How to install without cd-rom?

Hello!

Rebellin ISOs are tested on a flash drive. I myself install Rebellin using a flash drive! 🙂

But I understand the problem you’re facing. Let’s try to fix the issue. Now I know you already must have gone through some of the steps mentioned here, but I’m still writing them as they may come in handy for someone else stopping by:

We’ll be using UNetbootin for this tutorial.

1. Format your Flash Drive with FAT32 File System. If you’re using Windows, go with the ‘Full Format’ option.
2. Check the MD5 sum of the ISO files you have downloaded. Verify with the ones mentioned on the download page of Rebellin. At times errors during downloading results in a faulty ISO file.
3. Burn the ISO file to your flash drive using UNetbootin. A tutorial for creating a Live USB with UNetbootin is available in the Rebellin Manual. You may go through it.
4. Boot from the Flash drive we just created and start the installer. Select ‘GUI Install’.
5. The moment installation starts, it will ask you for the language. Click on ‘Go Back’ button at the bottom of the screen.
6. This will bring you to the main menu of the installer. Here, select ‘Execute a shell’.
7. Now the system will be ready to start the shell. Click on ‘Continue’ at the next screen and the shell should load. It’s a basic shell so only a few important commands are available.
8. Now the big step. Since the installer fails to identify/load the CDROM, we’ll basically mount the flash drive at the CDROM mount point. This way the installer should find its ‘CDROM’! Follow the commands below:
   1. Give the following command: ls -l /dev/sd*
   2. This will give you a list of drives present. Identify your flash drive. Mine is /dev/sdb1
   3. Make a directory to mount the contents of the flash drive. Give the following command: mkdir iso
   4. Mount the flash drive contents to the director we made. Give the following command: mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /iso (Replace sdb1 with the correct label of your flash drive)
   5. Now let’s make a simlink to the ‘iso’ directory. We’ll call it ‘cdrom’. When the installer will access this mount point, it should automatically find all the stuff it’s looking for. Give the following command: ln -s iso/ cdrom
9. The entire step 8 has been summarized in screenshot below. You may refer to it.
10. Done! Now you can exit the shell with the ‘exit’ command. You should be back at the main menu. Highlight ‘Choose Language’ and press ‘Continue’. Proceed normally with the installation. This time it should proceed without a hitch.

Here’s the screenshot of the process:

I hope this above tutorial works out for you. If it still fails, well, the last resort is to try a different live USB creator. If you have Windows, I recommend you try YUMI. You can get it from here.

Do let me know how it goes.

Cheers!

– Utkarsh.

Hi, Utkarsh!
Thx for the reply and instructions.
I followed your procedure and I got stuck at “mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /iso”, since it returns with “invalid argument”.
I also tried “mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /iso/” as it is on your photo, but getting the same msg “invalid argument”.
Any idea what could be wrong.
All best, Gregor

Hello Gregor!

I just tried the procedure on my end and it works as expected. It’s strange you’re getting the ‘invalid argument’ error.

Anyway. We’ll diagnose the issue. The possible problems might be:

Wrong partition type. Is the flash drive formatted to FAT32?

Wrong path. Is /dev/sdb1 the correct path to your USB device? Have you created the iso directory?

Could you please take a picture of your screen and attach it here? This will help me understand the issue better. You may even email me the picture/s. Also, send me the picture of the entire process. Like the one above. Taking a screen shot will be difficult, so a camera snap would do as well. 🙂

Waiting for reply.

– Utkarsh.

Hey!
Thx for prompt reply.

Utkarsh:
Wrong partition type. Is the flash drive formatted to FAT32?
Gregor:
Firstly, I put iso on usbkey with dd command.
After your answer, I reformatted it with gparted and then put iso on usbkey with Unetbootin.
And now your procedure works and I continued with choosing language and came to where it shoould recognize cdrom, but it didn’t 🙁
So, I am stuck there with installation.
I will send you photos by e-mail.

Utkarsh:
Wrong path. Is /dev/sdb1 the correct path to your USB device?
Gregor:
It is.

Utkarsh:
Have you created the iso directory?
Gregor:
I have.

Utkarsh:
Could you please take a picture of your screen and attach it here? This will help me understand the issue better. You may even email me the picture/s. Also, send me the picture of the entire process. Like the one above. Taking a screen shot will be difficult, so a camera snap would do as well.
Gregor:
Will send you photos by email.

Hey!
Thx for prompt reply.

Utkarsh:
Wrong partition type. Is the flash drive formatted to FAT32?
Gregor:
Firstly, I put iso on usbkey with dd command.
After your answer, I reformatted it with gparted and then put iso on usbkey with Unetbootin.
And now your procedure works and I continued with choosing language and came to where it shoould recognize cdrom, but it didn’t 🙁
So, I am stuck there with installation.
I will send you photos by e-mail.

Utkarsh:
Wrong path. Is /dev/sdb1 the correct path to your USB device?
Gregor:
It is.

Utkarsh:
Have you created the iso directory?
Gregor:
I have.

Utkarsh:
Could you please take a picture of your screen and attach it here? This will help me understand the issue better. You may even email me the picture/s. Also, send me the picture of the entire process. Like the one above. Taking a screen shot will be difficult, so a camera snap would do as well.
Gregor:
Will send you photos by email.