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With help from my other Q&A here, I am able to get the ISO to boot, but not install it (yet :-/).

As per some Launchpad posts, the normal initrd present in the ISO will always look for CD-ROM. So, I replaced it with the initrd designed for hd-media from here:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/initrd.gz http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/vmlinuz

(although, I am not sure what is the exact difference) With this, I could get past the CD-ROM mount, but installation gets into mount problem. My ISO is on /dev/sda5, so when asked to unmount /dev/sda, I said "No", later it goes a step further and errors out like "no root file system defined" etc.

Tried: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debian-installer/+bug/1347726 Didn't help. Also tried using toram in the command line as per this - didn't help.

I am using Ubuntu 18.04.4 server ISO here. However, just to try, I used Ubuntu 18.04.5 Desktop (live CD boot) and that installed fine (even though it gave the error for mounted /dev/sda!) What exactly is the delta that is missing in Server ISO that is present in Desktop /Live ISO which makes this work!?

All I want is to install an ISO which is residing on one partition /dev/sda5 to another - /dev/sda2 or /dev/sda6

Ani
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  • cdrom is the root folder on a live USB unless live USB is boot from ISO file in which case the folder is named isodevice. – C.S.Cameron Mar 02 '21 at 12:59
  • I am not using live USB, this is a plain old server ISO. – Ani Mar 03 '21 at 04:14
  • Yes, I see that. I do not have much experience with Server, but if you boot the ISO using GRUB2, I think you will find the root folder is named isodevice. If you create a USB using Rufus, Etcher etc and boot that, I think your root folder will be named cdrom. You said something about cdrom missing. Also, you can not install to the drive you are booted from unless you boot toram and then unmount the partition containing isodevice. I wrote something about that once, I will have a look. – C.S.Cameron Mar 03 '21 at 05:19
  • This should be similar to your needs: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1318013/how-to-install-ubuntu-from-iso-file/1318033#1318033 – C.S.Cameron Mar 03 '21 at 05:25
  • I did try with toram but still it tries to unmount /dev/sda and then goes to a bad state! There is some difference between the Desktop ISO (which has Live CD boot capability- and works well when booted this way from disk) vs the Server ISO! Have to check if I can get the best of both. – Ani Mar 03 '21 at 07:42
  • I have added a menuentry to boot ISO files on my HDD, to a Full install USB. (just sort of a proof of concept thing). Running an ISO booted from an external drive should not require Unmounting any partitions. – C.S.Cameron Mar 03 '21 at 12:44
  • @C.S.Cameron I could finally get this to work. The issue is, the installer has to itself create some partition, if not it wont proceed. So, I deleted a partition and left some free space for it to grab, and used d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition select biggest_free – Ani Mar 04 '21 at 15:30

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