On Mon, 7 Jul 2014, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 07, 2014 at 04:52:22PM -0500, Connie Sieh wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> The iso in
>>>>> http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/7rolling/x86_64/iso/
>>
>>>> Yes.  To burn to a DVD you will need a Dual Layer DVD .
>>
>>> USB installer or bust!
>>
>> Go for it.
>>
>
> Just checked, the CentOS 7 ISO image explictely supports "dd" to USB flash.
>
> This is as opposed to the SL6.5 ISO images where "dd" to USB flash are not bootable.

I created a newer version of the SL6.5 ISO images that worked with dd. 
Please indicate exact image url that was used for this test.

>
> (SLC 6.5 (CERN) iso image "dd" to USB flash is also bootable).
>
> I am only partially aware of severe magic required to make bootable USB flash
> devices (spent 2 days last week making an SL 6.5 USB flash bootable - grub1 - "error 18",
> extlinux - "boot error" and "cannot load ldlinux.c32", depending on which extlinux,
> grub2 finally booted, but no SL6.5 grub2 RPMs, had to cross-build it myself),
> but if SLC, CentOS and Ubuntu can do it, no excuse for not having it in SL.
>
> P.S. But I have no idea how this integrates with using a site-specific kickstart file,
> the best I can tell, the ISO image is "read-only" and it is impossible to put
> my kickstart file inside it, so I still have to do what I do with my USB installer
> if I want to run kickstart installs from USB.
>
> P.P.S. But maybe this does not matter as I do many installs by cloning. (saves time on
> all the post-install customizations).
>
> P.P.P.S. But cloning does not run the RH installer (anaconda) which proved
> an eccelent hardware test - machines that crash, hang and fail during installation
> tend to be faulty and also fail in normal use, machines that can boot and run the installer
> from start to finish tend to be stable in normal use.
>
>

-Connie Sieh