Using a Linux Host to Create a Bootable Device
These steps outline the process for creating a bootable device on a Linux* based workstation. Where the .wic image is supplied in a compressed format, it should be expanded (uncompressed) prior to this process. For example, a .xz format file can be expanded (uncompressed) using the xz-utils unxz application.
- Connect your USB flash drive or microSD card to your host computer.
- Open a Terminal window.
- If you are not sure about the media device name of your drive, enter the command:lsblkto show the block-level devices; a USB drive usually shows up as /sdb or /sdc (almost never as /sda), and an SD card would usually show up as /dev/mmcblk0. In the steps below, you should specify the whole device you’re writing to (for example, /dev/sdb or /dev/mmcblk0) and not just a partition on that device (e.g., /dev/sdb1 or /dev/mmcblk0p1).As an alternative to lsblk, you can use the dmesg command to view the system log and see to which device the USB drive or microSD card was assigned.
- After verifying your removable media device name, you’ll need to unmount the device before writing to it. Enter the following command, wheresdXis the name of your USB drive (for example,:sudo umount /dev/sdb*)sudo umount /dev/sdX*
- In a Terminal window on your host, run the following command. Be sure to replacewith the location of your extracted Ref-OS-IoT image andos-imagewith the name of your boot device (for example, /dev/sdb). The command will overwrite all content on the device, so be careful to specify the correct media device.sdXsudo dd bs=4M if=os-imageof=/dev/sdXstatus=progress && syncIn the example command below, /dev/sdb is the destination USB device on the host machine:sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/full-image-intel-5xx-64-6.wic of=/dev/sdbstatus=progress && sync
Troubleshooting
If your version of dd doesn't support the status=progress option, which displays progress information on the copying process, you may see an error message about status=progress. You can simply remove this option from the command to copy the image without showing progress information. For example:sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/full-image-intel-5xx-64-6.wic of=/dev/sdb && syncIf you see a message complaining about a numeric value, your computer may be balking at the inclusion of the block size argument, bs=4M. You can move this option to the end of the command or leave it out entirely; the write process may be slower if you do the latter. For example:sudo dd if=/path/to/full-image-intel-5xx-64-6.wic of=/dev/sdb status=progress && syncIf you continue to have issues with the write command, remove all extra options from the command and try again. For example:sudo dd if=/path/to/full-image-intel-5xx-64-6.wic of=/dev/sdb && sync - Wait for your host to finish copying the Ref-OS-IoT image to the boot device. This process may take up to 20 minutes for a USB 2.0 drive. When finished, disconnect the device from your computer.
Loading an OS image, or an Installer Package, on the Bootable Device
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oading an OS image, or an Installer Package, on the Bootable DeviceInstall the target Live-OS image, or copy the installer package, onto the storage device and configure the targeted files to run at boot. See Acquire Target OS File to Install for instructions.
Connect the bootable device to the platform and configure it as the target boot device, reboot and run or install the operating system from the bootable device.