[lubuntu-devel] mkusb: new features in version 11.03
Nio Wiklund
nio.wiklund at gmail.com
Thu Sep 15 08:04:23 UTC 2016
Hi Lubuntu users,
Recently I made some changes to mkusb and mkusb-nox. They are available
in version 11.0.3.
*1 - usb-pack-efi*
The usb-pack-efi is detached for the mkusb package, and should be
installed separately from the PPA. The reason is that we hope to get
mkusb into a standard Debian (or maybe Ubuntu) repository, and then
there should be only scripts or executables with source code.
This usb-pack-efi was originally published by Andre Rodovalho, and it is
very useful in order to boot live and persistent live systems in UEFI
mode. I re-packaged it and use it to create persistent live drives that
can boot in both UEFI and BIOS mode even with 32-bit kernels.
*2 - 'Download and install automatically' --> 'Display immediately'*
Automatic upgrades can cause severe problems in live and persistent live
systems, and this feature helps the end user avoid those problems. The
security upgrade action can be modified (the default action of the
persistent live system when security upgrades are available). It works
for Ubuntu family operating systems and some 're-spins'. The default
setting for security upgrades is changed
- from 'Display immediately' in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
- to 'Download and install automatically' in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and newer
versions
Fortunately Lubuntu is not affected, but I think all the other flavours
of Ubuntu are affected.
*3 - 'flash cards' seen as /dev/mmcblk0 /dev/mmcblk1 etc*
There is a fix to manage 'flash cards' seen as /dev/mmcblk0,
/dev/mmcblk1, ... by built-in card readers in laptops.
flash cards are displayed among USB drives (while [s]ata drives are
considered more important to protect from overwriting by mistake - you
must toggle 'usb-only' to see also the ata drives.
I think we have a rather stable mkusb-nox now.
I am testing mkusb right now. The new version seems to work, but there
are many places in the code, that needed tweaking, and we might find bugs.
*So please test at least mkusb, maybe also mkusb-nox*
It should work to
- create standard live drives,
- persistent live drives,
- installed systems from compressed images and
- wipe drives and create different partition tables.
I uploaded mkusb and mkusb-nox to Phill's server. You can get both files
manually, and also get them installed into the correct places for normal
usage. See the following link,
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/gui#from_phillw.net
-----
Download the shell-script file 'mkusb-installer' with the browser or do
it directly from a terminal window with
wget http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/mkusb/mkusb-installer
and run it from a terminal window with
bash mkusb-installer
...
[sudo] password:
...
Install via ppa or wget, uninstall or quit? (p/w/u/Q) w
...
-----
The next step would be to upload it to the unstable PPA, and after weeks
of testing to the stable PPA.
*Result from my tests so far*
1. mkusb works for me with and without usb-pack-efi. Use it if you find
it useful, for example if you want a pendrive, that can boot in [almost]
all computers - 32-bit, 64-bit, BIOS, UEFI. But if you must boot in
secure mode, you need the boot system available in the 64-bit iso file,
and should not use usb-pack-efi. (There is a dialogue to select it when
the usb-pack-efi package is installed.)
2. I have tested overnight with and without changing 'Download and
install automatically' --> 'Display immediately', and it works for me.
It works only in persistent live drives, (and it is not necessary in
Lubuntu).
3. I was able to boot my Intel NUC from a persistent live micro SD card
(in an SD adapter) from the built-in slot. The card is recognized as
/dev/mmcblk0. See the attached text file with a terminal window dialogue.
Although I had created the drive when in the corresponding built-in slot
in a Lenovo X131e, I could not boot it from there (in that computer).
However, I could boot it in that computer, and in other computers, when
connected via USB, built-in as in my Toshiba or via an adapter. (Also
USB 3 adapters work and I can reach 60 MB/s read and write speed with
the right kind of card.)
Now it will also be easier and safer to install operating systems for
Raspberry Pi and other small devices, that boot from flash cards :-)
-o-
I have tried to test and debug all actions by mkusb and mkusb-nox, and
now I need your help to find new bugs. So when you have time, please
test version 11.0.3 of mkusb and mkusb-nox, and report your result. Both
good and bad test results are welcome ;-)
Best regards
Nio
-------------- next part --------------
lubuntu at lubuntu:~$ sudo lshw -class bus|grep -A100 '*-core'|grep -v '*-core'|while true;do read ans;if [ "$ans" == "${ans/\*-}" ]; then echo "$ans"; else exit; fi;done
description: Motherboard
product: NUC6i3SYB
vendor: Intel corporation
physical id: 0
version: H81132-502
serial: GESY5490011S
slot: Default string
lubuntu at lubuntu:~$ sudo lsblk -fm /dev/mmcblk0
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT NAME SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
mmcblk0 mmcblk0 29.7G root disk brw-rw----
??mmcblk0p1 ntfs usbdata 0CEAB56011020FF7 /media/lubuntu/usbdata ??mmcblk0p1 9.5G root disk brw-rw----
??mmcblk0p2 ??mmcblk0p2 1M root disk brw-rw----
??mmcblk0p3 vfat lub1604164 0FA8-5C36 ??mmcblk0p3 122M root disk brw-rw----
??mmcblk0p4 iso9660 Lubuntu 16.04.1 LTS amd64 2016-07-20-12-16-02-00 /cdrom ??mmcblk0p4 874M root disk brw-rw----
??mmcblk0p5 ext4 casper-rw 87cede8d-2eb6-495b-a882-b3e43c717288 /media/lubuntu/casper-rw ??mmcblk0p5 19.3G root disk brw-rw----
lubuntu at lubuntu:~$ sudo parted /dev/mmcblk0 print
Model: SD SE32G (sd/mmc)
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 31.9GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
2 1049kB 2097kB 1049kB primary bios_grub
3 2097kB 130MB 128MB fat32 primary boot, esp
4 130MB 1046MB 916MB primary
5 1046MB 21.7GB 20.7GB ext2 primary
1 21.7GB 31.9GB 10.2GB ntfs primary msftdata
lubuntu at lubuntu:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 1.9G 0 1.9G 0% /dev
tmpfs 384M 6.2M 378M 2% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p4 855M 855M 0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 809M 809M 0 100% /rofs
/cow 19G 125M 18G 1% /
tmpfs 1.9G 0 1.9G 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 1.9G 0 1.9G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 1.9G 4.0K 1.9G 1% /tmp
tmpfs 384M 4.0K 384M 1% /run/user/999
/dev/mmcblk0p5 19G 125M 18G 1% /media/lubuntu/casper-rw
/dev/mmcblk0p1 9.5G 50M 9.5G 1% /media/lubuntu/usbdata
lubuntu at lubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux lubuntu 4.4.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 13 00:07:12 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
lubuntu at lubuntu:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Release: 16.04
Codename: xenial
lubuntu at lubuntu:~$
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