46 lines
		
	
	
		
			2.1 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			XML
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			46 lines
		
	
	
		
			2.1 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			XML
		
	
	
	
	
	
<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. If you're on macOS you can run <command>diskutil list</command>
 | 
						|
to see the list of devices; the device you'll use for the USB must be ejected
 | 
						|
before writing the image.</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>
 |