Posts Tagged ‘linux’

24
Oct

Monitoring dd with a progress bar

   Posted by: Dante    in General

When using the linux utility dd, there is no visual output of the progress, how long it is going to take, or anything else. Easy to solve with the use of pv:

% pv /dev/sda | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=100M

that’ll display the amount of data transferred, the elapsed time, the throughput speed, a nice progress bar, and the ETA. For devices that do not have a fixed size, let’s say, /dev/zero, there’ll be only a throughput display.

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14
Dec

Installing Ubuntu or derivatives using a USB pendrive

   Posted by: Dante    in General

Another easy method that is not readily available through Google searches, and most of the how-tos out there are incorrect, yielding nothing but frustration. Here’s how to do a proper flash drive installation media for Ubuntu, or any of its derivatives – kubuntu, xubuntu, edubuntu, etc – so it can be installed on a computer without an optical drive.

Follow these steps:

  1. Download UNetbootin
  2. Download the Ubuntu ISO image for your preferred install – this was tested with 9.10 Karmic Koala
  3. Run UNetbootin, click Diskimage, and browse to select the corresponding ISO image, then select the drive letter matching the destination flash drive (BE CAREFUL HERE) and press OK. The program will extract all the files, install SYSLINUX and leave it partly ready to use. Click Exit at the end of the copy.
  4. After UNetbootin finishes, navigate to the root of the flash drive and delete the following files:
    – syslinux.cfg
    – vesamenu.c32
    – ubn* (all files starting with ubn)
  5. Copy all files fro the folder isolinux to the root of the flash drive, with the exception of isolinux.bin
  6. Rename the isolinux.cfg file to syslinux.cfg
  7. Edit the text.cfg file, and at the end of the append subsection of the install entry, add cdrom-detect/try-usb=true, so you have an option that looks like:
    append file=/cdrom/preseed/(distro).seed initrd=/install/initrd.gz quiet — cdrom-detect/try-usb=true
  8. Remove the flash drive, boot it up and reap the profits!

Very easy procedure, but there doesn’t seem to be an automated way, yet. This was tested on Windows, but should be easy to do on linux as well, since UNetbootin has a linux counterpart.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you destroy your data with UNetbootin.

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