[pve-devel] [PATCH docs 3/3] Rewrite Install from USB flash drive

Aaron Lauterer a.lauterer at proxmox.com
Mon Jun 17 15:02:36 CEST 2019 

Polished the phrasing, aligned different names for a USB flash drive,
renamed OS X to macOS, changed primary recommendation for Windows to
Rufus, removed mention of os forensics.

Rufus now supports `dd` mode and is a much smaller download than
etcher.

Signed-off-by: Aaron Lauterer <a.lauterer at proxmox.com>
---
 pve-usbstick.adoc | 104 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------
 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+), 49 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pve-usbstick.adoc b/pve-usbstick.adoc
index 5eb9132..a7dd7c9 100644
--- a/pve-usbstick.adoc
+++ b/pve-usbstick.adoc
@@ -1,121 +1,127 @@
-Install from USB Stick
-----------------------
+Install from a USB flash drive
+------------------------------
 ifdef::wiki[]
 :pve-toplevel:
 endif::wiki[]
 
-The {pve} installation media is a hybrid ISO image, working in two ways:
+The {pve} installation media is a hybrid ISO image. It works in two
+ways:
 
 * An ISO image file ready to burn on CD
 
-* A raw sector (IMG) image file ready to directly copy to flash media
-  (USB Stick)
+* A raw sector (IMG) image file ready to be copied to a USB flash
+  drive (USB stick)
 
-Using USB sticks is faster and more environmental friendly and
-therefore the recommended way to install {pve}.
+The recommended way to install {pve} is to use a USB flash drive as
+it is faster and more friendly to the environment than burning a CD.
 
 
 Prepare a USB flash drive as install medium
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-In order to boot the installation media, copy the ISO image to a USB
-media.
-
-First download the ISO image from
+The ISO images can be downloaded from:
 https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads/category/iso-images-pve
 
-You need at least a 1 GB USB media.
+The flash drive needs to have at least 1GiB of storage available.
 
-NOTE: Using UNetbootin or Rufus does not work.
+NOTE: Using UNetbootin does not work.
 
-IMPORTANT: Make sure that the USB media is not mounted and does not
-contain any important data.
+IMPORTANT: Make sure that the USB flash drive is not mounted and does
+not contain any important data.
 
 
 Instructions for GNU/Linux
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-You can simply use `dd` on UNIX like systems. First download the ISO
-image, then plug in the USB stick. You need to find out what device
-name gets assigned to the USB stick (see below). Then run:
+The tool `dd` can be used on UNIX like systems to copy the image to
+the USB flash drive. For this to work you do need to find the correct
+name of the flash drive (see below).
 
 ----
-dd if=proxmox-ve_*.iso of=/dev/XYZ bs=1M
+# dd if=proxmox-ve_*.iso of=/dev/XYZ bs=1M
 ----
 
 NOTE: Be sure to replace /dev/XYZ with the correct device name.
 
-CAUTION: Be very careful, and do not overwrite the hard disk!
+CAUTION: Be very careful, and do not overwrite the wrong disk!
 
 
 Find Correct USB Device Name
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
-You can compare the last lines of 'dmesg' command before and after the
-insertion, or use the 'lsblk' command. Open a terminal and run:
+There are two ways to find out the name of the USB flash drive. You
+can compare the last lines of the `dmesg` command output before and
+after plugging in the flash drive. The other way is to compare the
+output of the `lsblk` command. Open a terminal and run:
 
 ----
- lsblk
+# lsblk
 ----
 
-Then plug in your USB media and run the command again:
+Then plug in your USB flash drive and run the command again:
 
 ----
- lsblk
+# lsblk
 ----
 
-A new device will appear, and this is the USB device you want to use.
+A new device will appear. To be on the extra safe side check if the
+reported size matches your USB flash drive.
 
 
-Instructions for OSX
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Instructions for macOS
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Open the terminal (query Terminal in Spotlight).
 
-Convert the .iso file to .img using the convert option of hdiutil for example.
+Convert the .iso file to .img using the convert option of `hdiutil`
+for example.
 
 ----
-hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o proxmox-ve_*.dmg proxmox-ve_*.iso
+# hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o proxmox-ve_*.dmg proxmox-ve_*.iso
 ----
 
-TIP: OS X tends to put the .dmg ending on the output file automatically.
+TIP: macOS tends to automatically add '.dmg' to the output file name.
 
-To get the current list of devices run the command again:
+To get the current list of devices run the command:
 
 ----
-diskutil list
+# diskutil list
 ----
 
-Now insert your USB flash media and run this command again to
-determine the device node assigned to your flash media
+Now insert the USB flash drive and run this command again to
+determine which device node has been assigned to it.
 (e.g. /dev/diskX).
 
 ----
-diskutil list
-
-diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
+# diskutil list
+# diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
 ----
 
 NOTE: replace X with the disk number from the last command.
 
 ----
-sudo dd if=proxmox-ve_*.dmg of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m
+# sudo dd if=proxmox-ve_*.dmg of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m
 ----
 
-NOTE: 'rdiskX', instead of 'diskX', in the last command is intended,
-this will increase write speed
+NOTE: 'rdiskX', instead of 'diskX', in the last command is intended.
+It will increase the write speed.
 
 Instructions for Windows
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Download Etcher from https://etcher.io , select the ISO and your USB Drive.
+Download Rufus from https://rufus.ie/. Either install it or use the
+portable version. Select the destination drive and the {pve} ISO file.
 
-If this doesn't work, alternatively use the OSForensics USB
-installer from http://www.osforensics.com/portability.html
+Once you click 'Start' a dialog asking to download a different version
+of Grub will show up. Click 'No'. In the next dialog select the 'DD'
+mode.
 
+An alternative to Rufus that should work as well is Etcher.
+Download Etcher from https://etcher.io. It will guide you through the
+process of selecting the ISO and your USB Drive.
 
-Boot your server from USB media
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Boot your server from the USB flash drive
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Connect your USB media to your server and make sure that the server
-boots from USB (see server BIOS). Then follow the installation wizard.
+Connect the USB flash drive to your server and make sure that the
+booting from USB is enabled (check your servers BIOS). Then follow
+the installation wizard.
-- 
2.20.1

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