How to boot a custom ISO on a Linode instance

You can boot any ‘live’ Linux distro on Linode servers with some simple steps.

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Create a new Linode
Power off VPS and create two partitions
Create two configurations
Boot in Rescue Mode
Download ISO file and copy to /dev/sda
Power off and boot on Installer profile

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This tutorial is based on https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/install-a-custom-distribution-on-a-linode/.

Create a new Linode

On your Linode Manager, go to ‘Linodes’ and click on ‘Create Linode’.

You can leave default ‘Images’ option selected (Debian), select a region, a Linode Plan and a root password. Then, press on ‘Create Linode’.

Power off VPS and create two partitions

Power off the created Linode when creating process is finished. Then, click on the tree dots menu on the right side and select ‘Resize’.

Uncheck ‘Auto Resize Disk’ option at the bottom and close this window (click ‘X’ button on the right).

Go to ‘Storage’ tab and click on ‘Resize’ option on main disk partition. Change ‘Size’ to a lower capacity, so you have enough space for the ISO and a bit more for the boot process. Wait for the process to finish.

Click on ‘Add a disk’ and fill the form:

Label: Installer
Filesystem: raw
Size: a bit bigger than the ISO file.

After resizing process is finished, create another disk:

Label: Boot
Filesystem: raw
Size: you can leave the default (rest of available storage).

Create two configurations

Go to ‘Configurations’ tab and select ‘Add Configuration’.

Add this info:

Label: Installer
Select a Kernel: Direct Disk
/dev/sda: Boot
/dev/sdb: Installer
Root device: /dev/sdb
Uncheck all ‘Filesystem/Boot Helpers’ options.

Click on ‘Add Configuration’ at the bottom.

Add another configuration:

Label: Boot
Select a kernel: Direct Disk
/dev/sda: Boot
/dev/sdb: None
Root device: /dev/sda
Uncheck all ‘Filesystem/Boot Helpers’ options.

Click on ‘Add Configuration’ to confirm.

Boot in Rescue Mode

Click on the three dot menu and select ‘Rescue’. Under ‘/dev/sda’, select ‘Installer’. Select ‘None’ for the other partitions.

Click on ‘Launch LISH Console’ and wait for the booting process to finish.

Check ‘Installer’ disk is on the system with partition name /dev/sda. Type lsblk.

Download ISO file and copy to /dev/sda

Use curl and dd to download ISO file and copy to /dev/sda partition. For example:

curl http://mirror.fsf.org/trisquel-images/trisquel-mini_10.0_amd64.iso | dd of=/dev/sda

When the process is over, type:

sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

to empty the cache.

Power off and boot on Installer profile

Then, without closing LISH console, click on ‘Power off’ on Linode Manager window and go to LISH console to type Enter when confirm prompt appears. Close LISH console window.

Finally, under ‘Configurations’ tab, click ‘Boot’ option next to ‘Installer’ profile and launch a new LISH console. Select ‘Glish’ at the top to open the graphical console.