USB flash installation media
Related articles
This page discusses various multi-platform methods on how to create an Arch Linux Installer USB drive (also referred to as "flash drive", "USB stick", "USB key", etc) for booting in BIOS and UEFI systems. The result will be a LiveUSB (LiveCD-like) system that can be used for installing Arch Linux, system maintenance or for recovery purposes, and that, because of the nature of SquashFS, will discard all changes once the computer shuts down.
If you would like to run a full install of Arch Linux from a USB drive (i.e. with persistent settings), see Installing Arch Linux on a USB key. If you would like to use your bootable Arch Linux USB stick as a rescue USB, see Change root.
Contents
BIOS and UEFI Bootable USB
Using dd
In GNU/Linux
Run the following command, replacing /dev/sdx
with your drive, e.g. /dev/sdb
. (do not append a partition number, so do not use something like /dev/sdb1
):
# dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress && sync
Wait for the command sync to complete before unplugging the USB drive to ensure the data was written completely.
See Core utilities#dd for more information about dd
.
In Windows
Using Rufus
Rufus is a multi-purpose USB iso writer. Simply select the Arch Linux ISO, the USB drive you want to create the bootable Arch Linux onto and click start.
Since Rufus does not care if the drive is properly formatted or not and provides a GUI it may be the easiest and most robust tool to use.
Using USBwriter
This method does not require any workaround and is as straightforward as dd
under Linux. Just download the Arch Linux ISO, and with local administrator rights use the USBwriter utility to write to your USB flash memory.
Using win32diskimager
win32diskimager is another graphical USB iso writing tool for Windows. Simply select your iso image and the target USB drive letter (you may have to format it first to assign it a drive letter), and click Write.
Using Cygwin
Make sure your Cygwin installation contains the dd
package.
Place your image file in your home directory:
C:\cygwin\home\John\
Run cygwin as administrator (required for cygwin to access hardware). To write to your USB drive use the following command:
dd if=image.iso of=\\.\x: bs=4M
where image.iso is the path to the iso image file within the cygwin
directory and \\.\x:
is your USB flash drive where x
is the windows designated letter, e.g. \\.\d:
.
On Cygwin 6.0, find out the correct partition with:
cat /proc/partitions
and write the ISO image with the information from the output. Example:
dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
dd for Windows
A GPL licensed dd version for Windows is available at http://www.chrysocome.net/dd. The advantage of this over Cygwin is a smaller download. Use it as shown in instructions for Cygwin above.
To begin, download the latest version of dd for Windows. Once downloaded, extract the archive's contents into Downloads or elsewhere.
Now, launch your command prompt
as an administrator. Next, change directory (cd
) into the Downloads directory.
If your Arch Linux ISO is elsewhere you may need to state the full path, for convenience you may wish to put the Arch Linux ISO into the same folder as the dd executable. The basic format of the command will look like this.
# dd if=archlinux-2017-XX-YY-x86_64.iso od=\\.\x: bs=4M
Simply replace the various null spots (indicated by an "x") with the correct date and correct drive letter. Here is a complete example.
# dd if=ISOs\archlinux-2017.04.01-x86_64.iso od=\\.\d: bs=4M
In macOS
First, you need to identify the USB device. Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
and list all storage devices with the command:
$ diskutil list
Your USB device will appear as something like /dev/disk2 (external, physical)
. Verify that this is the device you want to erase by checking its name and size and then use its identifier for the commands below instead of /dev/diskX.
A USB device is normally auto-mounted in macOS, and you have to unmount (not eject) it before block-writing to it with dd
. In Terminal, do:
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
Now copy the ISO image file to the device. The dd
command is similar to its Linux counterpart, but notice the 'r' before 'disk' for raw mode which makes the transfer much faster:
$ sudo dd if=path/to/arch.iso of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m
After completion, macOS may complain that "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer". Select 'Ignore'. The USB device will be bootable.
Using manual formatting
In GNU/Linux
This method is more complicated than writing the image directly with dd
, but it does keep the flash drive usable for data storage (that is, the ISO is installed in a specific partition within the already partitioned device without altering other partitions).
- Make sure that the latest syslinux package (version 6.02 or newer) is installed on the system.
- If not done yet, create the partition table and/or partition on the device before continuing. The partition
/dev/sdXn
must be formatted to FAT32.
- Mount the ISO image, mount the FAT32 filesystem located in the USB flash device, and copy the contents of the ISO image to it. Then unmount the ISO image, but keep the FAT32 partition mounted (this will be used in subsequent steps). Eg:
# mkdir -p /mnt/{iso,usb} # mount -o loop archlinux-2017.04.01-x86_64.iso /mnt/iso # mount /dev/sdXn /mnt/usb # cp -a /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usb # sync # umount /mnt/iso
- UUID to select the partition to boot from is required. By default the label
ARCH_2017XX
(with the appropriate release month) is used. Thus, the partition’s label has to be set accordingly, for example using gparted. Alternatively, you can change this behaviour by altering the lines ending byarchisolabel=ARCH_2017XX
in files /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux/archiso_sys32.cfg and archiso_sys64.cfg, as well as /mnt/usb/loader/entries/archiso-x86_64.conf or similar for a 32-bit ISO (the last being useful only, if you want to boot the USB flash device from an EFI system). To use an UUID instead, replace those portions of lines witharchisodevice=/dev/disk/by-uuid/YOUR-UUID
. The UUID can be retrieved withblkid -o value -s UUID /dev/sdXn
. To boot either a label or an
- Syslinux is already preinstalled in /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux. Install it completely to that folder by following Syslinux#Manual install. Instructions are reproduced here for convenience.
- Overwrite the existing Syslinux modules (
*.c32
files) present in the USB (from the ISO) with the ones from the syslinux package (found in /usr/lib/syslinux/bios). This is necessary to avoid boot failure because of a possible version mismatch.
- Overwrite the existing Syslinux modules (
# cp /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux
- Run:
# extlinux --install /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux
- Unmount the partition (
umount /mnt/usb
) and install the MBR or GPT partition table to the USB device as described in the page mentioned.
- Unmount the partition (
- Mark the partition as active (or “bootable”).
In Windows
- Partition and format the USB drive using Rufus USB partitioner. Select partition scheme option as MBR for BIOS and UEFI and File system as FAT32. Uncheck "Create a bootable disk using ISO image" and "Create extended label and icon files" options.
- Change the Volume Label of the USB flash drive
X:
to match the LABEL mentioned in thearchisolabel=
part in<ISO>\loader\entries\archiso-x86_64.conf
. This step is required for Official ISO (Archiso) but not required for Archboot. This step can be also performed using Rufus, during the prior "partition and format" step.
- Extract the ISO (similar to extracting ZIP archive) to the USB flash drive (using 7-Zip.
- Download official Syslinux 6.xx binaries (zip file) from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ and extract it. The version of Syslinux should be the same version used in the ISO image.
- Run the following command (in Windows cmd prompt, as admin):
> cd bios\ > for /r %Y in (*.c32) do copy "%Y" "X:\arch\boot\syslinux\" /y > copy mbr\*.bin X:\arch\boot\syslinux\ /y
- Install Syslinux to the USB by running (use
win64\syslinux64.exe
for x64 Windows):
> cd bios\ > win32\syslinux.exe -d /arch/boot/syslinux -i -a -m X:
Other Methods for BIOS systems
In GNU/Linux
Using a multiboot USB drive
This allows booting multiple ISOs from a single USB device, including the archiso. Updating an existing USB drive to a more recent ISO is simpler than for most other methods. See Multiboot USB drive.
Using GNOME Disk Utility
Linux distributions running GNOME can easily make a live CD through nautilus and gnome-disk-utility. Simply right-click on the .iso file, and select "Open With Disk Image Writer." When GNOME Disk Utility opens, specify the flash drive from the "Destination" drop-down menu and click "Start Restoring."
Making a USB-ZIP drive
For some old BIOS systems, only booting from USB-ZIP drives is supported. This method allows you to still boot from a USB-HDD drive.
- Download syslinux and mtools from the official repositories.
- Find your usb drive with
lsblk
. - Type
mkdiskimage -4 /dev/sdx 0 64 32
(replace x with the letter of your drive). This will take a while.
From here continue with the manual formatting method. The partition will be /dev/sdx4 due to the way ZIP drives work.
Using UNetbootin
UNetbootin can be used on any Linux distribution or Windows to copy your iso to a USB device. However, Unetbootin overwrites syslinux.cfg, so it creates a USB device that does not boot properly. For this reason, Unetbootin is not recommended -- please use dd
or one of the other methods discussed in this topic.
Edit syslinux.cfg
:
sysconfig.cfg
default menu.c32 prompt 0 menu title Archlinux Installer timeout 100 label unetbootindefault menu label Archlinux_x86_64 kernel /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz append initrd=/arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img archisodevice=/dev/sdx1 ../../
In /dev/sdx1
you must replace x with the first free letter after the last letter in use on the system where you are installing Arch Linux (e.g. if you have two hard drives, use c
.). You can make this change during the first phase of boot by pressing Tab
when the menu is shown.
In Windows
Win32 Disk Imager
First, download the program from here. Next, extract the archive and run the executable. Now, select the Arch Linux ISO under the Image File
section and the USB flash device letter (for example, [D:\]) under the Device
section. Finally, click Write
when ready.
USBWriter for Windows
Download the program from http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbwriter/ and run it. Select the arch image file, the target USB stick, and click on the write
button. Now you should be able to boot from the usb stick and install Arch Linux from it.
The Flashnul way
flashnul is an utility to verify the functionality and maintenance of Flash-Memory (USB-Flash, IDE-Flash, SecureDigital, MMC, MemoryStick, SmartMedia, XD, CompactFlash etc).
From a command prompt, invoke flashnul with -p
, and determine which device index is your USB drive, e.g.:
C:\>flashnul -p
Avaible physical drives: Avaible logical disks: C:\ D:\ E:\
When you have determined which device is the correct one, you can write the image to your drive, by invoking flashnul with the device index, -L
, and the path to your image, e.g:
C:\>flashnul E: -L path\to\arch.iso
As long as you are really sure you want to write the data, type yes, then wait a bit for it to write. If you get an access denied error, close any Explorer windows you have open.
If under Vista or Win7, you should open the console as administrator, or else flashnul will fail to open the stick as a block device and will only be able to write via the drive handle windows provides
Loading the installation media from RAM
This method uses Syslinux and a Ramdisk (MEMDISK) to load the entire Arch Linux ISO image into RAM. Since this will be running entirely from system memory, you will need to make sure the system you will be installing this on has an adequate amount. A minimum amount of RAM between 500 MB and 1 GB should suffice for a MEMDISK based, Arch Linux install.
For more information on Arch Linux system requirements as well as those for MEMDISK see the Installation guide and here. For reference, here is the preceding forum thread.
Preparing the USB flash drive
Begin by formatting the USB flash drive as FAT32. Then create the following folders on the newly formatted drive.
-
Boot
-
Boot/ISOs
-
Boot/Settings
-
Copy the needed files to the USB flash drive
Next copy the ISO that you would like to boot to the Boot/ISOs
folder. After that, extract from the following files from the latest release of syslinux from here and copy them into the following folders.
-
./win32/syslinux.exe
to the Desktop or Downloads folder on your system. -
./memdisk/memdisk
to theSettings
folder on your USB flash drive.
Create the configuration file
After copying the needed files, navigate to the USB flash drive, /boot/Settings and create a syslinux.cfg
file.
/Boot/Settings/syslinux.cfg
DEFAULT arch_iso LABEL arch_iso MENU LABEL Arch Setup LINUX memdisk INITRD /Boot/ISOs/archlinux-2017.04.01-x86_64.iso APPEND iso
For more information on Syslinux see the Arch Wiki article.
Final steps
Finally, create a *.bat
file where syslinux.exe
is located and run it ("Run as administrator" if you are on Vista or Windows 7):
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\install.bat
@echo off syslinux.exe -m -a -d /Boot/Settings X:
Troubleshooting
- If you get the "30 seconds" error due to the
/dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_XXXXYY
not mounting, try renaming your USB media toARCH_XXXXYY
(e.g.ARCH_201501
).