Installing arch without usb or cd

Hey all,
I'm trying to install arch using only my hd, is this possible?
So far I made a small partition, put the install media on there using dd and tried to boot it using grub(v2).
I however, don't know anything about grub, and I didn't get it to boot, so how do I go about this?
Thanks a lot for your time!

In answer to the thread title (without regards to your post) Two techniques come to mind. Remove the drive, put it on another system, install Arch to the drive on that other system, and move the drive back. The other solution is to use a PXE environment (assuming your system can boot from a network), and set up a DHCP server and a TFTP server on another computer and boot as a thin client.
With regards to your post, how did you get grub and the iso image on to the drive without a usb or cd? Does grub come up at all? Or does the BIOS carp about not having a boot media? Is it a BIOS machine or EFI?

Similar Messages

Installing Arch without a CD Drive Or Bootable USB

Hello I have a "legacy" PC that I would like to install Arch on. I would like to know if it is possible to "Mount" the .iso over my home network that is assigned through static IPs and an ethernet switch.
Then after this would I then be able to share my connection that an XP box on my network is receiving through a Wireless NIC? I looked into network bridging but I have hit a lot of dead ends and sort of gave up on it.
The first question is not all that vital I could just put a CD Drive in it but I want to do it out of curiosity and a little project. The second is sort of Vital as I could then send intranet to my other PC's and install Arch. Thanks for all your help and my previous experience with Arch has been nothing short of amazing.

I used PXE to load arch onto an old toshiba portege, worked a charm and it's not as long winded or difficult as it looks
Good Luck.

Not able to install arch from USB stick.

Hi all
First off I'm trying to install arch into my 8540w hp laptop. I have failed and here I'm seeking for help.
I have downloaded the latest arch iso image and put it into a usb stick for the installation
Here is how i prepared the usb.
tried :
sudo dd bs=4M if=archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdb
to write the iso in to the usb.
I have no success to boot up my 8540w machine (machine stalled on the HP logo)
I went through the wiki and found there some bugs which related to some old firmware (doesn't make any sense)
My laptop relatively new about 2 year old machine bios firmware upgraded a year ago. ( I have no problem to boot with my old Ibm T60)
To rectify the bugs Wiki guided me to:
1. sudo isohybrid.pl -offset 1 archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso
2. sudo dd if=archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdX
I have successfully boot up but the hope soon died
I'm getting these error messages:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
ERROR;Failed to mount 'dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201306"
here a snap shot of entire messages
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Last edited by archlux (2013-06-12 21:52:10)

The filesystem needs to be labeled ARCH_201306. If you dd the iso to the USB, this stays in tact, but it would seem that if you use the method mentioned by the wiki above this filesystem label is not preserved...
Does this machine have UEFI? If so, then you can make a UEFI USB live media and have at it that way. There are instructions on the UEFI wiki page.
FWIW, new and updated firmware does not equate to bug free. I have a Thinkpad E430 that is less than a year old, and the original firmware was not without its bugs. If I have a certain USB stick in the USB 3.0 ports the machine won't get past POST. For a couple bios versions aes-ni was totally borked. There have been other minor issues as well.

How to install Windows without USB or DVD drive on 2009 MacBook

Problem
I have a MacBook Pro mid 2009 fitted with both an HDD and SSD.
Obviously I had to remove the DVD SuperDrive to fit in the HDD into the Optical Bay.
This is awesome big and quick storage, but you can't use it for BootCamp anymore, BootCamp Assistant says. Because it needs the optical drive for installing Windows and it won't accept it via USB.
The good thing is, that you don't need the Bootcamp Assistant for installing Windows.
So:
I have Mac Os:X Mavericks working from my SSD (which I fitted to the HDD bay for increased speed)
The HDD is installed in the former optical drive bay, with one MacOS Ext partition for Mac storage and the other one being NTFS with Windows.
Solution
The solution is a little bit tricky, needs either a virtual Windows machine or a real one and it involves removing and refitting your hard drive, but on an older MacBook Pro like 2009s that originally came with an Optical Drive there is no other way. afaik.
Step 0.5
Backup your Data
Step 1
Partitioning your desired drive
You can do this using Apples Disk Utility if you have installed either Tuxera NTFS or NTFS 3G. Or you do that in step 3 in Windows.
I'd recommend a size of at least 30 GB, Windows 7 alone takes up around 20 GB
Step 2
Remove the hard drive and connect it to a windows machine
Afaik the next step has to happen in Windows with full hardware access. If you want to use a virtual machine i.e. VM Ware or Parallels you need to connect it via USB as an external device, otherwise it won't have full access to the partitions. Obviously you can use a real Windows computer too. Still you're gonna need to remove the drive from your Mac.
Step 3
Re-format and set "active" partition state
Format desired partition with NTFS, quick format works fine. (just in case)
Open your Windows 7 Image (or Disk) and Copy the directories "Boot" and "Sources" as well as "Bootmgr" onto the partition
Make the Partition bootable:
Using Windows XP, Vista, or 7, open CMD as Admin (Windows key + R, type CMD, hit Enter)
Enter the following commands, (replace X with what applies to your hard drive):
diskpart
list disk
select disk X
list partition
select partition X
active
exit
X:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 X:
Exit and shut down
(Source and additional images: http://www.instructables.com/id/Install-Windows-7-without-USB-or-DVD-without-upg ra/)
(If this is somehow possible using Mac Tools, please let us know!)
Step 4
Fit the HDD back into your mac
Just that.
Step 5
Install windows
Start your Mac and immediately press and hold the alt (option) key until you can select the other drive to boot windows.
Install using advanced installation to select the same partition.
Step 6
Clean up
After the installation press cmd + r (in windows) and type and run msconfig
Click to the Boot tab.
Click 'Windows Setup (\windows)', and hit Delete.
Click OK.
Click 'Exit without restart'.
And lastly, delete the ‘Sources’ folder from your hard drive root (this will free up 2-3gb).
Final Step:
Install the Mac drivers (Get the right version here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634 )
Recommendation: Use Winclone Pro to backup your precious installation.
On a footnote: This article was a big help to me: http://www.instructables.com/id/Install-Windows-7-without-USB-or-DVD-without-upg ra/)

Have you tried resetting the PRAM? http://gigaom.com/2011/07/26/when-to-reset-your-macs-pram-and-smc/
Which Windows version are you trying to install? If I remember right, you can't use windows 8 on these older machines.
Other than that it's hard to say what could have gone wrong. I can only suggest going through the steps again carefully and making sure everything worked the way it should.
Have a look at this article too for a slighly more verbose instruction on making a drive bootable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Install-Windows-7-without-USB-or-DVD-without-upg ra/

[Solved]Can I install arch without a swap partition ?

I only have one primary partition free to install arch, with 3 primary partition and 1 extend partition, I have no other choice except install without swap partition.
Is there any suggestion? I will try it until I get a U storage to write .img in.
Last edited by sailor (2009-03-17 00:47:31)

Sure, it's perfectly possible to use any linux system without swap. including arch.
There are 2 ways to do disk partitioning in /arch/setup:
1) autoprepare. with this method, you pick a disk (a disk you want to use entirely). you will be asked some questions (including how big swap should be). this method will create the partitions with the sizes you mention (/boot, swap, / and /home) optionally you can add additional fs'es
2) manual. the installer can launch cfdisk for you if you need to alter partitions (if you want this), and after that you can define pretty much your stuff the way you like it (eg no swap) iirc. i'm not 100% sure though.
Frankly I don't understand why you say "I have no choice", if you don't have enough partitions, you can always create additional ones.

Installing arch without network drivers

I'm trying to use a live cd to install arch on my desktop, however the kernel doesn't have the drivers for my atheros ar8161.
What would be the easiest way to get my network working so that I can install arch?
I don't have any wireless adapters or any other wired adapters, but I do have a laptop and a usb to transfer files.

If you have either experience installing Arch before (the current CLI way) or with the Linux CLI in general, you could always install pacman onto a running system, install the arch boot scripts, and then do it from a working system. It should be pretty much the same (for the most part).
Alternatively, I have been told that it is possible to loop mount the iso and chroot into it, then installing to a partition that is mounted into the chrooted iso. I don't see why this wouldn't work, and then you should be booted from a kernel with the necessary network support.
In either case, if you have no experience installing a system in the fashion that Arch requires, I would wait. (Doing a Gentoo installation probably would be adequate experience, since the process is quite similar)

Install Arch on USB flash drive (partitioning and UEFI)?

I am trying to install Arch on a USB flash drive. However I have few questions... in particular about pratitioning and UEFI.
What partition table should I use? dos or gpt? and from this... what partitioning tool should I use? (cfdisk, parted, gdisk... etc)?
Also... I am going to be using this USB flash drive with a new computer that has a UEFI BIOS. Should I do anything different because of this? (Have a different boot flag?)

I think you need to read up on UEFI. Depending on what partitioner you use the boot flag can mean something entirely different.
MBR(dos) or GPT is a personal preference, so asking that is like asking someone else what your favorite soap should be. There is one exception though. I have heard of some systems that have firmware bugs that won't allow GPT/bios and some that won't allow MBR/UEFI. There are also some machines that won't do a damn thing if they aren't MBR partitioned, but those all tend to not be UEFI.
As far as the tool to use, if you want to use GPT then use gdisk and friends, of you want to use MBR(dos) use fdisk and friends. Or you can learn how to use parted, which can apparently handle both. But, for example gdisk offers a number of different tools that can all achieve the same thing. Again, it is like asking someone else if you should prefer boxers or briefs...

Installing Arch without wipe of primary partition?

Hello,
Basically I used to run arch on my old system and I'd like to run it on my upgraded system, but I have no way of backing up my files, so I was wondering if I could install arch on a secondary hard drive instead of wiping my main SSD. Is there any way I could do this, I'd really like to keep all my files, if I installed grub on the secondary hard drive and got my PC to boot to that on start, would that work?
Thank You

Srgg wrote:
ANOKNUSA wrote:As with any Linux distribution, Arch will be installed to whatever disk you choose to install it to. Frankly, though, if your data is at all valuable to you, you shouldn't put it at risk until you're able to make a backup.
Okay, I'm going to put off the Arch Install until I have a method of backing up my data, let's say I ran it in a Virtual Machine, what would I be losing that I'd get from native Arch? The only thing I can think of at the moment is the OS won't be utilizing my hardware completely.
OpenGL is the biggest loss I can think of. If you use GNOME 3 you'll likely be forced to use llvmpipe to render all the fancy desktop effects (llvmpipe renders over your CPU so you'll notice a very high CPU load and worse graphical performance.) You may be able to mitigate some of this if you use VirtualBox or VMWare as IIRC they have experimental hardware acceleration via specially crafted video driver that can pass the OpenGL commands to the host GPU. Qemu/KVM has no such love (yet.)
Of course none of this matters if you run a DE/WM that allows you to disable compositioning (even KDE allows you to disable compositioning so you won't have to llvmpipe.) The rest of the Arch system should run about the same in a VM as it does on bare metal. There may be a small performance penalty from the virtualization overhead but from my experience it's not noticeable and most people achieve near native performance.

Installing Arch with USB

My laptop currently does not have a disk drive and I want to install Arch Linux as a dual-boot with Ubuntu 12.04. Do I just copy the Arch iso to a thumbdrive and get my computer to boot from the thumbdrive? When I do this a get a "Boot error."

Please read through the Beginner's Guide: it includes detailed instructions on how to do this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … _USB_stick

Is there any way to install OS without USB Cable?

Is there any way to install coroupted OS of z10 with USB cable? Actually my phones USB point is not working and OS is coroupted. IS THERE ANY WAY TO REINSTALL IT?

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[SOLVED] Installing Arch on usb stick - login to emergency mode only

I have checked fstbe which is correct
block is in HOOKS line. Also added ext4 to MODULES
not but not least, i have used that usb for live distros and full installs. also portioned with gparted
most attractive errors in log are
kvm disabled in bios (i am installing only 32 bit version, booted to 32bit)
can not execute plymouth
any ideas
thanks in advance
Last edited by Archhotep (2013-03-25 13:19:28)

WonderWoofy wrote:
Archhotep wrote:
Trilby wrote:It will continue working until you change what usb's are plugged in again. If you want a real solution use UUID in fstab.
I understand that. but both UUIDs and devices (/dev/sdX) are there in fstab if I am correct. I will check that in evening. if so did i make a mistake in generating fstab.
I have generated fstab with
genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab (does this happens if i forget -p).
as I have done this multiple times, I might have done some thing wrong. I will edit that file manually and removed /dev/sdx entries from that
Honestly, you are not very good at sharing what is actually in your configs. So as Trilby said above, no one really knows what is in your fstab, since you have not actually shared that with this thread.
As far as I can tell, when I run "genfstab -p /" on my running machine, letting the output just be dumped to stdout, it doesn't give me UUIDs anywhere. And from your statement it seems you haven't even actually checked.
What I have done in the past is used labels. For example if you are using ext2, ext3, or ext4, you could assign a label using "e2label". So lets say you label your rootfs (/) "usb_root". Now instead of using the unreliable /dev/sdXY format, you can use LABEL=usb_root in your fstab, and in the bootloader you can use root=LABEL=usb_root (or root=/dev/disk/by-label/usb_root).
I would also like to mention that this quote sucks:
Archhotep wrote:No. UUIDs are there in the boot loader (I think) and grub was working fine and why the system is trying to boot at first place.
There are a number of people who are patiently trying to walk you through this issue (with quite a bit more hand holding that usually takes place around here), and you don't have the decency/appreciation to even take the time to confirm what you are actually using in the configs that everyone is telling you to check and/or change.
Sir,
I was a standard linux (i mean ubuntu etc) user until sometime back. I don't know exactly what should be there in /etc/fstab. I also do not know what information you might need to help me. If any one asked me the details about /etc/fstab etc might have provided. I have given what info what I felt was appropriate and enough. I do not have that machine with me when I was posting lat post, otherwise I might have posted. that laptop is at home. I already said thanks in my third post immediately after I solve the problem.
Sorry if I am wrong, and thatnk you once again for letting me about labels.
If I still have a question about /etc/fstab, i will post my fstab.
I don't know where to look to know that my boot loader is using uuid or dev. It would be great help.
Last edited by Archhotep (2013-03-25 16:06:11)

[SOLVED] BIOS not detecting USB Drives after i installed Arch

SOLVED: In BIOS under 'Advanced' disable 'Fast BIOS Mode'.
Original post:
Hi there!
I'm fairly new to the arch (and linux) scene and just setup my Samsung 530U3B with a brand new installation of arch. Everything went fine and the system is running flawlessly. Almost.
I just happend to notice that BIOS is not checking for USB drives anymore, it just somehow skips that part. If enter the boot selection, the bootable USB drive won't show up. Neither does it show up in BIOS setup. I tried to boot with the same USB drive that i used to install arch just yesterday, the live media does not boot - the drive doesn't even blink. The boot priority is set to usb drive first, the boot selection screen (hammering f10 during boot) doesn't give me any other option than to boot from the normal SSD. Also, prior to the arch installation (came with w7 installed) the BIOS screen would stay for about 2seconds and then proceed to boot - this doesn't happen anymore. When i press the power button greeted by the grub bootloader in about 1s.
I tried 2 different usb drives, both with the arch iso (same that i used to install the currently running OS, downloaded yesterday). The drives also show up once my arch is booted (starting to blink just after i hit enter in grub). Also, both drives boot without a problem on my desktop computer.
Anyone got any ideas?
I don't really now what kinda of information would be helpful so i'm just dumping stuff i know:
BIOS: Phoenix SecureCore Tiano Version 04XK
Machine: Samsung 530U3B
SSD: Samsung MZ7PC128HAFU-000
ISO used to install (checksum ok): archlinux-2012.07.15-netinstall-dual.iso
Last edited by araex (2012-07-26 16:57:47)

DSpider wrote:
The boot priority is set to usb drive first
Welcome to the forum.
If you just set the USB stick to be first in the boot order, the next option (from the list) takes its place the moment you unplug it. You need to set the BIOS to boot from your equivalent of "Removable Devices" first, "Internal Drives" second and "Optical Drives" third.
The USB stick doesn't show up at all. I set the priority as follows:
1. USB HDD
2. USB FDD
3. USB CD
4. SATA CD
5. SATA HDD
6. NETWORK
I used that same configuration to install arch. USB doesn't seem to initialize at all. Also, if i enter "usb" in the grub commandline, no devices are listed.
Thanks!
UPDATE:
I just figured it out. In my BIOS under 'Advanced' the 'Fast BIOS Mode' was enabled, once i disabled it, everything went fine. I don't remember changing that option. Silly me.
Sorry for your time
Last edited by araex (2012-07-26 16:56:30)

Unable to install grub to usb hdd

Hello everybody. For 3 whole days I have been searching and trying to make this work but I am unable so, as my last resort, maybe someon here can give me a hand. I am trying to install arch to and old 30G ipod classic in order to use it as a portable USB bootable hard drive. I have followed all the instructions for a default installationa dn read the "Install Arch to USB" wiki. I have installed grub to the hdd with:
grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck --debug /dev/sdc
Where sdc is my ipod drive. Everything seems fine during the installation. ***I have also tried many alternatives of the above command (using --allow-floppy, --no-floppy, --root-directory) without success. All the installation is fine but I am unable to boot it. When I boot up, I select USB in my bios settings, to boot the usb and after a few seconds, I get a black screen with
GRUB _
and a blinking cursor.
I have also tried installing syslinux but it's the same result (except I do not get the "GRUB" message, just a black screen and a blinking cursor". I any one has done this before or has any idea on how to make this work it would be immensely appreciated.
Thank you

DSpider wrote:
iPod? Huh?? Then you should probably specify this in the title.
Maybe the BIOS isn't set to boot from your equivalent of "Removable Dev." first, "CD-ROM" second and "Internal Storage" third, after which you need to adjust the boot priority order.
Blank screen with blinking cursor means that you either installed to a partition instead of the whole drive (i.e. to "/dev/sdc1" instead of the MBR), or you didn't generate a grub.cfg.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Guide#GRUB
And don't forget to add the "usb" hook:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … nvironment
Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if you use RAID, LVM, or if /usr is on a separate partition.
Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf as needed and re-generate the initramfs image with:
# mkinitcpio -p linux
Another thing you should worry about, is that the drive is probably not that fast. It was designed for music and such (e.g. power saving by placing the files in cache, etc). It could drain the battery in mere minutes.
I have already done all the things you mentioned. My bios boots the usb device as asked, I am sure of that. Grub was installed on the MBR not the partition. I have a grub.cfg file (generated automatically). I also already added usb to me hooks along with encrypt and lvm2 for my encrypted partition and regenerated the kernel image with mkinitcpio.
I have good experience installing arch. I already installed my laptop arch with the same setup, a boot partition and a second partition, luks encrypted with two logical volumes, root and home and everything works perfectly.
I have quickly read somewhere (can't remember where), that some bioses, when specified to boot from usb, do not look at the usb device's mbr. Is that true?
PS: thanks for answering guys, it would really help me to resolve this problem. If i do, I want to install linux on other usb hard drives, not only the ipod.
Also, multumesc domnul "DSpider" pentru raspuns.
Last edited by freed_hum (2012-11-06 15:59:44)

How to install arch 2009.08 from hard drive? Please enlighten me

OK, I admit I am impatient for the installation from the CD drive. Whenever possible and whatever distro I wanna try, I head first to try to install it from the hard drive. I don't remember how many times and how many distros I have done the same to, ubuntu, zenwalk, sidux, fedora, opensuse and of course arch. It rarely failed as long as I followed someone's guide, sth like "install any OS from hard drive", I do not exactly remember. And I did the same in the past with arch. But after 2009.08, it simply didn't work. I've read the article "fast install arch from existing linux system" in the wiki, it didn't work either (by the way, if someone can solve my problem, I think the article should be updated). After it boots, at some stage, it says "Use Hook [archiso]", then tell me "waiting for /dev/archiso for 30 seconds ..." then when the time due, it throws me into a ramfs shell. I've hacked for a long time, but no luck. Then I went back to download the 2009.02 iso, however, it works flawlessly.
I did find some differences in the menu.lst/isolinux.cfg between two version.
In 2009.02, we have
title Boot Arch Linux Live CD
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 usbdelay=5 ramdisk_size=75%
initrd /boot/archiso_pata.img
While in 2009.08, it is
title Boot Arch Linux Live CD
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 archisolabel=ARCHISO_AHCOHH6O ramdisk_size=75%
initrd /boot/archiso_pata.img
I know I can install arch from usb, but I simply wanna know what's wrong here, so guys, if you have any idea, don't hesitate to enlighten me.

Hi, vacant, thanks for the reply. I did not notice you are the author of the article. Actually I missed the head of the article which directs me to another (the amalgamated one you mentioned). I take a look at it, it seems to make things complicated. I still miss the old days: you simply download the iso, mount it and copy all the contents into a separate partition, edit your current grub, then reboot and everything works. I don't understand how Arch could be so evolved to exclude this simple installation scheme. I am not complaining the development of Arch. In my opinion, a distro as flexible as Arch should provide as much installation strategy as possible. In this respect, I think we can learn from Ubuntu or sidux (in sidux, it provides a very convenient kernel parameter called "fromiso" which allows you to install sidux from the plain iso, that means, you even don't have to mount it and copy the contents out of it to a separate partition).
Last edited by plmday (2009-10-25 06:25:44)

Floppy drive install to portable USB HDD & Floppy to boot from

title pretty much says it all. I have a resonably old computer that cant boot off of usb. and i want to install it to a usb hdd. I dont have a cd drive so i will have to use the floppy network install (i did this before). This is the only distro that I know of that has a floppy install. i have searched but the wiki search brings up like 500 results that are irrelevant. so in short this is what i need:
a floppy to be able to boot from a usb hdd
a guide that can show me how to install from a network install floppy setup to a usb hdd
if i remember correctly, the floppy network install is much much different than the cd install.

dont know if it will be able to install to usb but
image can be found here
ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux … ux/images/
floppy install
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Off … py_Install
may be you can install arch to usb via a different pc move usb to desired machine boot floppy.img chroot run grub/lilo onto another floppy disk
please update us on your progress
good luck

Installing arch without usb or cd

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