Install from USB pen drive
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Introduction
If you are lazy as me to go to a store to buy a CD-R or for whatever reason want to install Arch Linux from your USB mass storage device (aka pen driver) then you have an easy way through this HOWTO.
Requirements
- Syslinux
pacman -S syslinux
- i686/x86_64 image
http://www.archlinux.org/download/
- A BIOS capable of booting USB devices
Copying ISO contents
You should mount and copy all Arch Linux ISO contents to your pen drive: I'm going to suppose your pen drive is mounted at /media/disk. Also don't forget to change the .iso filename.
Mounting the ISO:
mkdir /mnt/tmp mount -o loop Archlinux-i686-2008.03-1-archboot.core.iso /mnt/tmp
Copying contents:
cp -ar /mnt/tmp/* /media/disk
Creating boot image
SYSLINUX requires the boot files to be in the root of the media.
cd /media/disk cp isolinux/* .
SYSLINUX configuration:
cp isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
Finally, SYSLINUX will create the boot image by running:
syslinux /dev/sdb
Replace /dev/sdb by your pen drive device. This command should be run at /media/disk
BOOT!
Some BIOS are not smart enough (like mine) to detect that a USB device was connected. If this is your case, just use "Pause Break" to connect you pen drive in a very early boot stage. Also, if available on your BIOS, prefer using F12 boot menu.
Enjoy!