EasyDD installer for writing image file or ISO to USB drive

[bigpup]

EasyDD:
https://bkhome.org/linux/easydd-write-i ... drive.html

EasyDD is an application for writing an operating system image file or ISO to a USB drive.

Using an image file.
This is an image of an install to a drive.
Installing using this image, turns the USB into an exact copy of that drive.
Partitions, format, and size used.
If a larger USB is used to install on.
There will be unallocated space on the drive.
This space can be partitioned and formatted to use.

Note:
Whatever the image file is, it will be written to the target drive. What the target will then boot up on, is entirely up to whatever is in the image file. If it supports UEFI, then it will boot on UEFI-firmware computers. If the image supports secure boot, then it will boot with secure boot enabled.

WARNING:
If used to install, using an ISO image file.
It will make a install, that uses iso9660 format, for the drive installed on.
This is a read only format.
Whatever space is remaining, on the drive, is UN-writtable.

During the startup process, to start writing the image.
It may look like it stopped working.
After a short time, a message window will show, giving progress report.
When complete, a message will pop up, stating completed writing image.

Easydd pet I made:

easydd.pet

(9.01 KiB) Downloaded 344 times

[williwaw]

This will not make a bootable install, that will boot on a UEFI computer, with secure boot enabled.
It does not provide the Puppy security key needed for secure boot enabled.
In the UEFI setup.
Secure boot must be disabled,
May also need to enable legacy boot or CSM.

was it supposed to? I thought it was a easier to use and more interactive front end for dd

Bigpup,
Corrected first post.
This was bad info by me! :oops:

[BarryK]

This will not make a bootable install, that will boot on a UEFI computer, with secure boot enabled.
It does not provide the Puppy security key needed for secure boot enabled.
In the UEFI setup.
Secure boot must be disabled,
May also need to enable legacy boot or CSM.

These comments are extremely misleading. EasyDD is only a frontend for 'dd'.

Whatever the image file is, it will be written to the target drive. What the target will then bootup on, is entirely up to whatever is in the image file. If it supports UEFI, then it will boot on UEFI-firmware computers. If the image supports secure boot, then it will boot with secure boot enabled.

In other words, it has nothing at all to do with EasyDD.

Bigpup:
I edited the first post to correct info.

[BarryK]

Oh, should also mention, EasyDD can write an ISO file to a USB-stick, and the same thing applies. Whatever the ISO is capable of booting on -- BIOS, UEFI UEFI secure boot.
Of course a hybrid-ISO is required, that can boot from a USB stick.

[bigpup]

OK BarryK, I edited the first post with your info.

I was posting this as a way to install a Puppy Linux version.
I know of no official Puppy Linux version, that has the needed stuff in the iso, to boot on a UEFI computer, with secure boot enabled.
You need the Puppy security key and the program to install it in the computer.

Frugalpup Installer, is the only Puppy installer, that I know of, that provides the puppy security key and method to install it.
Good thing is, it can install any Puppy version that is UEFI and the puppy security key needed for secure boot.

[bigpup]

Oh, should also mention, EasyDD can write an ISO file to a USB-stick, and the same thing applies. Whatever the ISO is capable of booting on -- BIOS, UEFI UEFI secure boot.
Of course a hybrid-ISO is required, that can boot from a USB stick.

So, a normal official Puppy version iso does not have what is needed for EasyDD to make a workable install on a USB stick?

Maybe I should have let you make this topic.
I assumed all was explained here:
https://bkhome.org/linux/easydd-write-i ... drive.html

[BarryK]

Oh, should also mention, EasyDD can write an ISO file to a USB-stick, and the same thing applies. Whatever the ISO is capable of booting on -- BIOS, UEFI UEFI secure boot.
Of course a hybrid-ISO is required, that can boot from a USB stick.

So, a normal official Puppy version iso does not have what is needed for EasyDD to make a workable install on a USB stick?

It has nothing to do wth EasyDD. It is up to whoever created the ISO, to make it bootable on either optical or usb-stick, in other words, it is a capability built into the iso when it is created.

Whoever creates the iso file, creates it as a "hybrid iso", and that is then capable of booting on a usb stick. I would have expected that all of the official pups are hybrid isos.

For example, here is the xorriso command that I use to create the EasyPup iso:

xorriso -as mkisofs -volid "EASYPUPOPTICAL" -o ${ISONAME} -isohybrid-mbr isohdpfx.bin \
-c boot.cat -b isolinux.bin -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
-eltorito-alt-boot -e efiboot.img -no-emul-boot -isohybrid-gpt-basdat ./build/

...notice the "-isohybrid-mbr". Folder "build" has all of the files that will go into the iso, vmlinuz, etc.
...notice also "-e efiboot.img", that makes the iso bootable on UEFI-firmware computers.

All that 'dd' does (and hence EasyDD), is write the iso file to the usb-stick, that's it, nothing else.

[BarryK]

Having said that, it is possible to use the "isohybrid" program (in the syslinux package) to convert an existing non-hybrid iso into a hybrid iso. Maybe that is what you are thinking of. EasyDD does not do that, expects the iso to already be hybrid-iso, and as I said, I would expect all of the recent pups to be hybrid-iso, surprised if they aren't.

This is interesting. How do you find out whether an iso file is hybrid-iso or not?:

https://superuser.com/questions/683210/ ... s-a-hybrid

[mikeslr]

Just a couple of thoughts:
I don't have an UEFI computer to test any of them. But, the simplest way to place EasyOS on a USB-Key is to use the EasyDD portable Mike Walsh, with the help of keef, using BarryK's work published here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 61#1031161. Works with my NON-UEFI computer.

About using frugalpup installer: Frugalpup has the option of writing bootloaders for either or both 'bios' and UEFI computers. What I discovered exploring puli is that frugalpup expects the base system file's name to begin with "puppy_", e.g. puppy_easy.sfs. After frugalpup completes writing you have to rename the base file to its original. And an IMG files can be renamed "iso". So the following might work:

1. Rename easy_xxx.img to easy_xxx.iso.
2. Mount that ISO and copy its contents to a folder named easy_xxx.
3. Within that folder rename easy.sfs as puppy_easy.sfs
4. dir2iso on the easy_xxx folder. There's a pet somewhere if dir2iso isn't built into your Puppy.
5. Run frugalpup selecting easy_xxx.iso as the source.
6. Mount the 'finished' USB-Key and rename puppy_easy.sfs to just easy.sfs

But there's a lot which can go wrong. As I said, 'MIke Walsh's' portable easydd makes life easy; 'though being able to boot from any computer without having to make 'bios' changes would be nice. Consider the above as an experiment for someone who has a UEFI computer.

[williwaw]

'though being able to boot from any computer without having to make 'bios' changes would be nice

Barry wrote up his way to copy and paste the EFI folder to a new fat32 directory for frugal installs. As UEFI does not need to use the mbr, perhaps the method can be used with grub2 also>
https://bkhome.org/news/202003/multi-bo ... ew-pc.html

[BarryK]

'though being able to boot from any computer without having to make 'bios' changes would be nice

Barry wrote up his way to copy and paste the EFI folder to a new fat32 directory for frugal installs. As UEFI does not need to use the mbr, perhaps the method can be used with grub2 also>
https://bkhome.org/news/202003/multi-bo ... ew-pc.html

An update about that blog post, where it says this:

reFind has one big flaw, it does not recognise ext4 partitions with the "encrypt" flag set.

I patched ReFind and it now does recognise ext4 filesystems with the encrypt flag. Blog post about the ext4 patch:

https://bkhome.org/news/202007/refind-p ... crypt.html

[bigpup]

I made a pet package for EasyDD.
See first post in this topic for download.
It will put a entry in menu->Setup to click on to run EasyDD.

Note:
I think it is the latest version.
Anyone knows about a newer version, let us know, and I will make a new pet.
I got it from here:
https://bkhome.org/linux/easydd-write-i ... drive.html

[bigpup]

Running Fossapup64 9.5
Used EasyDD to install a Fossapup64 9.5 iso to a USB drive.
When finished, the drive is formatted iso9660, which is a closed format.
So no way to store save, on the USB drive.
Plus the iso install, only uses a small part of the drive space.
The rest of the drive is UN-writable.
It does boot OK.

Any way to change this to use what the format already is on the USB drive?
The USB was one partition, formatted fat32, before using EasyDD.

The USB drive also shows as 3 different desktop icon partitions.
sdc, sdc1, sdc2

[GMBudwrench]

I don’t know if this will work, but I had a similar issue after trying isobooter. A reformat with Gparted didn’t work, until out of sheer desperation, I changed the drive from a logical partition to an extended partition. I can’t recall which was the default but I changed it from default to the other type, applied the save and then returned it back to the default setting and saved it again. Isobooter created a hidden partition that I could see like you, but unable to delete.

[mikewalsh]

EasyDD-portable, as-is, perfectly creates a working Puppy.....that will boot on non-UEFI machines. It works fine with an MBR BIOS.

I, too, have found that the ISO9660 format is applied. In other words, from what I can see of it, dd is not only copying the Puppy, but also the file-system format, literally "byte for byte". This is how the dd utility works.

The fact that UEFI machines are now becoming the 'norm' is, of course, what has prompted such an explosion of alternative installers in recent years. It's all very well to say that Puppy's primary mission is that of supporting older hardware.....but in a couple of years, even UEFI hardware will have been around for at least a decade. For many, who assiduously upgrade to the very latest, all-singing, all-dancing hardware every couple of years, 10 years old marks something out as being of "dinosaur" status.

It's fair to say that Puppy must work OOTB with brand-new hardware as well as ancient gear. I doubt we've yet seen the last of Puppy installer development.

'Tis a long-running, never-finished saga, methinks.

--------------------------------

As an aside, I've recently had success with Rosa Image Writer. I can't find any actual corroboration - yet! - that it in fact uses dd, but I strongly suspect it does. I used it to successfully install Barry's EasyOS Buster 2.6.2 to a 32GB, USB 3.1/3.2 SanDisk Ultra "Fit" nano thumb drive. EasyOS booted up at the first attempt, and is running very sweetly with a whole bunch of my portable apps.

You can find, read about & download ROSA ImageWriter from HERE. It's definitely worth a look. These are pre-compiled static binaries; be certain to leave them in the wee directory they come in, because of the associated lang-packs.

Seems to work with most Puppies from the last 5-6 years, anyway.

Mike.

[BarryK]

Running Fossapup64 9.5
Used EasyDD to install a Fossapup64 9.5 iso to a USB drive.
When finished, the drive is formatted iso9660, which is a closed format.
So no way to store save, on the USB drive.
Plus the iso install, only uses a small part of the drive space.
The rest of the drive is UN-writable.
It does boot OK.

Any way to change this to use what the format already is on the USB drive?
The USB was one partition, formatted fat32, before using EasyDD.

I just checked, that file at https://bkhome.org/files/easydd.gz is the latest, last updated July 9, 2020.

Yes, as mikewalsh says, EasyDD is just a frontend for the 'dd' utility. An iso file will be copied as-is to the drive.
So if you have a hybrid iso, capable of booting on uefi machines, then that's what it will do. 'dd' doesn't change the iso in any way.

And yes, writing an iso to a drive makes the rest of the drive useless. One (more) reason not to use iso these days, when optical drives are being relegated to history.

EasyOS ships as an image file, with two partitions in it, a 640MB vfat boot partition (good for both old BIOS and modern UEFI) and a second ext4 partition -- the latter is expanded to fill the entire drive at first bootup. So, you have usage of the entire drive. Plus, no need for a save-file, as the ext4 partition is already the "save partition".