nixpkgs/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml
2018-05-01 19:57:09 -04:00

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<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
version="5.0"
xml:id="sec-booting-from-usb">
<title>Booting from a USB Drive</title>
<para>
For systems without CD drive, the NixOS live CD can be booted from a USB
stick. You can use the <command>dd</command> utility to write the image:
<command>dd if=<replaceable>path-to-image</replaceable>
of=<replaceable>/dev/sdb</replaceable></command>. Be careful about specifying
the correct drive; you can use the <command>lsblk</command> command to get a
list of block devices.
</para>
<para>
On macOS:
<programlisting>
$ diskutil list
[..]
/dev/diskN (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
[..]
$ diskutil unmountDisk diskN
Unmount of all volumes on diskN was successful
$ sudo dd bs=1m if=nix.iso of=/dev/rdiskN
</programlisting>
Using the 'raw' <command>rdiskN</command> device instead of
<command>diskN</command> completes in minutes instead of hours. After
<command>dd</command> completes, a GUI dialog "The disk you inserted was not
readable by this computer" will pop up, which can be ignored.
</para>
<para>
The <command>dd</command> utility will write the image verbatim to the drive,
making it the recommended option for both UEFI and non-UEFI installations.
For non-UEFI installations, you can alternatively use
<link xlink:href="http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/">unetbootin</link>. If
you cannot use <command>dd</command> for a UEFI installation, you can also
mount the ISO, copy its contents verbatim to your drive, then either:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Change the label of the disk partition to the label of the ISO (visible
with the blkid command), or
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Edit <filename>loader/entries/nixos-livecd.conf</filename> on the drive
and change the <literal>root=</literal> field in the
<literal>options</literal> line to point to your drive (see the
documentation on <literal>root=</literal> in
<link xlink:href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt">
the kernel documentation</link> for more details).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
If you want to load the contents of the ISO to ram after bootin (So you
can remove the stick after bootup) you can append the parameter
<literal>copytoram</literal> to the <literal>options</literal> field.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</section>