Jul 5, 2016 - Use unetbootin: Here is a tutorial for ubuntu but you can also use it for debian just change the image. Sep 19, 2018 - I have attempted to create a bootable USB with a live DEBIAN image on my MacBook Pro. After about 20 different attempts I have had no.
Their approach does not work(everything goes fine but usb does not become bootable). It also seems seems several years old and outdated. Other distos have large amouts of troubleshooting this issue, but not debian. Any advice how can I debug why my usb did not becamse Debian bootable after those procedures.
My steps were: 1)erase usb drive using disk utils and create FAT partition(i tried also exFAT and OSX Extended). 2) downloaded the iso and converted it to img: hdiutil convert debian-8.4.0-i386-DVD-1.iso -format UDRW -o debian-8.4.0-i386-DVD-1.img and renaming the result to remove the '.img' from name. I also tried to us UDTO instead of UDRW. 3) finding my usb location using diskutil list, it was /dev/disk2 4) unmounting the usb: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2 5) dding the image: sudo dd if=debian-8.4.0-i386-DVD-1.img of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m what took several hours.
The result was the expected message that usb could not be read. 6) ejecting the usb with: diskutil eject /dev/disk2 The result was that the usb was not bootable - in the loading screen pressing alt button - the usb does not show. I didn't convert the ISO to img, I just formatted a USB drive for FAT and used dd: sudo diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1 sudo dd if=./debian.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m I tested this with Debian 9. It's important to note that the appropriate /dev/disk# should be determined by using the following command on the macOS command line: diskutil list In the question above, the USB device mapped to /dev/disk2 whereas the example above uses /dev/disk1.
But the number could be 3 or 4 or some other number. Ensure the number correlates with the memory stick you use; you risk losing data if you get it wrong. I've used unetbootin in the past just fine however recently I was trying to install on a really old PC for use as a server and it would hang at the USB boot menu when I tried to boot over USB. I managed to install Debian successfully using The idea is the following:. Download the boot.img.gz for the relevant version of Debian from here. You will need to change the version to make it match the ISO that you have.
Unmount the target USB disk. run gzip -dc boot.img.gz /dev/disk# to your respective usb.
After it finishes (it took an oddly long time for a 50MB image, compression I guess), disconnect and reconnect the drive. Simply drag and drop the ISO into the root of the newly created partition. Try and install! Worked for my Dell Optiplex 380.
Linux Live USB drives allow you to try out the operating system without installing it on your boot drive. It’s a good way to “test drive” the system or even complete a very simple task in Linux. The Live USB will be wiped at each boot, so you can’t save files, but you can try out the OS. If you are using a Mac, you can easily create a Linux Live USB in macOS by following the instructions below. Note: While this tutorial does not cover any system-wrecking tasks, you must make backups of your system before messing with your boot drive.
If you plan to install Linux from this USB stick, back up your computer completely. Overwriting your macOS partition accidentally will have dire and time-consuming consequences. Formatting the USB Drive Properly Creating a Linux Live USB in macOS requires us to format the USB with a specific partition table. If we do not, Startup Manager will not be able to detect the USB. That would make it functionally inaccessible to us. Download the disk image (typically an ISO) for the distro you want to install.
In this example we will be using. The process should be the same regardless of distro. Insert your USB drive and open Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app).
Select your USB drive in the sidebar. Be sure to select the correct drive. Selecting the wrong drive will lead to data loss. Click the “Erase” button at the top of the Disk Utility window. Set “Format” to “MS-DOS (FAT)” and “Scheme” to “GUID Partition Map” as seen in the screenshot.
If you do not see the “Scheme” option, make sure you have selected the drive in the sidebar rather than the volume underneath it. The drive will have the component name, while the volume will have a user-applied name. Click the “Erase” button to format the drive.
This will erase all data on the disk. When the format completes, click “Done.” If the formatting is not successful, you may need to retry the operation. If multiple attempts fail, try erasing the disk in Terminal with the diskutil command. Writing the ISO with Etcher Now that the disk is properly formatted, we will write the Linux Live USB to the drive using Etcher.
Open Etcher and click “Select Image.” Navigate to your ISO in the pop-up Finder window and select it. Click “Select Drive” and select the USB drive you just formatted.
Click the “Flash!” button to start the writing process. Wait for the writing process to finish. It may take a couple of minutes, depending on the size of your distro’s ISO file. When the flashing is complete, macOS will pop up a warning that says “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.” This is expected, but do not click initialize. That will send us back to Step 1, requiring a reformat of the USB drive. Instead, click “Ignore.” Booting into Linux Once you’ve created the drive, now you can boot up into your Linux Live USB.
Reboot your Mac with the USB drive plugged in. Hold down the “Option/Alt” key while the computer reboots. This will launch the Startup Manager which allows the user to select a startup disk. Select your USB drive from the menu and boot.