On 12/28/20 5:37 PM, Anil Felipe Duggirala wrote:
Hello.
Ive tried searching for a clear answer to this without avail.
How would I go about creating a usb bootable (portable) installation of Fedora?
I am aware of the Live Fedora 33 Workstation images. But, for example, when boothing from that, your settings (program setting) are not saved.
How can I have a Fedora usb that I can use on different pcs? Where I have additional software installed? And settings? And maybe even a permanent /home storage space?
Thank you.
Hi Anil,
I have one that I take to customer sites, mostly
to diagnose hardware issues and to rescue Windows.
Warning: use at least a 32 GB flash drive and ONLY
use Samsung flash drives or you will be sorry. The
others can't handle the amount of small file
transfers and will corrupt out on you.
This is how I create it. Change "todd" to your
user name. This is for Xfce.
Have fun!
-T
Two files:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dual.Legacy.EUFI.setup.txt
Fedora 30+: how to create a minimal legacy boot on a previously set up
EUFI drive:
Note: this requires that you created the first partition as
1 Meg
unformatted
set the partition flag to "bios_grub"
If not, you have to go back and recreate the entire installation
Starting from fresh:
Requirements:
Fedora 30+
Before installing, gparted:
Wipe the target disk with /dev/zero
(sets everything to zero for a good dd and gzip backup)
# dd bs=4096 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx
create a partition table as GPT
create a first partition as
1 Meg
unformatted
set the partition flag to "bios_grub"
Install Fedora 30 from a UEFI machine:
"/home" was removed at installation and moved into "/"
Background: as of Fedora 30, grub calls entries in /etc/grug.d, so
you have to create a minimal grug.cfg file of your own and you
have to do this for every new kernel you install.
--->>> PRESUMED !!! <<<---
The machine was install and booted from EUFI
The machine is mounted as /dev/sda
Create a grub2 directory and file structures for legacy to boot off of:
Note: you must have that 1 Meg partition mentioned above
1) find the device name of your flash drive and substitute it for sdx:
2) install grub2pc:
# dnf reinstall grub2-pc
Note: you might have to remove, then install
3) install grub on the MBR. Triple check the USB stick sdx !!!!
# grub2-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sdx
Note: to repair a corrupted EUFI grub:
Reference:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/22/html/Multiboot_Guide/GRUB-reinstalling.html
Boot off a EUFI bios with the Live USB version you used to
install with.
Mount the Dead Stick
Locate the Dead Stick /dev/sdx (usually sda, the live does not
have a sd).
Run the efibootmgr invocation again:
# efibootmgr -c -w -L Fedora -d /dev/sda -p 2 -l
\EFI\fedora\shim.efi
You need three pieces of information:
1) the UUID (not PARTUUID) of the /boot drive
2) the UUID (not PARTUUID) of the / (root) drive
3) the vmlinuz and matching initramfs image you will be booting
off (both are found in /boot)
To get get the UUID of of / and /boot, find their device names
using "df":
Note: sometimes swap and / are reversed
# df -kPT / /boot
Filesystem Type 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/sda5 ext4 58041356 6988764 48074544 13% /
/dev/sda3 ext4 999320 216612 713896 24% /boot
Then find their UUIDs (not PARTUUID) using "blkid". Note: "blkid" must be
run as root:
# blkid -c /dev/null | grep "sda3\|sda4\|sda5"
/dev/sda3: UUID="c6ce9e85-bf7a-4ee9-a50f-8e965bae26e3" TYPE="ext4"
PARTUUID="f7acbc98-51f3-48aa-b7c7-23e0d78f5293"
/dev/sda4: UUID="e1161cc5-d591-4d82-bb51-78bc4527b2d9" TYPE="swap"
PARTUUID="53350fee-f1cf-4284-a125-d4f1be95d16e"
/dev/sda5: UUID="d85c4d68-cd15-4027-af77-4c1e4804b9fd" TYPE="ext4"
PARTUUID="6f8f73ac-299b-44bd-8bc0-598a4325835f"
In this instance:
/boot UUID is c6ce9e85-bf7a-4ee9-a50f-8e965bae26e
/ UUID is d85c4d68-cd15-4027-af77-4c1e4804b9fd
To find vmlinuz and matching initramfs:
# ls /boot/vmlinuz*
/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.8-300.fc31.x86_64
# ls /boot/initramfs*
/boot/initramfs-5.3.8-300.fc31.x86_64.img
Create a /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file for booting from a legacy BIOS.
1) subsitute /boot's UUID in the "search" line (not PARTUUID)
2) subsitute /'s (root's) UUID in the "linux" line (not PARTUUID)
3) subsitute your vmlinuz in the "vmlinuz" line
4) subsitute the matching initramfs in the "initrd16" line
~~~~~~~~
set pager=1
terminal_output console
set timeout=5
menuentry 'Fedora 32 (Thirty Two) Legacy Boot' {
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root
c6ce9e85-bf7a-4ee9-a50f-8e965bae26e3
linux /vmlinuz-5.6.6-300.fc32.x86_64
root=UUID=d85c4d68-cd15-4027-af77-4c1e4804b9fd
initrd16 /initramfs-5.6.6-300.fc32.x86_64.img
}
~~~~~~~~
reboot on a legacy system to double check. Qemu-kvm work wonders!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
usb.Install.Notes.txt
Install Notes:
KAV Rescue Disk:
Two important files are:
RegistryEditor (GUI)
windowsunlocker (command line)
To configure Dual Legacy, UEFI boot, see:
Dual.Legacy.EUFI.setup.txt
Fedora 30+ Bootable USB:
Add-on USB controllers without a POST BIOS ROM will not boot this stick.
If root is assigned a password, it is "password"
Note: the following is the default in
Fedora-Live-Workstation-x86_64-22-3.iso,
but not Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-22-3.iso
After the drive is created, /boot/grub2/grub.cfg, and verify/change the
default
"menuentry" line with:
linux16 ... root=UUID=xxxxxxxxxx
Get the UUID from the "rescue" section or "ls -al /dev/disk/by-uuid"
User "todd" should be set to "user id=500, group=100 (users)";
500 in /etc/passwd and 100 in /etc/group
$ grep tony /etc/passwd
todd:x:500:100:todd:/home/todd:/bin/bash
$ grep todd /etc/group
users:x:100:todd
Note: remove the todd:x entry
Add the following at the end of /etc/sudoers (use "visudo"):
## Allow user=todd to run all commands
todd ALL=(ALL) ALL
If no root password is set:
CUPS without an Admin password:
/etc/cups/cupsd.conf
Remard (#) out all the lines with "Require"
AFTER the first successful boot, to force the stick to scan for new hardware
on each boot, edit dracut:
/usr/lib/dracut/dracut.conf.d/01-dist.conf
hostonly="no"
And to keep dracut updates from overwriting the above line into
/etc/dracut.conf.d/01-custom.conf
/etc/fstab: forces writing to occur immediately on execution of the
command by adding
"sync" after defaults (comma separated). For example:
UUID=977e3532-f988-483c-b6f6-476ac6e299c0 / ext4
defaults,sync 1 1
UUID=479150af-f3cd-448c-bdad-a0b3c3aac778 /boot ext4
defaults,sync 1 2
UUID=4541ee45-9f7b-45f7-b239-b6e8d43f8a3e swap swap
defaults,sync 0 0
Autologin:
gdm: gnome
lightdm: lxde, xfce, MATE-Compiz
kdmrc: KDE4
To double check:
$ ps ax | grep -i "lightdm\|gdm" | grep -v grep
GDM (gnome Live installer):
It only auto-logs in on first boot, and it must be a non-root
user.
edit /etc/gdm/custom.conf:
[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=whatever_username
TimedLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=whatever_username
TimedLoginDelay=0
The autologin doesn't require a reboot to work, just issue the
following command:
/etc/init.d/gdm restart
Lightdm (Xfce Live installer):
edit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:
Note: as of FC25, copy lightdm.conf.rpmnew to lightdm.conf
[SeatDefaults]
autologin-user=todd
autologin-user-timeout=0
FC27:
[Seat:*]
autologin-user=todd
autologin-user-timeout=0
Set up LightDM, PAM and autologin
# groupadd autologin
# gpasswd --add todd autologin
# reboot
The autologin doesn't require a reboot to work, just issue the
following command:
service lightdm restart
or init 3; init 5
The initial DNF installs and updates should not be done from a Virtual
Machine:
Note: as of SL 7.2, this is not an issue
Install utilities: Note as of FC23, dnf replaced "localinstall" with
"install"
FC22:
# dnf install xterm firefox midori gdisk ntfsprogs chntpw
gsmartcontrol \
kde-runtime krusader libreoffice xscreensaver-base
xscreensaver-extras \
xscreensaver-extras-base xscreensaver-gl-base xscreensaver-gl-extras \
file-roller system-config-printer gparted glibc.i686 gtk2.i686
libSM.i686 \
libpng12.i686 florence
# dnf install
/home/todd/Desktop/USB.Desktop/xdiskusage-1.48.1-15.2.x86_64.rpm
FC23+ (glibc is now native):
# dnf install xterm firefox gdisk ntfsprogs chntpw gsmartcontrol \
kde-runtime krusader libreoffice xscreensaver-base
xscreensaver-extras \
xscreensaver-extras-base xscreensaver-gl-base xscreensaver-gl-extras \
file-roller system-config-printer gparted ark florence onboard
lm_sensors-libs \
lm_sensors xsensors dmidecode hivex libhivex.so.0 libQtCore.so.4 \
libQtGui.so.4 dump xfsdump gpart arp-scan rakudo rakudo-zef leafpad \
zerofree baobab
# dnf remove abiword midori
# mkdir /home/todd/Desktop/USB.Desktop
# cd /home/todd/Desktop/USB.Desktop
# mkdir /mnt/MyCDs
# mount -t cifs //192.168.255.10/CDs /mnt/MyCDs
# cp -R /mnt/MyCDs/Keepers/Linux/USB.Desktop/* .
# chown -R todd.users /home/todd/Desktop
# dnf install xdiskusage-1.48.1-15.2.x86_64.rpm
fred-0.1.1-1.fc25.x86_64.rpm
# ./AutoScan-Network-1.12.bin
# dnf --enablerepo=updates-testing upgrade chntpw
# dnf config-manager --add-repo
https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/x86_64/
# rpm --import
https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc
# sudo dnf install brave-browser
# dnf upgrade
# dnf clean packages
Screensaver: disable lock and set to bouncing cows (BouncingCow)
Hostname:
# hostnamectl set-hostname deadstick.rent-a-nerd.local --static
Note: to browse the server's smb shares from Krusader: smb://192.168.255.10/
Kaspersky Registry Editor:
cp /mnt/MyCDs/Kaspersky/KavRescue.RegistryEditor /home/todd/Desktop/.
Create launcher icons for:
Terminal pop up:
xterm
florence
onboard
File (system) pop up:
leafpad
xdiskusage (sudo /usr/bin/xdiskusage)
baobab (called "Disk Usage Analyzer"; sudo baobab)
gsmartcontrol (sudo)
krusader
file-roller (called "Archive Manager")
libreoffice
gparted
gdisk (sudo /usr/sbin/gdisk and "Run in terminal")
fred (Forensic [Windows] Registry EDitor) (/usr/bin/fred)
Kaspersky Registry Editor
(/home/todd/Desktop/USB.Desktop/KavRescue.RegistryEditor)
Internet pop up:
brave Add `--password-store=basic` to the run string
firefox
AutoScan (sudo /opt/AutoScan/bin/autoscan-network)
Arp Scan (sudo /usr/sbin/arp-scan --localnet and "Run in terminal")
minicom (sudo /usr/bin/minicom and "Run in terminal")
Last things:
Shutdown
; Make a backup of "home" and "opt" from the server
; Mount UsbBoot and UsbRoot
;
; change the date!
; # cd /run/media/todd/UsbBoot
; # tar czvf /home/CDs/DeadStick.FC24.usbboot.DATE.tar.gz .
;
; # cd /run/media/todd/UsbRoot
; # tar czvf /home/CDs/DeadStick.FC24.home.opt.DATE.tar.gz home opt
Note: at 64 GB, the stick is now too big to do this.
Workaround: use Samsung flash drives, they do not corrupt
And the whole stick: sdc may not be the drive letter.
change the DATE!
# cd /home/CDs/ISOs
# dd bs=4096 if=/dev/sdb of=Dead.Stick.FC28.DATE.dd
Backup:
1) shutdown: zero out unused space
Figure out which partitions / and /boot are located on. Gparted
works well for this..l Usually they are /dev/sdb3 and /dev/sdb5:
partitions must not be mounted
# zerofree -v /dev/sd..
# zerofree -v /dev/sd..
2) shutdown: make a dd (gzip mangles the structure)
Find the device name (/dev/sdx)
Note: if the "dd" crashes on a USB3 port, try a USB2 port
status=progress cuts your size in half.
structure is mangled if you gzip
# dd status=progress bs=4096 if=/dev/sdx
of=DeadStick.FC31_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).dd
Note: if USB 2 fails, try using "ddrescue"
The reverse to restore is:
# dd status=progress bs=4096 if=DeadStick.FC31_2019-09-06.dd
of=/dev/sdx
A one liner to peak at the progress:
$ ls -al | p6 'my @x=$*IN.lines; say (@x[3].words[4].Int) /
1000000000 ~ " GB";'
64.1604009 GB
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