Any Linux Users Out There?
I need some help. I have used Linux before, but not on a regular basis. I need to know which distributions have the dd console command is installed by default and, if there are any without the command, how to install it. This is important because I am in the middle of writing the NetbookInstaller 2 guide (my biggest yet!) which focuses on using Windows or Linux to prepare the Mac OS Installer. Just leave a comment or use the Conatct page. Thanks a lot!
October 29th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
With all of the distro’s I’ve used over time, I’m pretty sure dd is installed by default on every one.
It’s part of the coreutils library, which pretty much required for a system. From their site:
The GNU Core Utilities are the basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities of the GNU operating system. These are the core utilities which are expected to exist on every operating system.
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/
October 29th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
A guide like this would be very useful. Currently, I’m struggling to install Snow Leopard on my brand new Mini 10v, and although I can get the OSX installation process started, it fails every time after a few minutes. To get this far, I’ve used TransMac to format a USB drive with the Snow Leopard installation DVD image, and using the NetBook CD 0.8.3, I am able to start from the USB drive and initiate the OSX installation.
I have no idea how to properly prepare the installation media with NetBookBootMaker under Windows, however, since all the current processes do this under OSX. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a Mac – at least not until this installation works!
October 29th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
i would recommend using ubuntu as your test system because it is widely used.
from what ive seen with installing osx over the last 2 weeks is that there are alot of scripts/applications and not alot of how and why it works, very annoying when trying to get stuff running without a mac.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
In reference to the problems I was having installing OSX before, it turns out that it was due to the BIOS that shipped with my Mini 10v. After downgrading to A05, OSX installed perfectly.
October 31st, 2009 at 4:54 am
I’ve been using Linux for 15 years. I pay my bills as an admin. I’ve used every major distro, and many obscure ones.
I can’t imagine a distro w/o dd. As has been said, the ‘real’ dd is part of coreutils. Busybox also has a dd for use on the super-small distros.
If there is a distro w/o dd you need not take it into account. If someone ever mentions its, tell them to use something else and report the lack of dd as a bug.
November 6th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Gnubeard is spot on.
I can’t remember a distro since my early Slackware 95 days without dd.
From the man page on OSX:
STANDARDS
The dd utility is expected to be a superset of the IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) standard. The files operand
and the ascii, ebcdic, ibm, oldascii, oldebcdic and oldibm values are extensions to the POSIX standard.
BSD January 13, 1994 BSD
I cannot imagine an OS without it. Now, there are some major differences the GNU version implements, normally where BSD differed. One huge one, still present on OSX these days (I recall the FreeBSD project finally adopting some of the great mods/features the GNU version added), is differences in how BLOCKSIZE is interpreted. I am not sure if this has to do with the actual ENV var, but M and m don’t always imply megabytes.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Thanks everyone for your comments. I already wrote the NetbookInstaller 2 guide after the first two or three comments, but it nice to have a little background info!