Description of problem: ======================= On Fedora 36, I want to create a bootable USB for Fedora 37. This immediately fails: # livecd-iso-to-disk --format --reset-mbr Downloads/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso /dev/sdb Source image is '/home/calvin/Downloads/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso' Verifying image... /home/calvin/Downloads/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso: 0f0a539212821d61fcedfda0b8409869 Fragment sums: b7843fb48cd5d5c9f8be2416df66448c25bd5d62d7877a937e6f8c8d6dfc Fragment count: 20 Supported ISO: no Press [Esc] to abort check. Checking: 100.0% The media check is complete, the result is: PASS. It is OK to use this media. Error 1 detected at line 2028 /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk Error 1 detected at line 2028 /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk The heroic bash script of thousands of lines reveals: ---- i=${CONFIG_SRC}/initrd*.img cd /tmp rm -rf usr ikernel=$(lsinitrd $i --unpack -f usr/lib/modules/*/kernel -v 2>&1) <-- fail here ikernel=${ikernel%/*}; ikernel=${ikernel##*/} rm -rf usr cd - >/dev/null 2>&1 ---- According to the livecd project at github, there is issue 253: https://github.com/livecd-tools/livecd-tools/issues/253 October 7, 2022: "Yes, the .iso image structure has changed with Fedora 37. A new version of livecd-iso-to-disk will be required. I'm testing that now." However, a fix seems to not have been released yet. (This may or may not have to do something with fedora-media-writer on windows failing to create a bootable USB stick for Fedora 37, a problem I encountered, but probably not) Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): ============================================================== livecd-iso-to-mediums-31.0-1.fc36.x86_64 livecd-tools-31.0-1.fc36.x86_64 How reproducible: ================= Always Expected results ================ A valid USB stick with Fedora 37. The livecd-iso-to-disk on Fedora 36 should really work properly for creating Fedora 37 USB stick as the documentation says to use it: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/creating-and-using-a-live-installation-image/index.html
This is still a problem on Fedora 38 livecd-tools-31.0-3.fc38.x86_64 livecd-iso-to-mediums-31.0-3.fc38.x86_64 --- 8< --- BEGIN --- 8< --- [root@meili Workstation]# /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk --format --efi Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso /dev/sdb Source image is '/home/shared/Fedora/38/Workstation/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso' Verifying image... /home/shared/Fedora/38/Workstation/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso: 65f6772bfece4ba799a9617066286559 Fragment sums: fee7abd6acd22ebedcb44e18a15a87e3faa8372ce551e99ae2a83e6c8bf3 Fragment count: 20 Supported ISO: no Press [Esc] to abort check. Checking: 100.0% The media check is complete, the result is: PASS. It is OK to use this media. Error 1 detected at line 2028 /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk Error 1 detected at line 2028 /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk --- 8< --- END --- 8< --- Doesn't anybody test the packages *before* they are released? Why isn't a *stock* Fedora 38 Workstation iso supported on Fedora 38?
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After trying again on Fedora 36 to create an USB Stick with the Fedora 38 ISO image, the only way that worked for me was using "dd" as described in https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/creating-and-using-a-live-installation-image/
It also fails in Fedora 38 with a Fedora 38 ISO image. These two failed for me: livecd-iso-to-disk Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso /dev/sda1 livecd-iso-to-disk --home-size-mb 1024 Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso /dev/sda1
The error is caused by the command lsinitrd /initrd*.img --unpack -f usr/lib/modules/*/kernel -v 2>&1 Namely, the variable CONFIG_SRC failed to be set. And the reason is simply that neither $SRCMNT/isolinux/ nor $SRCMNT/syslinux/ exist at that step in the livecd-iso-to-disk script. Actually, those forlders do not exist in $SRCMNT, at all.
Fedora Linux 36 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2023-05-16. Fedora Linux 36 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora Linux please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Note that the version field may be hidden. Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see the version field. If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against an active release. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.
Not even a response here from the maintainers or anyone connected to the maintainers. I still see this issue with the Fedora 38 live image. No wonder people are moving away to Ubuntu. After nearly 20 years of using Fedora, I have decided to move away to Ubuntu on the last system on which I had been using Fedora.
For future reference, the thing that actually worked for me, as also reported upthread, was: $ dd if=<iso_file> of=/dev/sde status=progress bs=8M oflag=direct
livecd-iso-to-disk --format --reset-mbr --overlay-size-mb 8000 --home-size-mb 2000 --unencrypted-home --livedir Fedora-MATE_Compiz-Live-x86_64-38-1.6 /root/Fedora-MATE_Compiz-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso /dev/sdX Source image is '/root/arch-copy/Fedora-MATE_Compiz-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso' Verifying image... /root/arch-copy/Fedora-MATE_Compiz-Live-x86_64-38-1.6.iso: ee14906a9f894a6c8a32a74d545e7dc1 Fragment sums: 9dc63337d2cbac425e4453254e62376bf181bf368a48481a5a9d19e92f81 Fragment count: 20 Supported ISO: no Press [Esc] to abort check. Checking: 100.0% The media check is complete, the result is: PASS. It is OK to use this media. Error 1 detected at line 2028 /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk Error 1 detected at line 2028 /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk
There is an another active bug reported for the same issue: Bug 2152842 (livecd-iso-to-disk always ends with error) It has 5 people subscribed to it and is against Fedora 37, while this one has 8 people on it, and is against Fedora 38 (previously against 36). Both are the same issue and both are unresolved. They are marked as NEW, while should already be confirmed. There are also discussions/issues on Github - one: https://github.com/livecd-tools/livecd-tools/issues/253 started Oct 2022, and another issue from Feb 2023: https://github.com/livecd-tools/livecd-tools/issues/262 where some kind of preliminary patch is suggested by a user. It seams like the livecd-tools package has no active maintainers unfortunately as this looks like a relatively simple bug, but there are no responses from the maintainers to this issue for months... livecd-tools is a package in the official Fedora repository, and Fedora itself have changed the ISO format. livecd-iso-to-disk was always my first and preferred method of creating Live images, as I am using USB sticks with Live images for system maintenance/fix/rescue/partitioning work. You NEED to have an "overlay" to install additional administrative tools in the Live system! And livecd-iso-to-disk is the only way I know of doing this. All tutorials on the Fedora website talk about "dd" or Fedora Media Writer, but these only create barebone Live image with no overlay, thus pretty useless (no system tools like gparted, etc) Additionally, as you cannot buy an USB sticks smaller than 32GB nowadays, it is extremely wasteful to use "dd", and thus, do not allow putting additional files onto the stick. Please fix this issue. It seems as a simple path issue (no syslinux and no isolinux directories in the Fedora 38 ISOs). I tried fixing it myself, but I do not have sufficient understanding of boot inner-workings to guess what file in the new Fedora ISOs are which and where should be inserted into the script. I will try the patch mentioned in the github comment... Thanks!