Haiku USB Stick Install for Dummies?

1

Hi, Group,

I’m probably one of the least tech-savvy folks in this discussion forum. I’m not a programmer or developer. I do, however, run a nonprofit called Ears To Our World (http://etow.org). I use a netbook when I travel (Acer Aspire One) and I just discovered Haiku so thought I would give it a shot (I’ve always had a place in my heart for BeOS).

I’m having difficulty creating a USB stick install of Haiku. I’ve followed the instructions on the Haiku website, but I simply don’t understand the command line stuff to use with dd for windows (I run Win 7 on my main PC).

I also tried Haiku on a stick, but even a fresh download of the software instantly produces an error up front and has not worked.

My USB stick is formatted Fat32 and is 1GB.

Can someone either give me some super simple install instructions for a USB stick (something you would write for your grandmother)or point me to an easier work-around?

Cheers,
Thomas

2
  1. Download haiku anyboot image. http://www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku
  2. If you’re useing windows, you need to download this program: https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer
  3. Write downloaded image to USB stick with w32Diskimager, that you downloaded on the prevous step
  4. Restart your computer
  5. Press F12 (if you have asire one) on BIOS startup, and choose to boot from you USB stick

Thats it, you should see haiku bootscreen.

3

Thank you SO much! That worked like a charm.

These directions should replace the ones currently on Haiku’s USB Install page:
http://www.haiku-os.org/guides/making_haiku_usb_stick

Now I only have to figure out how to make the wireless card work–I think I found the solution, though!

Cheers,
Thomas

4

I’m not having any luck with windows-32 discburner. For me, it does not recognize the .image file that anyboot creates. It only gives me the option of .img images. My .image file will not show up in the box at all.

I don’t understand - I’m a lot like Thomas, but he breezed right through it.

Thank you.

5

Change name from .image to .img for anyboot image. :slight_smile:

Should work for you after that. Program only looks for files with certain extention. It does not recognize .image as being image files.

I tested and works very good. It will split the drive into two partitions. Installs Haiku to 1st partition which is same size as image file. 2nd partition is unformatted and you can format to any filesystem you want for it (ie: bfs, fat32).

6

Sounds good, i’m all for a simpler method but didn’t know about this tool when writing the guide. I’ll try it and update the guide, thanks :slight_smile:

7

Thanks for planning to update the guide!

I also second what was said about changing the extension from “.image” to “.img”. I forgot to mention that I had to do this as well. It should be noted in the guide.

Thanks again, everyone. I look forward to playing with Haiku. It seems to run well on the Acer Aspire One netbook. I plan to configure the wireless card today.

Cheers,
Thomas

8

This method has been added to the guide.

Note that ImageWriter for Windows is considered experimental (alpha) software by it’s own author. Be sure to read the README.txt file included with the software. That’s one of the reason i kept the alternative “dd for Windows” method in the guide.

Regards,
Alex