Creating IGEL OS Live USB Sticks for Single-device Use

Solutions from the Field

This article provides solutions that have not been approved by the IGEL Research and Development department. Following the instructions given here is at your own risk.

You can use the IGEL OS Creator (OSC) to create an IGEL OS live USB stick for single-device use. The functionality of this live USB stick is similar to an IGEL UD Pocket. The main difference lies in the assignment of licenses: a UD Pocket license is assigned to a unit ID that is hard-wired into the UD Pocket itself, while the license for the solution presented here is bound to the very first device that boots from this USB stick.

For the procedure described here, a video is available:

See also this external article: https://virtualbrat.com/2020/03/19/igel-ud-pockets-for-everyone/

Requirements

PC with Windows 10 or Linux
2 USB sticks with 4 GB or more without any important data (will be overwritten)

Creating the IGEL OS Creator Stick under Windows

Download the ZIP archive for OSC from https://www.igel.com/download/ (latest public release) or from https://www.igel.com/igel-solution-family/windows-virtual-desktop/ (latest release with WVD support).
Unzip the contents into a local directory.
Connect a USB memory stick with at least 4 GB capacity to the computer.
Double-click the preparestick.exe file from the unzipped directory.

If you are in the "administrators" group, the program will start after you have confirmed a dialog. If you are not in the "administrators" group, you must enter the administrator password to start the program.

The dropdown-menu Isofile shows the ISO files contained in the unzipped directory.
Unter Isofile, select the appropriate ISO file, e. g. osc11.01.100.iso
Under Destination USB stick, select the USB storage medium on which you would like to save the installation data.

It is recommended that you only have one USB storage medium connected during this procedure. If you accidentally select the wrong medium, all data on it will be lost.

Generally speaking, the list of available USB storage media is refreshed automatically. If, however, you would like to refresh it manually, click on View > Refresh USB Device List.
Click on Start writing process.
In the program window, the progress of the process is shown.
When the process is finished, a message window is displayed.
Close the message window and the program.
After about 3 seconds, remove the USB memory stick.

If you remove the USB memory stick immediately, there is a possibility that the writing process has not been completed. In this case, the data on the memory stick gets corrupted.

Creating the IGEL OS Creator Stick under Linux

Download the ZIP archive for OSC from https://www.igel.com/download/ (latest public release) or from https://www.igel.com/igel-solution-family/windows-virtual-desktop/ (latest release with WVD support).
Unzip the contents into a local directory.
From this directory, you will need the ISO file (e. g. osc11.01.100.iso) to create a bootable medium.
Connect a USB memory stick with at least 4 GB capacity to the computer.

All existing data on the USB memory stick will be destroyed.
Open a terminal emulator and enter the command dmesg to determine the device name of the USB memory stick.
Example output:
[...]
[19514.742229] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access JetFlash Transcend 8GB 1100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[19514.742805] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[19514.744688] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 15425536 512-byte logical blocks: (7.89 GB/7.35 GiB)
[19514.745370] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[19514.745376] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 43 (0) 00 00 00
[19514.746040] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[19514.752438] sdb: sdb1
In this example, the device name searched for is /dev/sdb.

Ensure that you have determined the correct device name. Use of the dd command in the next step can destroy your operating system if you use the wrong device name.
The following command writes the installation data to the USB memory stick:
dd if=osc11.01.100.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M oflag=direct
Replace sdX with the device name of the USB memory stick that you have determined.
When the dd command has terminated, you can see the terminal emulator input prompt again.
Wait for about 3 seconds after the dd command has terminated, and remove the USB memory stick.

If you remove the USB memory stick immediately, there is a possibility that the writing process has not been completed. In this case, the data on the memory stick gets corrupted.

The USB memory stick for OSC installation is ready for use.

Adjusting the Boot Settings

OSC works on systems with BIOS and UEFI.

To use your PC for creating the USB live stick, it must support booting from USB storage media. This may already be enabled, or you may have to enable it yourself.

IGEL OS 11 supports UEFI Secure Boot. Refer to the manual of your device's manufacturer to learn whether your device supports Secure Boot and how to enable it. Enabling Secure Boot often consists of two steps. First, the boot mode has to be changed to UEFI Boot in the BIOS; after that, Secure Boot can be activated, also in the BIOS.

If IGEL OS fails to boot in UEFI mode, try it in legacy/BIOS mode. IGEL OS will then be installed in legacy/BIOS mode.

For older devices or if you haven't been able to boot the installer at all, use the legacy installer.

The required key presses for this may vary from vendor to vendor. However, here are some hints:

->While the device is booting, try pressing [F12] (in general), [F10] (Intel devices) or [F9] (Hewlett-Packard devices) in order to access a list of boot devices and select UD Pocket.

->If the above does not work, access the BIOS settings via pressing [Del], [F1] or [F2] during boot and activate booting from USB storage media and/or change the boot order.

->See the BIOS/UEFI documentation for your system for details of how to boot from USB storage media.

Creating the IGEL OS Live USB Stick

Connect the IGEL OS Creator stick to your PC.
Connect the second USB stick to your PC and switch it on.
Make sure to boot from the IGEL OS Creator stick.
Select Standard Installation + Recovery from the boot menu.
Please choose your language: Select the language for the installation process.
Accept the EULA by clicking I agree.
The installation program IGEL OS Creator starts.
Under Target drive, select the second USB stick. This USB stick will become the IGEL OS live USB stick.

Make sure you select the right target device! Otherwise, data on your PC may be damaged.

Click Install firmware.
The installation program will set up IGEL OS 11 on the target drive. If you see the IGEL OS Creator build finished successfully message, the installation is complete.
Detach any external network adapters from the device.
In this way, you ensure that the unit ID for the device (MAC address) is derived from the built-in network adapter. The unit ID will be saved on the device persistently, regardless of any external network adapter that may be used in the future. This is important for licensing.
Click on Reboot at the bottom of the installation window.
Remove the IGEL OS Creator.
Close the message window.
The system will shut down and then boot IGEL OS 11 from the newly created IGEL OS live USB stick.

Solutions from the Field

This article provides solutions that have not been approved by the IGEL Research and Development department. Following the instructions given here is at your own risk.