Prepare a USB drive for installation
Prepare a bootable USB flash drive for installation

Airlock Gateway supports the installation from USB flash drives as the installation medium instead of using a DVD.

For computers with UEFI

If you get a black screen while booting from the USB flash drive, disable Secure Boot in the UEFI settings of your Airlock Gateway server.

Requirements to create the USB flash drive
Instruction to write the image to the USB flash drive
  • 1.
    Insert the USB flash drive into a free port.
  • 2.
    Open a Windows command prompt as administrator and type the following commands:
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    diskpart 
list disk 
select disk #                       (where # is the number identifying your USB stick) 
clean 
create partition primary 
select partition 1 
active 
format quick fs=fat32 
assign 
exit
  • 3.
    Open the Airlock Gateway ISO file and copy its contents to the USB flash drive.
  • 4.
    Eject the USB flash drive using the Windows system tray icon.
  • 1.
    Insert the USB flash drive into a free port.
  • 2.
    Open a terminal to repartition the USB flash drive and to create a FAT32 file system:
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    # fdisk [usb-device] 
Command (m for help): p 
Disk /dev/sdb: 29 GiB, 31142707200 bytes, 60825600 sectors 
Disk model: STORE N GO 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes 
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes 
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes 
Disklabel type: dos 
Disk identifier: 0x6b8b4567 
Device      Boot Start       End Sector  Size   Id Type  
/dev/sdb1   0     4767743 4767744     2.3G   0  Empty  
/dev/sdb2   632 18231     17600         8.6M  ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32) 
 
# Command (m for help): o 
Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xbfcd8299. 
 
# Command (m for help): d 
Partition number (1,2, default 2): 1 
Partition 1 has been deleted. 
 
# Command (m for help): d 
Selected partition 2 
Partition 2 has been deleted. 
 
# Command (m for help): n 
Partition type 
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free) 
   e   extended (container for logical partitions) 
Select (default p): p 
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1 
First sector (2048-60825599, default 2048):  
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-60825599, default 60825599):  
 
Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 29 GiB. 
 
# Command (m for help): t 
Selected partition 1 
Hex code or alias (type L to list all): 0c 
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'W95 FAT32 (LBA)'. 
 
# Command (m for help): a 
Selected partition 1 
The bootable flag on partition 1 is enabled now. 
 
# Command (m for help): w 
 
The partition table has been altered. 
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. 
Syncing disks. 
 
# mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/[usb-device]1
  • 3.
    Mount the Airlock Gateway ISO file and copy its contents to the USB flash drive. Note that the umount command may take a while because it will sync the files to the install stick.
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    # mkdir /tmp/airlock-iso /tmp/airlock-usb 
# mount -o loop /path/to/airlock_WAF.iso /tmp/airlock-iso 
# mount /dev/[usb-device]1 /tmp/airlock-usb 
# cp -L -R /tmp/airlock-iso/* /tmp/airlock-usb 
# umount /tmp/airlock-iso /tmp/airlock-usb
  • 4.
    Remove the USB flash drive.

Computers with legacy BIOS

If you get an error message while booting from the USB flash drive before the GRUB boot menu is displayed, disable auto-detection for USB media in the server BIOS. Select the media as harddisk instead.

Requirements to create the USB flash drive
Instruction to write the image to the USB flash drive
  • 1.
    Insert the USB flash drive into a free port.
  • 2.
    Start the USBWriter.exe with administrator rights (right-click Run as administrator).
  • 3.
    Select the Airlock Gateway ISO file.
  • 4.
    Select the target USB flash drive.
  • 5.
    Click on the Write button and confirm the overwrite alert.
  • 6.
    Eject the USB flash drive using the Windows system tray icon.
  • 1.
    Insert the USB flash drive into a free port.
  • 2.
    If the USB flash drive was automatically mounted, unmount it.
  • 3.
    Open a terminal and search the device name that the system has assigned to the stick:
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    # fdisk -l 
OR if hwinfo installed: 
# grep -Ff <(hwinfo --disk -short) <(hwinfo --usb --short) 
OR watch the system log when you plug in the stick: 
# tail -f /var/log/messages

    For the next step it is very important to use the correct device name.

    Writing the ISO file to the wrong device (e.g. a system drive) will destroy all data on this device!

  • 4.
    Open a terminal and write the ISO file to the USB flash drive. Replace [usb-device] with the correct device name:
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    # dd if=/path/to/the/iso of=[usb-device] bs=1M
  • 5.
    Make sure the write process has been finished. Initiate a manual file system sync manually before you remove the drive:
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    # sync
  • 6.
    Remove the USB flash drive.