Re: dd effect on cloning of iso file to usb stick

[jb]

Eric Blake <eblake@...> writes:

> ... 

> > # dd bs=4M if=Downloads/archlinux-2014.10.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdb && sync
> 
> This says to copy the exact iso over (as much as possible of) the entire
> usb stick.  If the iso itself contains partitions, then your stick will
> now contain those same partitions.
> 

See my comment below.
 
> > # fdisk -l /dev/sdb
> > 
> > Disk /dev/sdb: 3.8 GiB, 4051697152 bytes, 7913471 sectors
> > 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: 0x574a1394
> > 
> > Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
> > /dev/sdb1  *        0 1171455 1171456  572M  0 Empty
> > /dev/sdb2         252   63739   63488   31M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
> 
> In fact, it looks like the iso image intentionally contains two
> partitions, with the /dev/sdb2 partition existing to make it possible to
> boot your USB stick on a UEFI system.
>

It looks like fdisk, cfdisk, etc are confused about identifying those 
partitions and their start/end sectors. Is there a partition table at all ?
If so, where is it located, sectorwise ?
 
> > Question:
> > I dd-ed an iso file (it is a bit-for-bit copy/cloning), which resulted in
> > sdb1.
> > What is this sdb2 about, where did it come from ?
> 
> It was put in the iso by the person that created it.  This is not a bug
> in dd, which faithfully copied the entire iso contents to your disk.
> There's nothing wrong here.
> ...
 
Ouch !
What dd does is not a neutral cloning (bit-by-bit) but some kind of
transformation of a source (if=) to different binary object targets.
Is that by design ? I was not aware of such dd's capability ...

Also, is such behavior by dd not risky w/r to making backups by cloning ?
After all, the purpose of a backup is to have it restored, eventually, in
a symmetrical, one-to-one manner.

There is nothing in dd(1) about such a capability.

jb