Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

bobby · 2016-01-04 18:39

Is it possible to install the LiveCD image exactly to hard drive as bootable with mainly the Q4OS to Hard Drive installer working ?

q4osteam · 2016-01-04 19:37

Yes, you can directly write .iso file to make bootable medium (usb stick or hardrive) this way:
$ sudo cp q4os-live-1.4.4-x64.iso /dev/sdb
'sdb' is the target disk device.

bobby · 2016-01-05 03:59

Q4OS Team, Thanks Again... Working on this tonight.

bobby · 2016-02-27 00:12

Is it possible to boot the Live iso from a partition. for example: /dev/sda1 ?

OR

Is it possible to increase squash file partition size to 4GB ?

Dai_trying · 2016-02-27 02:48

I have kinda done this on one of my pc's as it only has a cdrom and does not boot from usb, it involved crafting a menuentry for grub and loop mounting the iso. It took a while to get it working and will need some research to see if it will work for q4os, but I have a debian 8.1 or 8.2 (can't remember just now) xfce live-cd mounted that way for installation purposes on an old compaq presario. If you want what info I have let me know and I will dig it out.
I haven't tried messing with the squashfs at all so can't help with that one.

P.s I know I could have used one of the smaller installation images but I had to find out what was possible with that machine.

Dai

bobby · 2016-02-27 02:54

@Dai, Glad to here it is possible. I sent you a PM with my thoughts since this is a non-standard custom boot of Q4OS just not sure which way to go.

Thanks,

Bobby

Dai_trying · 2016-02-28 12:41

Thought I would post this as I dug it out to test with q4os live-cd. It is possible to boot using the live-cd as a file on your existing (linux) system, there are a few steps involved

1.) copy the script at base of this post
2.) modify menuentry value to what you want displayed in the grub menu
3.) check isoname value is correct for your image
4.) check isofile uses correct location for your image
5.) if you use a different image check that kernel(vmlinuz) and fs(initrd.img) are correct for your iso
6.) save this to /etc/grub.d/40_custom.q4os_iso (needs root access)
6b.) OR save to anywhere and then sudo cp /location/to/your/file/40_custom.q4os_iso /etc/grub.d/
7.) mark file as executable (sudo chmod +x /etc/grub.d/40_custom.q4os_iso)
8.) run "sudo update-grub"
9.) reboot

I tried it and it runs as if it were booted from usb (maybe a little quicker, but I didn't benchmark it)

Just remember this is not the recommended way to boot an iso, just an alternative if you should have reason to use it.
Couple of things to note, if I remember right the file must be on the hdd partition that grub loads from otherwise it will not boot, and if you try this with other iso images I have never got this to work with anything but live-cd images, and you must check point 5 this is a must as different distro's use different kernel naming conventions.

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry "Q4os Loop Loader" {
	set isoname="q4os-live-1.4.7-i686pae.iso"
	set isofile="/home/dai/Downloads/${isoname}"
	echo "Using ${isoname}..."
	loopback loop $isofile
	linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live findiso=${isofile} config quiet splash
	initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
}

I offer no warranties as this is just what worked for me, as usual you accept your own risks.

Dai

bobby · 2016-02-28 17:28

@Dai,

Would it be possible to boot the iso from /dev/sda10 via grub menu.

I tried to change Line #8 to /dev/sda10 but, sudo update-grub does not over-ride existing entry for /dev/sda10

Thanks,

Bobby

Dai_trying · 2016-02-28 18:08

@Bobby : not this way no.

I wrote:

if I remember right the file must be on the hdd partition that grub loads from

grub doesn't know what /dev is, or sda

Dai

Last edited by Dai_trying (2016-02-28 18:10)

Q4OS Forum

#1 2016-01-04 18:39

Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#2 2016-01-04 19:37

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#3 2016-01-05 03:59

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#4 2016-02-27 00:12

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#5 2016-02-27 02:48

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#6 2016-02-27 02:54

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#7 2016-02-28 12:41

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#8 2016-02-28 17:28

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

#9 2016-02-28 18:08

Re: Possible to install LiveCD to Hard Drive and boot it ?

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