[Bug 1221356] Re: hd-media installer rejects official raring ISO

[Nathan Dorfman]

It turns out that there's an even better way to install all versions of
Ubuntu, including 13.10, using a USB stick. It's easy, doesn't affect
any existing files on the USB drive, and offers maximum flexibility at
boot using grub. In my opinion it should be the first and foremost
recommended installation method. Here's what I just did to install saucy
on my previous raring machine:

1. Run the following command as root. This will install the bootloader
and create a /boot/grub directory on the drive, but won't touch any
other files. Very little space is required.

    grub-install --no-floppy --boot-
directory=/media/$USER/$DISK_NAME/boot /dev/$DISK_DEVICE

2. Copy the Ubuntu installation ISO to a location of your choice on the
USB drive, for instance /isos. If you want to be able to boot other
versions of Ubuntu from the same drive, copy the corresponding ISOs as
well.

3. Create a /boot/grub/grub.cfg file on the drive, containing a
menuentry like the following for each ISO you want to boot:

    set timeout=10
    set default=0

    menuentry "Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy amd64" {
        set iso=/isos/ubuntu-13.10-desktop-amd64.iso
        loopback loop $iso
        linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$iso splash --
        initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
   }

(If you have only one menuentry, you may want to set the timeout to 1-3
or even 0.)

That's it, you can now boot from the USB stick. This was much cleaner
than the usb-creator-gtk tool, which unpacked the ISO into the USB
drive's root directory. It also segfaulted about 5 times before
successfully completing, while this method worked on the first attempt
:)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1221356

Title:
  hd-media installer rejects official raring ISO

Status in “installation-guide” package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  Following the Ubuntu 13.04 Installation Guide's USB install
  instructions for amd64 at https://help.ubuntu.com/13.04/installation-
  guide/amd64/ch04s03.html#usb-copy-flexible doesn't work, it seems. I
  guess not many people are using the hd-media + ISO install method? The
  ISO is located and mounted successfully, then rejected due to missing
  items in the Packages file.

  What I did:

  1) Downloaded vmlinuz and initrd.gz to a USB drive from
  http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/raring/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/

  2) Set up syslinux to boot those two

  3) Downloaded to the same flash drive ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso

  4) Booted from the flash drive.

  After the ISO is located and mounted, the installer errors out and is
  unable to proceed. The log says:

  Sep  2 17:24:55 iso-scan: ISOS_FOUND='[sdf1]
  /isos/ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso (raring - 13.04)'
  Sep  2 17:24:55 iso-scan: Selected ISO:
  /isos/ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso on /dev/sdf1
  Sep  2 17:24:55 kernel: [   50.033763] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft
  Joliet Level 3
  Sep  2 17:24:55 kernel: [   50.036768] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
  Sep  2 17:24:55 iso-scan: Detected ISO with 'raring' (raring) distribution
  Sep  2 17:24:55 iso-scan: Detected ISO with distribution 'raring' (raring)
  Sep  2 17:24:55 anna-install: Queueing udeb apt-mirror-setup for later
  installation
  Sep  2 17:24:55 anna-install: Queueing udeb apt-cdrom-setup for later
  installation
  Sep  2 17:24:55 anna-install: Queueing udeb raring-support for later
  installation
  Sep  2 17:24:55 main-menu[423]: (process:1616): libkmod:
  kmod_lookup_alias_from_builtin_file: could not open builtin file
  '/lib/modules/3.8.0-19-generic/modules.builtin.bin'
  Sep  2 17:24:55 main-menu[423]: (process:1616): [sdf1]
  isos/ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso (raring - 13.04)
  Sep  2 17:24:55 main-menu[423]: DEBUG: resolver (libc6-udeb): package
  doesn't exist (ignored)
  Sep  2 17:24:55 main-menu[423]: INFO: Menu item 'load-iso' selected
  Sep  2 17:24:55 cdrom-retriever: warning: Unable to find
  main/debian-installer/binary-amd64/Packages in
  /cdrom/dists/raring/Release.
  Sep  2 17:24:55 cdrom-retriever: warning: Unable to find
  main/debian-installer/binary-amd64/Packages.gz in
  /cdrom/dists/raring/Release.
  Sep  2 17:24:55 cdrom-retriever: warning: Unable to find
  restricted/debian-installer/binary-amd64/Packages in
  /cdrom/dists/raring/Release.
  Sep  2 17:24:55 cdrom-retriever: warning: Unable to find
  restricted/debian-installer/binary-amd64/Packages.gz in
  /cdrom/dists/raring/Release.
  Sep  2 17:25:00 anna[3819]: WARNING **: bad d-i Packages file
  Sep  2 17:25:00 main-menu[423]: INFO: Menu item 'load-iso' succeeded
  but requested to be left unconfigured.

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