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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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