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I am attempting to install linux mint 16 (currently running Linux Mint 15) and I have lost my flashdrive I have no disks available so my only option is my sd memory card.
How do I make a sd card bootable on linux I have tried Unetbootin software but it doesn't seem to work for me at least.
user3008373
Posted 2013-12-30T03:30:03.947
Reputation: 11
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Ahh, I remember doing this once, though UnetBootin will not allow you to without some hard work.
A much easier way is to simply use the command line tool dd. I use this tool every time because I typically am already sitting at an open terminal, but for a sd card, it is the only way I know to put an OS on.
dd is a tool that simply copies bit for bit what it sees to where you specify. It will need 2 command line options to work, input and output
The input will be an iso that you have already downloaded
The output will be a device under /dev. My sd cards show up as mmblk. I use Ubuntu 12.04 but it may not matter for what it shows up as. Simply look of what changes between before and after inserting the sd card using ls /dev.
So to make the image get put onto the sd card, I recommend you cd into the directory that you extracted the iso into just for ease. Then use the command in a terminal of
#dd if="/path/to/file.iso" of="/dev/device"
Tip: do use /dev/device NOT /dev/device1. The /dev/device1 is a partition while /dev/device is the whole device
This will take awhile, in my experience up to 10 minutes typically, sometimes a little longer. There is nothing ever printed to the terminal which drives me crazy, but yes it is doing stuff, just quietly.
Look into the tool dc3dd. It does the exact same thing on the surface but has a progress bar and stuff so you know what it is up to.
After it finishes, it will say how much was copied and at what speed and stuff. Just make sure the size of what is written looks about right.
Afterwards just restart and boot off the device which I'm sure you know how to do and follow the installation instructions like normal.
Alex Harper
Posted 2013-12-30T03:30:03.947
Reputation: 41
thanks a lot :) 7 hours of looking for how and that's all i had to do – user3008373 – 2013-12-30T04:09:04.143
You can get status of dd with the following command -
kill -USR1 $(pgrep '^dd')– Lawrence – 2013-12-30T05:47:50.260or slightly easier command pkill -USR1 dd. Run that in a second terminal and the progress of dd will show up in the first terminal. – tbenz9 – 2013-12-30T07:26:21.513