Install Fedora onto (not from) an SD card

[Phil Meyer]

On 12/27/2009 01:10 PM, Gordon Charrick wrote:
> Does anyone have a way to install onto an SD card? I have been able to 
> install on a USB stick but the installer doesn't see an SD card as a 
> device to install onto.
>
> I don't want this to be setup as one of those "live" distributions 
> where you have your static part and then an overlay where you save any 
> changes. I want the SD card to act as a hard drive (although a pretty 
> slow one) where it'll have a /, /boot, and swap partitions.
>

Yes, this is very possible, and it does work quite well.  Others have 
mentioned the issues involved with using flash drives, so don't skimp 
and you will probably be fine.

The easiest way is to install to a flash device in a virtual machine.

Here is a scenario:

1. Plug in flash device.
2. Determine device.
     dmesg or df -h -- if auto mounted you can see it
     unmount the device, but don't remove it.
     I will assume sdb for this example.
3. Use a .iso to install.
     sudo qemu -hda /dev/sdb -cdrom Fedora-12-x86_64-DVD.iso -boot d -m 
1024 -net nic -net user

After the install completes, you can use the flash device just about 
anywhere.  Pretty cool.


Good Luck!