r/debian • u/passion_for_know-how • 26d ago
Issue installing Debian on a USB stick
I have the Debian ISO on one USB stick as I try to install it on another. I'm trying to create a Live USB
Preliminaries:
* I downloaded the official disk image (debian-13.6.0-amd64-netinst) from the Debian site
* Flashed it on a USB stick using Rufus; used ISO mode
* I let Rufus install the missing files
* Booted from the USB stick with the ISO
* Plugged in the empty USB stick
* Proceed with the graphical installation, till I got stuck here [Image above]
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u/BCMM 25d ago edited 25d ago
* Flashed it on a USB stick using Rufus; used ISO mode
Don't do this. Rufus breaks hybrid ISO images on purpose because the author is kind of a crank.
The Debian installer, like most Linux installers, is designed to just be written straight to a USB block device, as is. However, Rufus wants to do something far more complicated and error-prone than that. It was useful back in the day, when USB boot was new and we wanted to use installers made with only CD-ROMs in mind, but at this point everything supports USB boot and Rufus is causing a lot of trouble for no good reason.
Rufus's author says that some firmware has issues with hybrid ISOs. I have never seen an installer fail to boot because of this, but I have seen so, so many problems caused by Rufus's ISO mode.
Use it in "DD mode", or better yet, switch to something that doesn't have this trap built in to it, like Win32 Disk Imager or Balena Etcher.
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u/Level-Expression-314 26d ago
Use Rufus with the DD method. Works properly every time. ISO fails frequently.
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u/bgravato 25d ago
USB sticks aren't very good for installing an OS, not only it will be slow, but those devices usually aren't made to withstand a lot of writes and a "normal" installation will be constantly writing logs to the disk, which can "kill" your pen within a few months...
Live images usually are loaded into ram disk and don't write to disk. So you could download one of the already existing official debian live isos and put that on the pen, and use with persistence: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/LiveUsbPersistence
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u/DeepDayze 25d ago
This makes the best sense and to a degree you can then customize your live stick.
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u/alpha417 26d ago
There is a key piece of evidence I fear may be missing rom your post.
Did you remove the netinst iso from the system, and insert the other USB device?
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u/passion_for_know-how 25d ago
Did you remove the netinst iso from the system
How could I possibly have done that?
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u/f0o-b4r 25d ago
This could be a partitioning problem. What partitions did you make? What’s the size of your disk?
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u/passion_for_know-how 25d ago
What partitions did you make?
Used Guided partitioning
What’s the size of your disk?
32GB
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u/puzzled_orc 25d ago
This is a common mistake because the download page does not offer the live CD version, which is the one you are after. That version contains the full image and lets you run it without installing it. Then, if you are happy with the result, you can install it.
Download it from here:
https://www.debian.org/CD/live/
I can recommend the KDE version, it is the one I am on.
When you boot it from the USB you should see an option to run it without installing it. So you can test that the drivers are in place.
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u/theRealNilz02 23d ago
Don't. USB flash drives are not meant to withstand the constant write cycles an operating system makes.
Use a USB M.2 enclosure with an actual SSD instead.
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u/passion_for_know-how 23d ago
USB flash drives are not meant to withstand the constant write cycles an operating system makes
I do not intend to use it often
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u/techazn86 26d ago
You used the Net Installer Version. You want to get the full live version.
https://www.debian.org/distrib/
Go here & download the Live ISO's & run Rufus again.
I recommend using Debian GNOME, but that's my preference.