1LIVECD-ISO-TO-DISK(8) LiveCD Tools LIVECD-ISO-TO-DISK(8)
2
6 livecd-iso-to-disk - Installs bootable Live images onto USB/SD storage
7 devices.
8
10 livecd-iso-to-disk [--help] [--noverify] [--format] [--msdos]
11 [--reset-mbr] [--efi] [--skipcopy] [--force] [--xo] [--xo-no-home]
12 [--timeout <duration>] [--totaltimeout <duration>] [--nobootmsg]
13 [--nomenu] [--extra-kernel-args <args>] [--multi] [--livedir <dir>]
14 [--compress] [--skipcompress] [--no-overlay] [--overlayfs [temp]]
15 [--overlay-size-mb <size>] [--copy-overlay] [--reset-overlay]
16 [--home-size-mb <size>] [--copy-home] [--delete-home] [--crypted-home]
17 [--unencrypted-home] [--swap-size-mb <size>] [--updates <updates.img>]
18 [--ks <kickstart>] [--label <label>] <source> <target device>
19 Simplest
21 The script may be run in simplest form with just the two arguments:
23 livecd-iso-to-disk <source> <target device>
25 To execute the script to completion, you will need to run it with root
27 user permissions. SYSLINUX must be installed on the computer running
28 this script.
29 <source>
31 This may be the filesystem path to a LiveOS .iso image file, such
32 as from a CD-ROM, DVD, or download. It could also be the device
33 node reference, the LiveOS-containing directory path, or the mount
34 point for another LiveOS filesystem. Entering 'live' for the
35 <source> will source the currently booted LiveOS device.
36 <target device>
38 This should be, or a link to, the device partition path for the
39 attached, target device, such as /dev/sdc1. (Issue the df -Th
40 command to get a listing of mounted partitions, so you can confirm
41 the filesystem types, available space, and device names.) Be
42 careful to specify the correct device, or you may overwrite
43 important data on another disk! For a multi boot installation to
44 the currently booted device, enter 'live' as the target.
45
47 livecd-iso-to-disk installs a Live CD/DVD/USB image (LiveOS) onto a
48 USB/SD storage device (or any storage partition that will boot with a
49 SYSLINUX bootloader). The target storage device can then boot the
50 installed operating system on systems that support booting via the USB
51 or the SD interface. The script requires a LiveOS source image and a
52 target storage device. A loop device backed by a file may also be
53 targeted for virtual block device installation. The source image may
54 be either a LiveOS .iso file, or another reference to a LiveOS image,
55 such as the device node for an attached device installed with a LiveOS
56 image, its mount point, a loop device backed by a file containing an
57 installed LiveOS image, or even the currently-running LiveOS image. A
58 pre-sized overlay file for persisting root filesystem changes may be
59 included with the installed image.
60 Unless you request the --format option, installing an image does not
62 destroy data outside of the LiveOS, syslinux, & EFI directories on your
63 target device. This allows one to maintain other files on the target
64 disk outside of the LiveOS filesystem.
65 Multi image installations may be invoked interactively if the target
67 device already contains a LiveOS image.
68 LiveOS images employ embedded filesystems through the Device-mapper
70 component of the Linux kernel. The filesystems are embedded within
71 files in the /LiveOS/ directory of the storage device. The
72 /LiveOS/squashfs.img file is the default, compressed filesystem
73 containing one directory and the file /LiveOS/rootfs.img that contains
74 the root filesystem for the distribution. These are read-only
75 filesystems that are usually fixed in size to within a few GiB of the
76 size of the full root filesystem at build time. At boot time, a
77 Device-mapper snapshot with a sparse 32 GiB, in-memory, read-write
78 overlay is created for the root filesystem. Optionally, one may
79 specify a fixed-size, persistent on disk overlay to hold changes to the
80 root filesystem. The build-time size of the root filesystem will limit
81 the maximum size of the working root filesystem--even if supplied with
82 an overlay file larger than the apparent free space on the root
83 filesystem. *Note well* that deletion of any original files in the
84 read-only root filesystem does not recover any storage space on your
85 LiveOS device. Storage in the persistent /LiveOS/overlay-<device_id>
86 file is allocated as needed. If the overlay storage space is filled,
87 the overlay will enter an 'Overflow' state where the root filesystem
88 will continue to operate in a read-only mode. There will not be an
89 explicit warning or signal when this happens, but applications may
90 begin to report errors due to this restriction. If significant changes
91 or updates to the root filesystem are to be made, carefully watch the
92 fraction of space allocated in the overlay by issuing the 'dmsetup
93 status' command at a command line of the running LiveOS image. Some
94 consumption of root filesystem and overlay space can be avoided by
95 specifying a persistent home filesystem for user files, which will be
96 saved in a fixed-size /LiveOS/home.img file. This filesystem is
97 encrypted by default. (One may bypass encryption with the
98 --unencrypted-home option.) This filesystem is mounted on the /home
99 directory of the root filesystem. When its storage space is filled,
100 out-of-space warnings will be issued by the operating system.
101
103 --help|-h|-?
104 Displays usage information and exits.
105 --noverify
107 Disables the image validation process that occurs before the image
108 is copied from the original Live CD .iso image. When this option
109 is specified, the image is not verified before it is copied onto
110 the target storage device.
111 --format
113 Formats the target device and creates an MS-DOS partition table (or
114 GUID partition table, if the --efi option is passed).
115 --msdos
117 Forces format to use the msdos (vfat) filesystem instead of ext4.
118 --reset-mbr|--resetmbr
120 Sets the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the target storage device to
121 the mbr.bin file from the installation system's syslinux directory.
122 This may be helpful in recovering a damaged or corrupted device.
123 --efi|--mactel
125 Creates a GUID partition table when --format is passed, and
126 installs a hybrid Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)/MBR
127 bootloader on the disk. This is necessary for most Intel Macs.
128 --skipcopy
130 Skips the copying of the live image to the target device, bypassing
131 the action of the --format, --overlay-size-mb, --copy-overlay,
132 --home-size-mb, --copy-home, & --swap-size-mb options, if present
133 on the command line. (The --skipcopy option may be used while
134 testing the script, in order to avoid repeated and lengthy copy
135 commands, or with --reset-mbr to repair the boot configuration
136 files on a previously installed LiveOS device.)
137 --force
139 This option allows the installation script to bypass a delete
140 confirmation dialog in the event that a pre-existing LiveOS
141 directory is found on the target device.
142 --xo
144 Used to prepare an image for the OLPC XO-1 laptop with its
145 compressed, JFFS2 filesystem. Do not use the following options
146 with --xo:
147 --overlay-size-mb <size>, home-size-mb <size>, --delete-home,
149 --compress
150 --xo-no-home
152 Used together with the --xo option to prepare an image for an OLPC
153 XO laptop with the home directory on an SD card instead of the
154 internal flash storage.
155 --timeout <duration>
157 Modifies the bootloader's timeout value, which indicates how long
158 to pause at the boot prompt before booting automatically. This
159 overrides the value set during iso creation.
160 For SYSLINUX, a timeout unit is 1/10 second; the timeout is
162 canceled when any key is pressed (the assumption being that the
163 user will complete the command line); and a timeout of zero
164 will disable the timeout completely.
165 For EFI GRUB, the timeout unit is 1 second; timeout specifies
167 the time to wait for keyboard input before booting the default
168 menu entry. A timeout of '0' means to boot the default entry
169 immediately without displaying the menu; and a timeout of '-1'
170 means to wait indefinitely.
171 Enter a desired timeout value in 1/10 second units (or '-1') and
173 the appropriate value will be supplied to the configuration file.
174 For immediate booting, enter '-0' to avoid the ambiguity between
175 systems. An entry of '-0' will result in an SYSLINUX setting of
176 timeout 1 and totaltimeout 1. '0' or '-1' will result in an
177 SYSLINUX setting of '0' (disable timeout, that is, wait
178 indefinitely), but '0' for EFI GRUB will mean immediate boot of the
179 default, while '-1' will mean EFI GRUB waits indefinitely for a
180 user selection.
181 --totaltimeout <duration>
183 Adds a SYSLINUX bootloader totaltimeout, which indicates how long
184 to wait before booting automatically. This is used to force an
185 automatic boot. This timeout cannot be canceled by the user.
186 Units are 1/10 s. A totaltimeout of zero will disable the timeout
187 completely. (This setting is not available in EFI GRUB.)
188 --nobootmsg
190 Do not display boot.msg, usually, \"Press the <ENTER> key to begin
191 the installation process.\"
192 --nomenu
194 Skip the boot menu, and automatically boot the 'linux' label item.
195 --extra-kernel-args <args>
197 Specifies additional kernel arguments, <args>, that will be
198 inserted into the syslinux and EFI boot configurations. Multiple
199 arguments should be specified in one string, i.e.,
200 --extra-kernel-args "arg1 arg2 ..."
201 --multi
203 Signals the boot configuration to accommodate multiple images on
204 the target device. Image and boot files will be installed under
205 the --livedir <directory>. SYSLINUX boot components from the
206 installation host will always update those in the boot path of the
207 target device.
208 --livedir <dir>
210 Designates the directory for installing the LiveOS image. The
211 default is /LiveOS.
212 --compress (default state for the original root filesystem)
214 The default, compressed SquashFS filesystem image is copied on
215 installation. (This option has no effect if the source filesystem
216 is already expanded.)
217 --skipcompress (default option when --xo is specified)
219 Expands the source SquashFS.img on installation into the read-only
220 /LiveOS/rootfs.img root filesystem image file. This avoids the
221 system overhead of decompression during use at the expense of
222 storage space and bus I/O.
223 --no-overlay (effective only with --skipcompress or an uncompressed
225 image)
226 Installs a kernel option, rd.live.overlay=none, that signals the
227 live boot process to create a writable, linear Device-mapper target
228 for an uncompressed /LiveOS/rootfs.img filesystem image file.
229 Read-write by default (unless a kernel argument of
230 rd.live.overlay.readonly is given) this configuration avoids the
231 complications of using an overlay of fixed size for persistence
232 when storage format and space allows.
233 --overlayfs [temp] (add --overlay-size-mb for persistence on vfat
235 devices)
236 Specifies the creation of an OverlayFS type overlay. If the option
237 is followed by 'temp', a temporary overlay will be used. On vfat
238 or msdos formatted devices, --overlay-size-mb <size> must also be
239 provided for a persistent overlay. OverlayFS overlays are
240 directories of the files that have changed on the read-only root
241 filesystem. With non-vfat-formatted devices, the OverlayFS can
242 extend the available root filesystem space up to the capacity of
243 the Live USB device.
244 The --overlayfs option requires an initial boot image based on
246 dracut version 045 or greater to use the OverlayFS feature.
247 Lacking this, the device boots with a temporary Device-mapper
248 overlay.
249 --overlay-size-mb <size>
251 Specifies creation of a filesystem overlay of <size> mebibytes
252 (integer values only). The overlay makes persistent storage
253 available to the live operating system, if the operating system
254 supports it. The overlay holds a snapshot of changes to the root
255 filesystem. *Note well* that deletion of any original files in the
256 read-only root filesystem does not recover any storage space on
257 your LiveOS device. Storage in the persistent
258 /LiveOS/overlay-<device_id> file is allocated as needed. If the
259 overlay storage space is filled, the overlay will enter an
260 'Overflow' state where the root filesystem will continue to operate
261 in a read-only mode. There will not be an explicit warning or
262 signal when this happens, but applications may begin to report
263 errors due to the restriction. If significant changes or updates
264 to the root filesystem are to be made, carefully watch the fraction
265 of space allocated in the overlay by issuing the 'dmsetup status'
266 command at a command line of the running LiveOS image. Some
267 consumption of root filesystem and overlay space can be avoided by
268 specifying a persistent home filesystem for user files, see
269 --home-size-mb below. The target storage device must have enough
270 free space for the image and the overlay. A maximum <size> of 4095
271 MiB is permitted for vfat-formatted devices. If there is not
272 enough room on your device, you will be given information to help
273 in adjusting your settings.
274 --copy-overlay
276 This option allows one to copy the persistent overlay from one live
277 image to the new image. Changes already made in the source image
278 will be propagated to the new installation.
279 WARNING: User sensitive information such as password cookies
281 and application or user data will be copied to the new image!
282 Scrub this information before using this option.
283 --reset-overlay
285 This option will reset the persistent overlay to an unallocated
286 state. This might be used if installing a new or refreshed image
287 onto a device with an existing overlay, and avoids the writing of a
288 large file on a vfat-formatted device. This option also renames
289 the overlay to match the current device filesystem label and UUID.
290 --home-size-mb <size>
292 Specifies creation of a home filesystem of <size> mebibytes
293 (integer values only). A persistent home directory will be stored
294 in the /LiveOS/home.img filesystem image file. This filesystem is
295 encrypted by default and not compressed (one may bypass encryption
296 with the --unencrypted-home option). When the home filesystem
297 storage space is full, one will get out-of-space warnings from the
298 operating system. The target storage device must have enough free
299 space for the image, any overlay, and the home filesystem. Note
300 that the --delete-home option must also be selected to replace an
301 existing persistent home with a new, empty one. A maximum <size>
302 of 4095 MiB is permitted for vfat-formatted devices. If there is
303 not enough room on your device, you will be given information to
304 help in adjusting your settings.
305 --copy-home
307 This option allows one to copy a persistent home.img filesystem
308 from the source LiveOS image to the target image. Changes already
309 made in the source home directory will be propagated to the new
310 image.
311 WARNING: User-sensitive information, such as password cookies
313 and user and application data, will be copied to the new image!
314 Scrub this information before using this option.
315 --delete-home
317 One must explicitly select this option in the case where there is
318 an existing persistent home filesystem on the target device and the
319 --home-size-mb <size> option is selected to create an empty, new
320 home filesystem. This prevents unwitting deletion of user files.
321 --crypted-home (default that only applies to new home-size-mb
323 requests)
324 Specifies the default option to encrypt a new persistent home
325 filesystem when --home-size-mb <size> is specified.
326 --unencrypted-home
328 Prevents the default option to encrypt a new persistent home
329 directory filesystem.
330 --swap-size-mb <size>
332 Sets up a swap file of <size> mebibytes (integer values only) on
333 the target device. A maximum <size> of 4095 MiB is permitted for
334 vfat-formatted devices.
335 --updates <updates.img>
337 Setup a kernel command line argument, inst.updates, to point to an
338 updates image on the device. Used by Anaconda for testing updates
339 to an iso without needing to make a new iso. <updates.img> should
340 be a path accessible to this script, which will be copied to the
341 target device.
342 --ks <kickstart>
344 Setup inst.ks to point to an kickstart file on the device. Use this
345 for automating package installs on boot. <kickstart> should be a
346 path accessible to this script, which will be copied to the target
347 device.
348 --label <label>
350 Specifies a specific filesystem label instead of default LIVE.
351 Useful when you do unattended installs that pass a label to inst.ks
352
354 David Zeuthen, Jeremy Katz, Douglas McClendon, Chris Curran and other
355 contributors. See the AUTHORS file in the source distribution for the
356 complete list of credits.
357
359 Report bugs to the mailing list
360 "http://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/livecd" or directly to
361 Bugzilla "http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/" against the "Fedora"
362 product, and the "livecd-tools" component.
363
365 Copyright 2008-2010, 2017, Fedora Project and various contributors.
366 This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the
367 terms of the GNU General Public License
368 "http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html". There is NO WARRANTY, to the
369 extent permitted by law.
370
372 "livecd-creator(1)", project website
373 "http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD"
374livecd-tools 28.3 2021-08-23 LIVECD-ISO-TO-DISK(8)