USB Flash Drive Installation

While most of the development and testing of MOSA is done using virtualization software, MOSA does indeed boot on real hardware too.

Below are the steps for deploying a MOSA disk image to a USB flash drive:

Warning

These instructions may vary slightly depending on your installation.

  1. Create a MOSA disk image using the MOSA Launcher Tool.

  2. Download the dd utility for Windows.

  3. Copy the dd.exe executable to the build directory (usually a sub-folder under temp):

%TEMP%\MOSA

  1. Open a command prompt window and change directory to the build directory.

cd %TEMP%\MOSA

  1. Connect the USB flash drive you wish to ERASE and install the MOSA image onto.

Danger

Data on the USB flash drive will be lost!

  1. Determine the device path for the USB flash drive.

Get a list all the block devices on your system by typing the command below. Find the one for the USB flash drive you just connected.

Danger

Be careful! A mistype or wrong drive selection, may corrupt your hard drive or other storage devices. Do not proceed unless you completely understand these steps.

dd -list

  1. Type the following and substitute the of= parameter with the device path found in the previous step.

dd of=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\PartitionX if=bootimage.img bs=512 –progress

  1. Wait until all the blocks are written to the USB flash drive before disconnecting it.

  2. Now boot a PC or laptop with the USB flash drive connected!