Write an image to a flash drive under OpenBSD

block-deviceopenbsd

Under Linux, I can simply do a: 

dd if=ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb

and boot up the /dev/sdb which is a device for a flash drive. It finishes in 263 seconds.

But: If I boot up an OpenBSD 5.6 and do the same (for the same flash drive, zeroed it between the two tests): 

dd if=ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/rsd1i

It takes about half an hour to finish (using securelevel 1), but when I boot up the flash drive from it the BIOS only says: 

no active partition found

Question: what am I missing?

Best Answer

You're using the wrong partition letter. Try with this:

dd if=yourisofile.iso of=/dev/rsd1c

Replace 1 by the correct number of your device (search this info in the dmesg). Read the Wikipedia article about BSD disklabels to learn why with the c works and with i doesn't.

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