This howto describes how to prepare an usb stick
in order to install Debian with the stick.


== Debian Live ==

My recommended way to install debian from an USB stick is
the Debian Live image. Simply copy

 http://caesar.acc.umu.se/debian-cd/current-live/i386/usb-hdd/debian-live-6.0.3-i386-kde-desktop.img

9e3a69cdc71299d46de9d650e987e772 debian-live-6.0.3-i386-kde-desktop.img

to your USB Stick:

 sudo dd if=debian-live-6.0.3-i386-kde-desktop.img of=/dev/usbstick
 sync


== GUI ==

Another easy way is to use
unetbootin-linux
which will you guide through the process.

It does, however, not support all debian installation variants -
for some you need to download the ISO yourself:

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.3/i386/iso-cd/
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.3/amd64/iso-cd/


== Manual HD-Media ==

Alternatively you can grab the boot image from:
http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dists/squeeze/main/installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/boot.img.gz
http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dists/squeeze/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/boot.img.gz

in order to write it on the usb stick:

 zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/usbstick
 sync

(/dev/usbstick is either a symlink or needs to be replaced with the
 device, e.g. /dev/sdg - enter "dmesg" to know the name)

The size of this image is however too limited to copy a whole ISO
on it.

Resize the stick so that the filesystem on the stick
so that the cd image will fit on it is, however, not
successful. When you try:

 sudo parted /dev/usbstick print
 sudo parted /dev/sdg resize 1 0 4G
 (I, I)

Then mount the usbstick:

 sudo mount /dev/usbstick /media/usbstick

And finally copy the image there:

 sudo cp debian-6.0.3-i386-kde-CD-1.iso /media/usbstick
 sudo umount /media/usbstick

You see that it fails booting up.
There are some instructions in the web using syslinux,
e.g. the official way (I did not try it, however):
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s03.html.en
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s03.html.de


== References ==

http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/debian-installer/
http://o-o-s.de/?p=717
http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/html_mono/parted.html