[OpenIndiana-discuss] USB versions explanation?

[Chris Ridd]

On 22 Sep 2010, at 03:56, Jesus Cea wrote:

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> I am mirroring the ISO/USB BitTorrents, and I am wondering why there are
> two USB versions.
> 
> One of the versions make a bootable USB copying with "dd".
> 
> The other version is only an image of a root partition. No partition
> table, no boot sector, no grub. What is the practical use of it?. Maybe
> to copy it inside an already partitioned (big) USB?. In that case, would
> be nice to have instructions of how to boot it in this configuration. In
> the wiki there is a method described, but it overwrite the USB,
> basically being equivalent to the "dd" way.

I found the instructions at <http://chonan-en.blog.pid0.org/2009/11/how-to-create-opensolaris-live-usb.html> practical and helpful. It includes a zip of various extra header "bits" which you prepend to your .usb image before dd'ing to the raw device for your USB stick.

Presumably the "bits" are the BIOS boot sector and partition table and gunk. It is probably possible to script the production of these, but as-is they worked for me.

Cheers,

Chris