This page explains how to install SystemRescue on a USB stick. All data on the memory stick will be deleted so make sure it does not contain any important data.
You need a recent SystemRescueCd, and a USB stick with enough capacity. You should use a 2GB memory stick or anything larger. You will have to get your firmware (BIOS/UEFI) to boot from the USB device before it attempts to boot from the local disk. This can be configured either in the firmware settings or by pressing a key at boot time.
This page describes multiple approaches available for installing such a USB stick. You just need to follow the method you prefer. In any case you need to start by download SystemRescue-7.00 (or more recent) from the download page.
If you are running Windows on your computer the recommended installation program is rufus as it is easy to use and supports both UEFI and Legacy-BIOS booting methods.
In the previous steps RESCUEXYZ
refers to the version number, eg: RESCUE700
for SystemRescue-7.00. Rufus should automatically use the label which was set
on the ISO filesystem and hence it should set this label automatically on the
USB device. You should not have to change it but you should make sure the label
is correct as this is required for the device to start properly. What matters is
that the label matches the value passed to the archisolabel
boot option in the
boot loader configuration files on the device (grubsrcd.cfg
and
sysresccd_sys.cfg
) so files can be found at the time the system starts from
the USB device.
The recommended tool for installing SystemRescue to a memory stick on Linux
is usbimager as it does the job well, it
is very compact, and it comes with minimal dependencies. This program can be
downloaded
and executed without installation. The archive can be extracted using unzip
and
the program must be run via sudo
so it can write to the memory stick device.
This program is very simple to use as you just need to select the ISO image and
the destination removable device using the graphical interface.
An alternative approach is to use Fedora Media Writer if you want to install SystemRescue to a memory stick using Linux. It will produce a USB stick which is bootable for both a Legacy BIOS and in UEFI node.
custom image
from the first menuThis approach only requires the dd command to copy the ISO image file to the USB device. Make sure you use the right device with dd as the operation is destructive if you write to the wrong device.
/dev/sdx
is the USB stickFollow this method is you want to boot the USB device in UEFI mode. The idea is to create a FAT32 partition on the device where the firmware will find Grub. For the UEFI firmware to use this partition as the EFI filesystem is must have the right flags in the partition table. The USB device can have additional partitions.
In the previous steps RESCUEXYZ
refers to the version number, eg: RESCUE700
for SystemRescue-7.00.
After you have followed these steps you should check the contents of both
/boot/grub/grubsrcd.cfg
and /sysresccd/boot/syslinux/sysresccd_sys.cfg
on
the USB device has the right value for the archisolabel
boot option. The label
passed to this option needs to match the label of the FAT32 filesystem on the USB
device so it can find the SystemRescue files during the boot time. A mismatch
will cause a boot failure.