Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick

From	Kent West <westk@acu.edu>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick
Date	2017-11-07 18:10 +0100
Message-ID	<uJfxU-4px-15@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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I wanted to create a Live Debian USB stick (using an existing Debian
system). I remember doing such a few years ago with "unetbootin", but when
I looked for "unetbootin" via aptitude search, I couldn't find it, so I did
a quick "unetbootin debian" search, and found a Debian bug report from 2015
(https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=775689) that led me to
believe I should not use unetbootin, but to use the newer method of simply
dd'ing the .ISO to the USB drive.

So I went to
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/ and
downloaded the AMD64 Cinnamon version of 9.2.0, and then inserted my USB
stick, found it on /dev/sdc, and ran the command:

sudo if=debian-live-9.2.0-amd64-cinnamon.iso
<https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-9.2.0-amd64-cinnamon.iso>
of=/dev/sdc

I walked away then and came back in a few minutes to find it had finished,
but didn't pay attention to any other messages, and then tried booting it
on another year-old Dell PC. It gave me the grub menu, but then when I
tried to boot Debian Live, I got an error about an invalid magic number and
a need to load a kernel first.

Not finding any documentation that might help, I checked the md5sum on the
downloaded file (it was correct), and tried the dd again. Same result.

I tinkered a bit, and then the next time I tried a dd, I noticed that it
was giving me an input/output error for /dev/sdc. Still, it seemed to
finish properly, but the boot attempt gave the same failed result.

So I decided to try a different download; I tried the Mate flavor. Same
result.

So I decided to try a different USB stick. Same result.

And now, both my sticks are complaining about being mounted read-only, and
I can't seem to fix that.

I tried "hdparm -r0 /dev/sdc", and that reports that it's set the read-only
flag to off, but the stick still is read-only.

So it appears that dd'ing a Debian .iso to a USB stick, at least using my
hardware, bricks the USB stick.

I'm assuming my attempt has cost me two USB sticks, and has just left a bad
experience with Debian under my belt, and there's nothing I can do about
it. (I don't even know where a bug report might go.) But I thought I'd put
this info on the User's list, just for the record, and perhaps at the
chance that someone might have a solution.

Thanks!

--
Kent West <")))><
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com

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Thread

Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-07 18:10 +0100
  Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Cindy-Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2017-11-07 18:30 +0100
  Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> - 2017-11-07 19:50 +0100
    Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-07 22:10 +0100
      Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> - 2017-11-08 00:30 +0100
  Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick davidson <davidson@freevolt.org> - 2017-11-07 20:40 +0100
  Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-11-07 20:40 +0100
    Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-07 22:00 +0100
      Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-07 22:10 +0100
        Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-11-07 23:10 +0100
          Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-07 23:30 +0100
            Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-07 23:40 +0100
              Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-08 00:00 +0100
              Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-08 00:00 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-11-08 00:50 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-11-08 01:00 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2017-11-08 01:20 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-11-08 09:50 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-08 16:00 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-11-08 16:20 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-11-08 17:10 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2017-11-08 18:00 +0100
              Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2017-11-08 00:20 +0100
                Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2017-11-08 01:00 +0100
  Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-11-07 22:50 +0100
  Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Mike Kupfer <mkupfer@alum.berkeley.edu> - 2017-11-11 19:50 +0100
    Re: Debian Live USB fails; bricks the USB stick Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-11-11 20:30 +0100

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