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2011-01-21, 07:08
I am attempting to install XBMC Live via a USB flash drive. I do not have a CD (or any optical) drive in my HTPC. I am planning to run without an optical drive and use my HTPC for the sole purpose of streaming media from my NAS.
My problem is being unable to boot to the USB flash drive after using 'dd' to write the ISO to the drive. I have found that this is probably not the best approach.
Can someone advise me on the best way to install XBMC from a USB flash drive? I would like to boot directly to my USB and then be able to use it as an install medium to install XBMC to my internal target disc!
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sorry, I should have specified that I am attempting to create the USB Install Drive from a Mac. Does anyone know how to write an ISO to a USB drive so I can boot from the USB to install Live?!
Thank You! (I have researched methods and also tried using 'dd')
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*BUMP* : can anyone advise me on how to create a USB Flash drive from the XBMC ISO so I can boot to the USB and install XBMC Live on my internal drive?!
I am on a Mac. Thanks!
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Uuaww
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Ok well, I only own a mac and my revo which runs linux. I am going to tell you now, it is damn near impossible to create a bootable usb drive with a mac. I tried everything for days without success. It is 100x easier just to borrow someones pc and do it.
sorry, thats what I resorted to.
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2011-01-23, 19:33
(This post was last modified: 2011-11-09, 20:54 by Ned Scott.)
Boot the LIVE version of XBMC on a computer with a CD Drive and use the bootable disk wizzard to create a proper USB installable USB drive.
You're spinning your wheels with anything else.
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I don't know if ubuntu can read MacOS partition but you can start a ubuntu live CD and than you can use the ubuntu tool under System->Administration->startup disk creator than select the iso and the usb key and wait some minutes. If you can't read mac os partition you can put the iso in another usb key or download iso in live session.
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Alright! I finally got a bootable USB Install Drive setup. I had to resort to using UNetbootIn on Windows. I did not try UNetbootin on Ubuntu (although I could have).
I had Windows and Linux VMs available to try the different options. Once the USB was created with UNetbootin, booting from the USB was seamless and I was unstalling XBMC!
Side Note: I still think it would make sense and be convenient to have other options to create a USB Install Drive. The built-in add-on functionality is a good idea, in concept, but it defeats the purpose. The entire purpose of creating a USB Install Drive is so you do not have to burn a CD and boot using a CD (or any optical) drive. So needing to burn a Live CD to go into the utility to attempt making a USB defeats the whole purpose... IMO. Yes, it eliminates needing the CD drive in the HTPC but it still requires burning a CD.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I greatly appreciate it and hope this thread may be useful to others down the road who are struggling with my same issues. I also hope in the future there will be an easy way to upgrade via an IMG file loaded through XBMC or to write an IMG file to a USB!