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brandonros/2023-12-10-linux-writeup.md

Last active December 15, 2023 21:43
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2023-12-10-linux-writeup.md

Context

  • I am on Mac OS X arm64
  • I have 1 USB flash drive, not 2 (easy to write live USB installer to one and install to the other)
  • I do not have a Windows or Linux PC near by (can't format NTFS without pain, can't format ext4 without pain, etc.)
  • I want to prepare a USB flash drive that can be booted via a separate machine (non-Mac) via EFI (not legacy MBR).
  • I do not have Ethernet, just WiFi (no netboot capability)
  • I wanted the root filesystem to be compatible between Linux + Mac + Windows (NTFS/FAT32/ExFAT/EXT4 options; none meet this criteria)
  • I wanted to write Debian live image to USB stick, add toram boot parameter, turn around and install Debian to this USB stick. Did not work, doesn't come with debian-installer-launcher by default, had to add manually after manual wpa-supplicant config, then got a random error after partioning. live-toram also didn't work.
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brandonros commented Dec 15, 2023 •
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PC 1 steps (Mac OS X)

diskutil list
# manually look at list to find /dev identifier
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk4
sudo sh -c 'pv ~/Downloads/debian-live-12.4.0-amd64-standard.iso > /dev/rdisk4'
# click Ignore on weird Finder prompt
diskutil eject /dev/disk4

PC 2 steps

# Plug newly prepared USB stick in
# Go to BIOS, Disable SecureBoot
# Reboot
# Press Esc until you get to boot menu
# Select newly prepared USB stick to boot from
# Run installer (make sure to use a different, secondary USB stick to target installation to)

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