My new Desktop computer does not have a DVD/CD drive so I will have to
install MGA 9 on to the SSD via a USB Drive. Never done that before so
is it just a case of copying the ISO file from the old Laptops HD on to
a USB drive (5GB or bigger) and then inserting that USB drive into one
of the USB sockets on the new Computer and THEN booting the Computer

Might I have to get into BIOS and tell it to check for a Bootable USB
drive .... or might that be the Usual operation??

(A task for the week-end, maybe.)

TIA
--
Daniel70

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.0 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)

Hello Daniel70!

27 Feb 25 12:21, Daniel70 wrote to all:

My new Desktop computer does not have a DVD/CD drive so I will have to
install MGA 9 on to the SSD via a USB Drive. Never done that before
so is it just a case of copying the ISO file from the old Laptops HD
on to a USB drive (5GB or bigger) and then inserting that USB drive
into one of the USB sockets on the new Computer and THEN booting the Computer

Might I have to get into BIOS and tell it to check for a Bootable USB
drive .... or might that be the Usual operation??

(A task for the week-end, maybe.)

For most 'standard type Micro based systems' you will have to :
1. Set via bios to offer BOOT from HDD, SSD, USB & CD/DVD
Warning leaving this on at all times will result in a slower boot
process as bios will check what is available (subject tot he bios used).

Or

2. Optionally set bios to boot to specific device when needed other than
HDD/SSD.

Or

3. As a one off boot to specific device.

4. Boot to a network device which can be off site, such as a network
install but this usually requires a local storage devise to be used for the initial s/w load.


As a rule and to reduce boot times option 3 & poss. 4, tends to be used.

Not all system allow you to specify a USB device (although my kit that is
now over 10 years old does) and likewise using a CD/DVD and a DLT device.

Both could be refused due to security settings.
Mine is set to Not allow remote booting of any kind, i.e., only local.
Ditto the O/S will not allow root login remotely for the same reason.

Remote mean anything that is not from the system console (keyboard, monitor etc).

Yes this does mean that if away (holiday, etc) you cannot reboot the system
but there are other processes to do this if prepared in advance).
I turn off automatic upgrades when I will be away to help prevent s/w
induced problems of this nature.


Vincent



SEEN-BY: 25/0 21 250/0 1 2 3 4 5 8 13 14 15 263/0 362/6 712/1321

On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 07:21:13 -0500, Daniel70 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> wrote:

My new Desktop computer does not have a DVD/CD drive so I will have to install MGA 9 on to the SSD via a USB Drive. Never done that before so
is it just a case of copying the ISO file from the old Laptops HD on to
a USB drive (5GB or bigger) and then inserting that USB drive into one
of the USB sockets on the new Computer and THEN booting the Computer

Yes.

Might I have to get into BIOS and tell it to check for a Bootable USB
drive .... or might that be the Usual operation??
(A task for the week-end, maybe.)

How to boot from the usb drive varies from computer to computer. You may need to do it
from the bios setup screen, or use the bios setup to enable it.

Unless it's a very old system, it will be using uefi. See https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installing_on_systems_with_UEFI_firmware#Using_a_USB_stick

The package isodumper is made for safely copying Mageia iso images to a usb stick, so if you
already have Mageia on one of your systems, install isodumper and use that to copy the iso
to the usb stick.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.0 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)

On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:19:19 -0500, David W. Hodgins <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 07:21:13 -0500, Daniel70 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> wrote:

My new Desktop computer does not have a DVD/CD drive so I will have to
install MGA 9 on to the SSD via a USB Drive. Never done that before so
is it just a case of copying the ISO file from the old Laptops HD on to
a USB drive (5GB or bigger) and then inserting that USB drive into one
of the USB sockets on the new Computer and THEN booting the Computer

Yes.

Might I have to get into BIOS and tell it to check for a Bootable USB
drive .... or might that be the Usual operation??
(A task for the week-end, maybe.)

How to boot from the usb drive varies from computer to computer. You may need to do it
from the bios setup screen, or use the bios setup to enable it.

Forgot to mention. Some systems will only show the option to boot from a usb drive if a
bootable usb drive is currently plugged in, so copy the iso to the usb stick before and have
it plugged in before looking for the option.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.0 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)

On 28/02/2025 2:19 am, David W. Hodgins wrote:

On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 07:21:13 -0500, Daniel70 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> wrote:

My new Desktop computer does not have a DVD/CD drive so I will have to
install MGA 9 on to the SSD via a USB Drive. Never done that before so
is it just a case of copying the ISO file from the old Laptops HD on to
a USB drive (5GB or bigger) and then inserting that USB drive into one
of the USB sockets on the new Computer and THEN booting the Computer

Yes.

Might I have to get into BIOS and tell it to check for a Bootable USB
drive .... or might that be the Usual operation??
(A task for the week-end, maybe.)

How to boot from the usb drive varies from computer to computer. You may need to do it from the bios setup screen, or use the bios setup to
enable it.

Unless it's a very old system, it will be using uefi. See https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installing_on_systems_with_UEFI_firmware#Using_a_USB_stick

Seems point 2 (Dump the ISO to the USB stick, using either IsoDumper or
the dd command. More information here.) is what I want.

The package isodumper is made for safely copying Mageia iso images to a
usb stick, so if you already have Mageia on one of your systems,
install isodumper and use that to copy the iso to the usb stick.

Ah!! O.K., so can I extract 'isodumper' from the MGA9 iso that I already
have on the Laptop and then use that 'isodumper' to dump the MGA9 iso
onto a USB stick??

Regards, Dave Hodgins

Thank you, David.
--
Daniel70

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.0 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)

On Fri, 28 Feb 2025 04:23:03 -0500, Daniel70 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> wrote:

On 28/02/2025 2:19 am, David W. Hodgins wrote:

On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 07:21:13 -0500, Daniel70
<daniel47@eternal-september.org> wrote:

My new Desktop computer does not have a DVD/CD drive so I will have to
install MGA 9 on to the SSD via a USB Drive. Never done that before so
is it just a case of copying the ISO file from the old Laptops HD on to
a USB drive (5GB or bigger) and then inserting that USB drive into one
of the USB sockets on the new Computer and THEN booting the Computer

Yes.

Might I have to get into BIOS and tell it to check for a Bootable USB
drive .... or might that be the Usual operation??
(A task for the week-end, maybe.)

How to boot from the usb drive varies from computer to computer. You may
need to do it from the bios setup screen, or use the bios setup to
enable it.

Unless it's a very old system, it will be using uefi. See
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installing_on_systems_with_UEFI_firmware#Using_a_USB_stick

Seems point 2 (Dump the ISO to the USB stick, using either IsoDumper or
the dd command. More information here.) is what I want.

If you want to use dd, use "dd if=/path/to/iso/file.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=1M". The critical part
is to replace /dev/sdx with the correct value for the usb stick. Put in the wrong value and
you may end up overwriting the partition table on your hard drive.

Make sure it's a block device like /dev/sdf, not a partition within the device like /dev/sdf1.

The dd command may appear to finish while the usb stick is still writing the iso from
buffers in memory. It's critical to ensure it's finished before rebooting or removing the
usb stick. Before isodumper I used htop sorted by the S (state) column, and waited
until at least several seconds without any kworker process showing a state of D (device wait).

If you don't have htop, and are just relying on dd, a good rule of thumb is to wait 10
minutes after you think it's done.

The isodumper program will only allow choosing a usb stick, not a hard drive, and will
ensure the writing has finished. If you've downloaded the sha3 file for the iso image
into the same directory as the iso image, then isodumper will check that the iso file
has the correct value, ensuring the download has not corrupted the file.

It can also check the gpg signature of the sha3 file, if you have imported the Mageia
iso signing key into gpg.

The package isodumper is made for safely copying Mageia iso images to a
usb stick, so if you already have Mageia on one of your systems,
install isodumper and use that to copy the iso to the usb stick.

Ah!! O.K., so can I extract 'isodumper' from the MGA9 iso that I already
have on the Laptop and then use that 'isodumper' to dump the MGA9 iso
onto a USB stick??

It isn't included in any of the iso images. It hast to be installed from the repos in an
existing Mageia install. If you don't have an existing Mageia install then you will have to
use dd itself.

If you have Mageia 8 currently, isodumper is available ... https://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mageia/distrib/8/x86_64/media/core/updates/isodumper-1.35-2.mga8.noarch.rpm with either
https://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mageia/distrib/8/x86_64/media/core/updates/isodumper-gtk-1.35-2.mga8.noarch.rpm
or https://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mageia/distrib/8/x86_64/media/core/updates/isodumper-qt-1.35-2.mga8.noarch.rpm
for the gui front end.

The gpg release signing key can be obtained from one of the pgp public key servers such as
https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x835E41F4EDCA7A90
(note very slow, but it does work. Or you can extract it from below ...

$ gpg -a --export 0x835E41F4EDCA7A90
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

mQINBE+Ol7gBEACtpjA1TPhdB6Q5aOBmiSMWKW01adt3Etn/xspvEhbedie9hSNx 1PNIo6VEOGwIizAtbwELPEUV3TCFgm5dyM39JRIKyQ6bsc72gu1NeWsoClb0Tsnd lktWSw8y+6PoISqUk5RMAw8uo50mpEQpimvFTzlOwVRHIEKJZjJCjqslbmwOWh0J ZCoyjENydbq1KeF1cXCPK1jHOBUhvKjSVXHbsPQNT520b7XEYAho26naNF/YNVhX RlQT6YvHao20OnXlOLJWrkzVUbpPppAih7lbPnUfxqrwNiQ/yuHUKFqNkU5nN4S+ qjwMH+IYfSU5+U2M2PAGS0WEIrSt5t3eaEQJd3cdbXJHF8gMyMduJzEgMPc7rOEG Q/Nlsc7Wzwr3Jorq8mdTLdc/HO8rwd5KzAXFmazb1kXTHrVdDff/VpBwmYZClTK6 qEntvbhJIpx7+iX+AHtbRRC9NruA0lIVItuXY7ZpWLiHAFxkeZ+qZ081NcIiSwYc ac8WMTnJAAEKeulPvHUAky2fo7rZAoao46Uki6Md7k9tKDsI1aTR57nQOk4Z7qJi hzmifJFY8muAflzwbRkIbvpGGZYXBVi08LabAZTZWxwrhyl0odYXOdHfAA8kwhgv ZiKoPmxcV7OUS69J92Dd1FjKcF0v7HNrrAmzhO40zJ2a/pKgdVoxQia5swARAQAB tCNNYWdlaWEgUmVsZWFzZSA8cmVsZWFzZUBtYWdlaWEub3JnPokCPgQTAQIAKAUC T46XuAIbLwUJAg9YAAYLCQgHAwIGFQgCCQoLBBYCAwECHgECF4AACgkQg15B9O3K epD20hAAm2qXkII9hdMrD8C20JTdMXVZdOxLnMkdGj893Dj/+Fszp0XHAS8aCS+h l3hKtTiTSxHuh1shCZviJFLDl+kQb3YP9xxKoGvgzgGBWp8VI6FmWvs/S92Sj90b 9VZMR9tSi45u1D+eXO9Ss73R4Oi7QFxlqAEHXgM7zxDZrkyeN0a6PaptwFskUMST l7l777Cmw5fLmQXovs56nBJfAPgpjIZjsXlsMBYHUIjilGMeceoQg+4fDHP/cD4Z 5OUBV/eTdvwQMKvDwoArcUxlmQPn7j06tm/6wV6xb1+y5r84+7XTEqNfSWUPcDcN Rlzi1E7l5p5iKBlcIm1rjOLjJeH2fAJREce7sp9ixS5rG4D5Ni+f09TTqoL35NPq Ot26AjPWh/WbiicKZNkYZWdYmnmhgvDenTdAOZyGQWCKyNXyiLnXIlO8TZL2346G 0agz9FBodC7kxfvC+1dL4PhYncEcRD3ZguVLAmr8Bbm5rbUcQIAxohg9yAsrt2jp q6q3MoXf/zoib/4LUoInElCBGK1TjJuLtPO77HghkDzboOBujeN4EwZFeUsjLiuF +9O4SLZkNz9aEJjdQhM50wNI4zXxKX7h5nfwb5/77/aPlb6hoenOLEFRvYzspAiU r8WBp7Hk/KMXmgFfa8mA8EY1TH1JRunw6hRmB946/0qZpaqBNV2JAlUEEwEIAD8C Gy8GCwkIBwMCBhUIAgkKCwQWAgMBAh4BAheAFiEEshB2oMvk2T1mqdCNg15B9O3K epAFAmcIDMgFCRnGansACgkQg15B9O3KepAkXg/+NwppmAbsG0le80z8nsdxCe9n UV5jxQCuJ+3GosK9l6+GM7OO3YAvqK0fncc0bYBQhcGXebNDMvOHtWXuR0R+rw2o 1n1CYwg3fSDqaJqpwdIU1PiaHvxPVN8cAXElW9LwsiOkh8UGn81N/Q7OWjItpCiL PfkOIfOzETId/kfydyCCYAKvCrtobSoc1JU81Y5CaRRgHe3oHjShtbDUzB7V/gJn 1VYua9UHslUS+aPZT0bxzVw0FVaG4X9ibFbwoY7D9HjIiG3qptDF3m4NovX9gohw CbV9v76URGrkKWGWR7F0htCa54SRRciWpsUkjU+anIsewOndZru+eHSGlL4Uk6Mb sLDFFmhvr7N72K85x6Hg6Slcs4jM5vTMaq1sNtGlq8xAUZmiXgjX5ssTL6gSjuwg 64lkU8jXhaV3ciK5Ghvxjf7NkPGtj9Lw7iiz49H1yrUN0y+eYj8X0V1TaFlyFS5B yvu3tzoHNT5xNUapxFKSwCtVpLKca+J44UgxFwSF6hdEY01INSQoDE32xlX8Hupa HYD6zsKTKUZWP7bBwvgNoDj9muTZDbkvsMy/76Rb8ubyyKdN+FjMH1NaSKCAGusS fQtwy8AwQRJoeDkVEClo9Z+Mr5dzJaO8g4xHDQSURO+2F9/yVGUoSlkz1FUc5J5w yQ6JCeq+oAWSIX3f1+eJAlUEEwEIAD8CGy8GCwkIBwMCBhUIAgkKCwQWAgMBAh4B AheAFiEEshB2oMvk2T1mqdCNg15B9O3KepAFAmeCXxwFCSFMif0ACgkQg15B9O3K epAwcw//cc/CY7NEn5ofAOe1pkUd0SAdZO8A72+aVmL8/iHqP8IymXGiT0Rsh9/G TPGmPLGhCJKgWMMR2+BW1nuYdXFPycf8QAI5ooXDRSxhQXbAu2wbgpIFVeZjDzif y2+IWo3n8EapaB+0xqm4Ryrr1fayzYGqG0E7fUgEZ/aVIG+jOLrPgaNelqnh1Oyp cTdZLkL4uRnJTJFG4xaEtujBJndH2B9NGMFq5KFQHTVHijmirO7rtIGBiuFGplRU 25Y8LymxgOkMRriabcY2sia+KFfeWS2mLhd6PoLH7WXfPqC7RIUv/3h7xTnAgtMJ xXSN5ohFlMevZN0ANlHYFhbx6ZO7eGHdLxHvWMqMq9aBx/WzfrPgfmqgAd+3SAZN ngcAiZL+/2fXdnbnYhdG+DLgfkhpJ8Ku25+By8geOf6rDSYm1NuIpF3d4fgiemG1 UjqXYxintwJja77XflTOmwGgJJyBQjyk+68q2dEIM5JHaW9WGq+h6/8LXbfcZjJ3 C+2eShKOxSyjQeve9sGWYPAE+XNIMMbuPCamov6Wb2Gv8wfuViMSb1pfPTlRJHK2 QaHO+PNw8vFaWpD7gDAIMXhx+vdXCTvW2xkV9DEM73zLNdmlD3DC7ebiMmOOMWNb k2lEyWoYwngHS/zsiaB6+Cm1q/41lWzNaoqHIFEFWTtaHIGwMQs=
=eBCg
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.0 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)