Installation to USB
I have an old laptop that needs CloudReady, but is not concerned with performance. Problem is that it lacks a working hard drive. I currently have it running of an installer USB stick, which is sort of OK, but not quite. I would like to install to a USB stick.
First thing I figured out is that my available sticks are max 8GB, which is too small. So I got a bigger one, which is running into other problems. After wiping the file system, I still get a fatal error, but I believe it is a bug in the installer script. The command I used is
$ sudo /usr/sbin/chromeos-install --yes --skip_dst_removable --dst /dev/sdc
and the traceback points to:
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['/usr/bin/cgpt', 'show', '/dev/sda']' returned non-zero exit status 1
The laptop I am doing this install in, indeed has a HDD (/dev/sda) but since it is not mentioned in the installer command, the installer script has no business looking there. So... what gives?
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I believe the bug is either in
/opt/neverware/cgpt_reader_guy.py:main
for not honoring the command line argument destination or
/opt/neverware/disk_util:choose_destination_device_path
for not even considering it.
Now, this machine has a HDD in it. According to choose_destination_device_path, it is trying to determine the optimal target and defaulting to /dev/sda is it can't. In this machine, /dev/sda is indeed the optimum target, but it is NOT what I specified!
Any developers care to pitch in?
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"since OTA updates are disabled for [USB] devices.'
I wasn't aware of that. Does anyone know if that is switcheable? USB devices are dreadfully slow compared to even spinning metal disks, but the advantage I see is being able to revive a laptop with a busted hard drive for a little over €10 instead of €30 or more for a new hard drive. Also, keeping a USB stick with me on the go means I can boot from it on many different devices and have a portable working environment wherever I go, with accounts set up and caches primed.
I suppose I can sort of do the same with the installer, but afaik that runs of a compressed volume and is even slower.
Addendum: I just looked up HDD prices and they have come down so far that I think I might be optimising for the wrong thing. Oh, well. Interesting exercise nevertheless.
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pierro78 1. you did not specify what your device make and model is.
2. This is a 3 year old thread. Why not start a new one that we can address your issues?
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Why not back up your hard drive and then follow the instructions?
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I got the answer from https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudready/comments/ps3qgb/use_skip_dst_removable_to_install_cloudready_on/ :
... it s now working (but on an UEFI laptop) if I use "chromeos-install --skip_src_removable --skip_dst_removable --dst /dev/sdX" ... -
at least 2 people say ( https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudready/comments/pppbq6/awesome_live_usb_with_cloudready_thanks_to_ventoy/hdm8fz1/?context=3 ) that OTA updates will work with an USB ssd ... I am curious if it will work on my very tiny SanDisk Ultra Fit USB3 stick ...
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Try it ... HERE is the 92.1.14 download link. Install it & check for an update. If it works it should update to 92.4.2.
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pierro78 I tried on a 16gb USB 3.0 with no luck as described above.
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Tony Baloney : right , I also tried with the 92.1.14 that you have linked onto a Samsung Fit Plus USB3.1 stick and it s saying it's up to date (current cloudready version is 92.4 though ...)
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PS1 :
my /mnt/stateful_partition/encrypted/var/log/update_engine.log says "Updates permanently disabled"
PS2 :
also found https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360046937094-CloudReady-78-4-3-LiveUSB-won-t-update-to-latest-stable-release about using "update_engine_client --update" to force the update but it didn t work ...
PS3 :
I forgot I posted 8 months ago in another thread : https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/206033368-I-think-I-figured-out-how-to-make-auto-update-work-for-a-USB-install- ... -
pierro78 Hope springs ETERNAL!
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Tony Baloney : maybe I am going to try the dualboot option : https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360046943233--How-To-Dual-booting-CloudReady-on-UEFI-systems
(seen on https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudready/comments/o3gk5p/can_i_install_cloudreadychromeos_on_an_empty_hard/h2cx4wr/?context=3
or https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudready/comments/ps3qgb/use_skip_dst_removable_to_install_cloudready_on/hey7nnm/?context=3 )
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