dev/cdrom0 of=/media/mydrive/DVD2.iso bs=1M # and so on... them loop-mounting the images? I'm not sure what you would have to do inside the installer to get the loop-mounted images into the installers "sources.list" file, but I'm sure a bit of wiki and/or FAQ scratching would answer that question. Once you figure out the necessary magic, you can probably pre-seed it into your installer image on the front part of the USB stick. I know this is just a sketch of a solution, but it's all I've got time for right now. Anyway, it's the approach I'd take if I had the problem. Hope it helps! Good luck and let us know if you come up with something that works! Rick -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/1bfcb66f-a7ea-4f90-8eda-f062077c1...@pobox.com