Freebsd/linux Multipass

[mack5]

I'd like to make a USB stick that can boot the installer for either my Linux distro or FreeBSD.

I've tried various tools like unetbootin to see what the required files are. Then doing do the closest I've come (in unetbootin) was a syslinux menu that endlessly looped (reloaded the menu) if I selected (or it automatically timed out to) first choice, and did nothing if I selected the second.

Has anyone successfully attempted this? I see there is an thread from a while back (2011) with no replies.

Edited August 29, 2012 by mack5

[TheGuyWithSticks]

I've created several bootable thumbdrives. The easiest, and simpliest, method I've found is to use YUMI.

[mack5]

I've created several bootable thumbdrives. The easiest, and simpliest, method I've found is to use YUMI.

I'm not running Windows, but a Linux distro. Also, it looks to me like YMUI is a syslinux installer similar to Unetbootin

[Phyrne]

Have you simply tried using dd?

dd if=/path/to/install/media/(iso) of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1M

You'll need to run as root (or with sudo), where '/dev/sdb1' is, replace with your device's ID.

I've found it can be a bit hit and miss with the definition of partitions, so, if you try with something like '/dev/sdb1' and it doesn't work, try just with '/dev/sdb' (without the '1' pointing to the primary partition)

**Keep in mind** using dd will write over ANY device it's pointed to, even the drive you're actually running the system on, so be sure to get your USB's device ID right. A simple way of checking is by running something like GParted or Gnome's Disk Utility, if you have that kind of software on your system)

Edited September 12, 2012 by Phyrne