16.1. Creating Network Installation Boot Media for Fedora Linux

Problem

Fedora Linux has gotten huge! Downloading the ISOs requires five CDs or a single DVD. BitTorrent or no, this is a huge download, and even the most compact installation requires packages from multiple disks. Can't you just install a minimal boot image on a CD or a USB stick, and then have the installer fetch the rest from a Fedora mirror?

Solution

You can indeed, and in fact have always been able to; however, it has not been well-publicized, so not many users know about it. You can copy a minimal boot image either to a CD or USB flash drive, boot the system, select a Fedora mirror, and then perform the installation completely over the Internet.

First, download the CD boot image or the USB media image, which you will find in the os/ directory rather than the iso/ directory of your chosen Fedora download mirror, as this example for Fedora 7 shows:

	ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/7/Fedora/i386/os/images

The CD boot image is boot.iso, and the USB media image is diskboot.img.

Use your favorite CD-writing program, like K3b, to create a boot CD from the .iso image.

Use dd to copy diskboot.img to your USB stick. Warning: this overwrites the whole device. Make sure your USB stick is unmounted first, and then transfer the boot image with this command, using the correct /dev name for your own device:

	# dd if=diskboot.img of=/dev/sdb
	24576+0 records in
	24576+0 records out
	12582912 bytes (13 MB) copied, 3.99045 seconds, 3.2 MB/s

Mount it to verify that the files copied correctly. You should see something like this:

	$ ls /media/disk
	boot.msg     initrd.img   ldlinux.sys  param.msg   splash.jpg   vesamenu.c32
	general.msg  isolinux.bin options.msg  rescue.msg  syslinux.cfg vmlinuz

Booting from removable media is controlled by your system's BIOS. When you try to boot from the CD or USB key, look for a "Press this key to select an alternate boot device" option. If your system does not have this option, you'll have to change boot options in your BIOS settings.

Discussion

Visit the Fedora mirrors page (http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors.html) to find a mirror close to you.

Booting from a USB device is a relatively new-fangled feature, so don't be surprised if some of your PCs don't support it. It doesn't always work even on some systems that say they support booting from USB devices. So, don't make yourself crazy—if it's going to work, it will just work.

How do you know the /dev name of your USB device? Try using the ls command:

	$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/
	[...]
	lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-07-17 12:25 usb-LEXAR_JD_FIREFLY_106A6405142831060606-
	0:0 -> ../../sdb

The lsscsi command should also identify it for you.

If you're wondering about using a 3.5" boot diskette, the answer is no. Fedora does not supply installation images for diskettes anymore because they're too small.

See Also