Creating a USB Boot Image

This appendix provides details on how to create a bootable USB with Switch Light OS.

 

Creating the USB Boot Drive with MacOS X

Complete the following steps to create a bootable USB drive on MacOS X.

Procedure

  1. Insert the USB drive into a USB port on the Mac computer.
    Inserting the USB drive mounts the USB drive, but it must be unmounted to create a bootable disk.
  2. Open a Mac OS terminal window.
  3. Enter the diskutil command to list all the mounted disks, as in the following example: 
    diskutil list
    Note: You can also use the MacOS Disk Utility GUI application (applications/utilities) to identify the mounted disks and unmount the USB drive.
  4. Identify the /dev/disk<x> label for the inserted USB drive.
  5. Unmount the USB drive (this is different than ejecting) using the following command. 
    diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk<x>
    Note: Replace <x> with the unique numeric identifier assigned by the system.
  6. Enter the sudo dd command in the terminal window to make the USB drive bootable. 
    sudo dd if=<path to iso image> of=/dev/rdisk<x> bs=1024m
    Warning: Using the dd command with the wrong disk name can erase the installed OS or other vital information.

    Copy the Service Node appliance ISO image to the USB drive using this command. Using /dev/rdisk makes the copying faster (rdisk stands for a raw disk).

    Replace <x> with the drive identifier for the USB drive and replace <path to iso image> with the filename and path to the location where you downloaded the Service Node ISO image.

    For example, the following command copies the file dmf-service-node.iso to disk2: 
    sudo dd if= dmf-service-node.iso of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1024m

    Copying the image to the USB drive can take up to ten minutes.

    To monitor the progress of the write operation, enter the following command in a separate terminal window. 
    $ while sudo killall -INFO dd; do sleep 5; done
    disk util eject

    Alternatively, select Eject from the File menu.

Creating the USB Boot Image with Linux

Complete the following steps to create a bootable USB drive using Linux.

Procedure

  1. Insert the USB drive into a USB port on the Linux workstation.
  2. Enter the following command in a Linux terminal window to identify the USB drive. 
    disk -lu

    On Linux, the USB drive is typically /dev/sdb.

  3. Verify that the USB drive is not currently mounted, or unmount it if it is. Use the mount command to list the currently mounted devices.
  4. Use the sudo dd command to make the USB drive bootable by copying the Service Node ISO image. 
    # sudo dd if=<path to iso image> of=/dev/sdb bs=4096
    Warning: Using the dd command with the wrong disk name can erase the installed OS or other vital information.
    Replace <path to iso image> with the filename and path to the location where you downloaded the Service Node ISO image. For example, the following command copies dmf-service-node.iso to the USB drive: 
    # sudo dd if=dmf-service-node.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4096

    Copying the image to the USB drive can take up to ten minutes.

  5. Eject the USB drive from your Linux workstation.

Creating a USB Boot Image Using Windows

Several Windows utilities are available for building a USB boot image from an ISO image. The following procedure uses the Rufus bootable image program.

To build a USB boot image using Windows, complete the following steps.

Procedure

  1. Download the Rufus utility from https://rufus.akeo.ie/.
  2. After downloading the utility, double-click the rufus.exe file.
    Figure 1. User Account Control
  3. Click Yes to allow the changes required for installation.
    Figure 2. Rufus: Create an ISO Image Option
  4. To create a bootable disk, select ISO Image.
    Figure 3. Rufus: Select ISO Image
  5. Click the CD-ROM icon.
    Figure 4. Open ISO Image File
  6. Select the file to use and click Open.
  7. Click Start to burn the ISO image to USB.
    Figure 5. Rufus: Start
    If an upgrade to syslinux is required, the system displays the following dialog box.
    Figure 6. User Account Control
  8. If this prompt appears, click Yes to continue.
  9. When prompted to use DD mode or ISO mode, choose ISO.
    The system displays a warning that the data on the USB drive will be destroyed, and a new image will be installed.
    Figure 7. Erasing Data Warning
  10. Click OK to confirm the operation.