How to make/get LMDE as live CD? [solved (in my case)]

[Eko_taas]

I have old desk-top compurer (Octec, , which does not support USB/DVD/LAN installation, only CD will do. Mint 9 and 10 (32-bit) has been working fine, but I want to have LMDE for server testing (as only OS).

I have tried with my limited skills some tricks found with google, but did not succeed.

Is there any way, how to get LMDE as CD-edition (now only DVD). That would solve my problem very easy. (best would be Mint 10 way with easy CD-to-DVD bottom...)

If not avail., other proposals appriciated

[wayne128]

I have old desk-top compurer (Octec, , which does not support USB/DVD/LAN installation, only CD will do. Mint 9 and 10 (32-bit) has been working fine, but I want to have LMDE for server testing (as only OS).

I have tried with my limited skills some tricks found with google, but did not succeed.

Is there any way, how to get LMDE as CD-edition (now only DVD). That would solve my problem very easy. (best would be Mint 10 way with easy CD-to-DVD bottom...)

If not avail., other proposals appriciated

Can your computer boot from USB stick? If yes it is easier.
If you cannot boot from USB stick, cannot boot from USB/DVD, but can boot from CD, what about borrow a DVD and replace with the CD? This is also easier.

If all else fail, then one other alternative I can think of is boot from Hard disk, this one is a bit more work, first of all you must already have a working Linux since you said you have no problem installing Mint9 or Mint10, secondly, you need to create a small partition in the hard disk with the size slight large than the size of LMDE DVD, says you go for 2G partition, use this as 'virtual live cd'. Then copy as loop device , the iso file of LMDE onto this small partition, make this partition bootable. Boot to it, it will run as 'virtual livecd', once you can run from it as virtual livecd, you then install it onto another large partition.

[beefstu]

This was last updated 26th Jan 2011, any questions please ask, it looks long but its not too complicated

Unfortunately there is no way of fitting it onto a CD, there just isn't room. Something you could try, I've only heard of it and never used it, is to install LMDE "using Grub". There are a few tutorials knocking around but they all seem to use the old version of grub so I'll attempt to describe the process here. You will need a ~1GB or larger USB memory stick for this to work.

1. Download LMDE.iso

2. Install unetbootin

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apt install unetbootin

and use it to write the .iso to your memory stick

3. Boot into any live CD, go to GParted and resize your current Mint partition to as small as you can and format the newly created space as EXT4 (or whatever file system you want to use)

4. Boot back into the installed Mint

5. in a terminal

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sudo cp /boot/grub/grub.cfg /boot/grub/grub.cfg.bac

to backup the grub.cfg, then

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gksudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

6. scroll down until you find the line ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### and under that write

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menuentry "Linux Mint Debian Installer" --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
        set root='(hdX,Y)'
        linux /casper/vmlinuz ro boot=live live-media-path=/casper quiet splash --
        initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}

where (hdX,Y) need to have the X changed to the number of hardrives within your computer and Y to the partition number you have installed the iso to on your USB. For example, I only have 1 harddrive in my laptop and only 1 partition on my memory stick (same is true for the majority), therefore, mine reads '(hd1,1)'

DONT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS FILE

7. Reboot and boot into the new option on the grub screen. Its important not to have any other external media attached at this point

8. Install LMDE as normal, using the new partition created earlier. NOTE: when the installer asks you to install grub, either untick it (as I did as I was concerned to mess up grub, just in case, and besides, its already installed) or make sure it is set to your harddrive (probably sda), not the memory stick you are installing off of.

9. Reboot and go back to your original installation, run

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sudo update-grub

then

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sudo cp /boot/grub/grub.cfg /boot/grub/grub.cfg.bac2

then

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gksudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

scroll down to the menu item for your new installation, (i.e. menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux.....") and check that the UUID's (a long string of letters and numbers) in the entry's (two in the normal entry and 2 in the "recovery mode" entry) match eachother as mine did not and produced a busybox. If they match, go ahead and reboot and your new installation should be waiting for you, then continue to step 10. If they do not match, goto step "UUID" first.


10. boot into a live Cd and use GParted to delete the old LM9 installation and extend the LMDE partition to use all the space

11. in a terminal (still on live CD), run

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sudo update-grub

Reboot and voila!


"UUID" - this step is taken if your UUIDs in your menu entrys do not match. (I have no idea why this happens)

On your original installation, goto GParted (it may not be installed, in which case

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apt install gparted

) then right-click on the new installation partition and press information. on there there is a UUID written, copy this and carefully replace the four UUIDs in the menu entrys (it will probably be the same as 2 of them) and reboot. When you next run update-grub, you may have to do this again. As you have to run it in step 11, its definitely worth checking after you have run it that the UUIDs match by running

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gksudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

before you reboot to avoid complications. now carry on from step 10.





-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIRST EDIT: taken and edited from here http://bobpeers.com/linux/hard_drive_install and here http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/08/in ... -from.html and my own experiments!!

if you have any issues let me know!

SECOND EDIT: was updated to reflect recent discoveries as per post below!

THIRD EDIT: updated as it was tested and works

[itsme4401]

According to the "Download links" on this page, http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php, there is a CD-live version available. I did not check if it is installable too.

[Eko_taas]

According to the "Download links" on this page, http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php, there is a CD-live version available. I did not check if it is installable too.

That's not for LMDE, but for Mint 9 and 10 only...

As my old compurer has nothing to save, I will try 1st HD-installation and report....

[itsme4401]

@Eko_taas: My sincere apologies. I should not have trusted Google that much, although I asked for : "lmde download"

[rivenathos]

Have you tried removing the hard drive from of the old computer, hooking it into a new computer, installing LMDE, and then putting the hard drive back in the old computer? You can then update, fiddle and tweak using the old computer. I have done that a few times myself in the past.

[beefstu]

Ok ive been playing around with this and finally got it to work!

In step 6, instead of copying just those two files, copy the entire contents of the extracted iso ([boot], capser and isolinux) and paste those into /distro

In step 8, the new menu entry should be (for me):

menuentry "Linux Mint Debian" --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
set root='(hd0,6)'
linux /distro/casper/vmlinuz ro boot=live live-media-path=/distro/casper quiet splash --
initrd /distro/casper/initrd.lz
}

The only thing that should be different for you is the set root='(hd0,6)' which you can just copy that line from your LM9 installation entry (I should have also said ALWAYS TAKE A BACKUP OF GRUB.CFG BEFORE PLAYING WITH IT!!)

I have edited the above post accordingly but thought I'd post separately as it is likely this would have gone unnoticed

[rekik]

Hi beefstu

Following your instructions I have successfully booted in LMDE from my hard disk, but install process hangs prematurely. I set partitions, language, username, etc., then when installation began, nothing else and no error message.

What went wrong ?

[beefstu]

Did you tell it to install in empty space rather than over then existing one? Try starting the installer from the terminal

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sudo /usr/lib/live-installer/main.py

(I think thats the right code!) and see if it shows any error messages. have you tested the MD5 of the .iso you downloaded?

[rekik]

I checked md5 (OK), used an empty partition (sda3) and formated it to ext4 during the install process. Here is the terminal output

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newmint@mint ~ $ sudo /usr/lib/live-installer/main.py
** Message: console message: file:///usr/share/live-installer-slideshow/slides/link/prototype.js @988: TypeError: Result of expression 'container' [undefined] is not an object.

** Message: console message: file:///usr/share/live-installer-slideshow/slides/index.html#?locale=en @113: TypeError: Result of expression 'element' [null] is not an object.

mount: you must specify the filesystem type
 ## OVERVIEW 
 Language: fr_FR 
 Timezone: Europe/Paris 
 Keyboard layout: France 
 Keyboard model: Generic 105-key (Intl) PC 
 Real name: rekik 
 Username: rekik 
 Hostname: lmde 
 Do not install bootloader
 Format /dev/sda3 (19076) as ext4
 Mount /dev/sda3 as /
 ## INSTALLATION 
 --> Installation started
Base filesystem does not exist! Critical error (exiting)

And thank you for your reply

[beefstu]

Hi,

Sorry for slow reply. It has unfortunately got me stumped. The only thing I can think of is unmounting your hard drive (goto the file browser and click the eject button next to the drives which show it on the left) and trying again. I can only find any references to that error in translation documents. Otherwise it may be worth messaging Ikey as I believe he wrote the installer for LMDE so he may be able to shed some light on what that error means as I don't think its documented.

[rekik]

Thanks, beefstu, I will try it

[rekik]

So, don't include
an empty mount-point

I don't understand what does "empty mount-point" mean
The sole empty partitions I have is sda3 (mounted as / and formatted as ext4). Have I to write something in sda3 before installing LMDE ?

[sawtdk]

I have the same problem. What can we do to fix it?

[TheAndyBob]

I'm getting a similar error on mine. In fact, identical. The filesystem error.
I'm trying to get the partition sda4 workin for me though. Any thoughts on what to do?

[NimaSepassi]

Does anyone know if this issue is solved? I can't tell.

[TheAndyBob]

Well i got mine working somehow. I did some extensive googling, and found one other guy having a similar problem when installing from a USB clip. Turned out that the clip was bad. I decided, hey, why not, pop the sucker on a new DVD and see what happens? It worked with the new DVD. Now I don't know what happened, it could have downloaded weirdly? Or maybe the DVD was just bad? I don't know how it works now, just what I did that makes it work. May want to try it?

[NimaSepassi]

Then it's not solved. Look at the title, it says "How to make/get LMDE as live CD (nand not as DVD)?"

[TheAndyBob]

sorry man, this same question was asked somewhere else in my searching and posting. Missed the title of this one.