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I have a very old system using Ubuntu 4.04 with Firefox 2.0. Yes very old. I did not use this for a long time and now I want to install OpenBSD on this system. Firefox can not access to Internet anymore because the security protocol is enabled. I accept that and tried something else.

So I used my new system and went to http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#bsd.rd and downloaded "instal67.iso" successful. On the new system I use Ubuntu 18.04 and I want to use "Startup disk creation" and try select the .iso file. But the iso file is not selected because "Startup disk creation" could only be used for Ubuntu. But the bash dd command could be used.

dd if=install*.fs of=/dev/rsd6c bs=1m

The explanation on http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#bsd.rd how to use "dd" statement is unclear to me. And it seems to be different on each system.

If my iso file is located on my home path so:

./install67.iso

and my USB on:

media/myname/Ubuntu 18.04

"Ubuntu 18.04" might be the name of my previous iso file which can be deleted.

What would the statement be to create a bootable USB for OpenBSD?

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2 Answers 2

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First things first, dd(1) is not part of Bash. It's a standard command on Unix(-like) systems.

Now, here's how to get an OpenBSD image onto a USB flash device (aka USB key) on Linux:

  1. Download the appropriate *.fs file, e.g., install67.fs, not the *.iso variant.

  2. Run lsblk to see a list of storage devices on your system before you plug in the USB key.

  3. Plug in the USB key, but do not mount it. If it's mounted automatically, unmount it.

  4. Run lsblk again to see what device name has been assigned to the USB key. (It's the one that's new to the list.)

  5. Change into the directory that contains your OpenBSD image file.

  6. Use dd(1) to apply the image to the USB key. For example, if the device name of your USB key is /dev/sdb (lsblk(8) won't show the /dev/ part), the command would have to look like this:

    dd if=install67.fs of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

  7. Run sync to make sure the data is really pushed out to the USB key.

Some caveats:

  1. You'll likely need root privileges to run that dd command.
  2. Do not use a partition of the device (e.g., something like /dev/sdb3) as the output file (the argument to of=). You need to write the image to the device (e.g., /dev/sdb), not to a partition.
  3. Double-check you've got the device name right. dd(1) is a destructive command. That also means: It will destroy any data already on your USB key before you apply the image to it.
  4. Neither dd(1) nor sync(1) will show progress. If you get your shell prompt back without any errors printed, everything should be fine.

Last but not least, I wouldn't install a system using an installation image that I haven't verified in any way. So, you might want to read about how to create verified OpenBSD installation media on Linux and integrate that into the process.

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Use the "startup disk creator" from the bash.

If its not installed try installing it from the snap store or you can use the command line

sudo apt update

sudo apt install usb-creator-gtk

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