Introduction
It is a lot of work and also some risk, when we create boot drives from the daily iso files. I upgraded the old mkusb-nox (text mode shellscript) in order to make it efficient not only with USB pendrives and memory cards, but also SSDs connected via adapters (they may appear as internal drives and are protected by default).
mkusb-nox comes with the mkusb program package, the updated version via ppa:mkusb/unstable and after a couple of weeks of testing it will replace the old version in the stable ppa:mkusb/ppa.
The following paragraphs shows the background and how it can work and there are a few links at the end of this post.
Fast and reliable with an SSD instead of a pendrive
The SSD is seen as a SATA drive
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-id|grep sdc lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 sep 3 08:11 ata-OCZ-AGILITY3_OCZ-LG1P09233GJ67M09 -> ../../sdc lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 sep 3 08:11 ata-OCZ-AGILITY3_OCZ-LG1P09233GJ67M09-part1 -> ../../sdc1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 sep 3 08:11 ata-OCZ-AGILITY3_OCZ-LG1P09233GJ67M09-part2 -> ../../sdc2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 sep 3 08:11 ata-OCZ-AGILITY3_OCZ-LG1P09233GJ67M09-part3 -> ../../sdc3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 sep 3 08:11 wwn-0x5e83a9771439682e -> ../../sdc lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 sep 3 08:11 wwn-0x5e83a9771439682e-part1 -> ../../sdc1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 sep 3 08:11 wwn-0x5e83a9771439682e-part2 -> ../../sdc2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 sep 3 08:11 wwn-0x5e83a9771439682e-part3 -> ../../sdc3
But it is a hot-plugged drive
$ lsblk -o name,size,fstype,label,hotplug,model /dev/sdc NAME SIZE FSTYPE LABEL HOTPLUG MODEL sdc 55,9G iso9660 Xubuntu Core 20.04 - amd64 1 ITY3 ├─sdc1 818M iso9660 Xubuntu Core 20.04 - amd64 1 ├─sdc2 3,9M vfat Xubuntu Core 20.04 - amd64 1 └─sdc3 55,1G ext4 writable 1
lshw shows that is is connected via USB
$ sudo lshw # plus mark,copy,paste:
*-usb
description: Mass storage device
product: 1153-3G Ext. HDD
vendor: Asmedia Technology Inc.
physical id: 3
bus info: usb@4:1.1.3
logical name: scsi9
version: 1.00
serial: 00000000015AD
capabilities: usb-3.00 scsi
configuration: driver=uas speed=5000Mbit/s
*-disk
description: SCSI Disk
product: ITY3
vendor: OCZ-AGIL
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@9:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdc
version: 0
serial: DA51000000000
size: 55GiB (60GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=6 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=18c263b4
Testing
My directory with zsynced iso files for iso-testing
$ pwd /media/multimed-2/test/lubuntu $ ls -trl focal* jammy* kinetic* -rw------- 1 nio nio 2688100352 aug 9 12:03 jammy-desktop-amd64.iso.zs-old -rw------- 1 nio nio 2694133760 aug 12 17:17 jammy-desktop-amd64.iso -rw------- 1 nio nio 2792142848 aug 26 16:55 kinetic-desktop-amd64.iso.zs-old -rw------- 1 nio nio 1996488704 aug 29 16:21 focal-desktop-amd64.iso.zs-old -rw------- 1 nio nio 2741968896 aug 29 16:56 kinetic-desktop-amd64.iso -rw------- 1 nio nio 1996488704 aug 31 07:14 focal-desktop-amd64.iso lrwxrwxrwx 1 nio nio 30 sep 2 16:24 focal-desktop-amd64-old.iso -> focal-desktop-amd64.iso.zs-old lrwxrwxrwx 1 nio nio 32 sep 3 08:18 kinetic-desktop-amd64-old.iso -> kinetic-desktop-amd64.iso.zs-old lrwxrwxrwx 1 nio nio 30 sep 3 08:20 jammy-desktop-amd64-old.iso -> jammy-desktop-amd64.iso.zs-old
From mkusb-nox -h we conclude that the best option for a USB pendrive is
sudo /path/mkusb-nox file.iso
and for an SSD connected via a USB adapter is
sudo /path/mkusb-nox file.iso all
where all indicates that all /dev/sdx drives should be tested. Some of them are busy and therefore not available as target drives (automatically by mkusb-nox).
The first time you have to answer/confirm a few times to have a chance to double-check that it is the correct target device.
$ sudo mkusb-nox kinetic-desktop-amd64-old.iso all # try all /dev/sdx drives [sudo] password for nio: The iso file SHOULD BE loop mounted on a temporary file READ-ONLY: mount: /tmp/tmp.3wJOrUv5Jo: WARNING: device write-protected, mounted read-only. disk_name_type=debian Ubuntu kinetic 22.10 amd64 i386 _found_ in iso-file Ubuntu kinetic 22.10 amd64 i386 _not_ in USB device Do you want to make a new one? (y/n) y *** WARNING: the device will be completely overwritten *** *** quit with (q) *** *** Unmount the device if mounted **************************** Name: ata-SanDisk_SD6SB1M256G1001 Dev: /dev/sda Size: 256GB Name: ata-WDC_WD4002FYYZ-01B7CB1 Dev: /dev/sdb Size: 4001GB Name: ata-OCZ-AGILITY3 Dev: /dev/sdc Size: 60GB Live drive: /dev/sda # would not unmount /dev/sda because device is busy; in fstab # would not unmount /dev/sdb because device is busy; in fstab ---> 1: install to Name: ata-OCZ-AGILITY3 Dev: /dev/sdc Size: 60GB Go ahead with (g) or quit with (q). Toggle USB-only with (u). g 1: source: kinetic-desktop-amd64-old.iso target: Name: ata-OCZ-AGILITY3 Dev: /dev/sdc Size: 60GB Final checkpoint Please check again that it is the correct target device! (y/n) y Installing kinetic-desktop-amd64-old.iso to /dev/sdc ... gpt_zap: done < "kinetic-desktop-amd64-old.iso" dd bs=1M of=/dev/sdc status=progress oflag=dsync Please wait for sync (flushing file system buffers to the device) until 'Done' is written ... 2792142848 bytes (total size to be cloned) 2786066432 bytes (2,8 GB, 2,6 GiB) copied, 47 s, 59,3 MB/s 2662+1 records in 2662+1 records out 2792142848 bytes (2,8 GB, 2,6 GiB) copied, 47,2723 s, 59,1 MB/s Syncing the device ... Done :-)
Only one (y/n) question when the target device is the same for a new daily iso file
mkusb-nox checks that a signature in the iso file matches that in the target device, and this reduces the effort, time and risk to a minimum:
$ sudo mkusb-nox kinetic-desktop-amd64.iso all # try all /dev/sdx drives The iso file SHOULD BE loop mounted on a temporary file READ-ONLY: mount: /tmp/tmp.voPHvaQkPv: WARNING: device write-protected, mounted read-only. disk_name_type=debian Ubuntu kinetic 22.10 amd64 i386 _found_ in iso-file Ubuntu kinetic 22.10 amd64 i386 _found_ in /dev/sdc Final checkpoint Install to /dev/sdc? (y/n) y dd if="kinetic-desktop-amd64.iso" of=/dev/sdc bs=1M status=progress oflag=dsync ... 2741968896 bytes (total size to be cloned) 2715811840 bytes (2,7 GB, 2,5 GiB) copied, 46 s, 59,0 MB/s 2614+1 records in 2614+1 records out 2741968896 bytes (2,7 GB, 2,6 GiB) copied, 46,5443 s, 58,9 MB/s The Ubuntu kinetic 22.10 amd64 i386 USB device is re-cloned :-) $
Links
Summary
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