Slackware-13.1-Hacks-USB Installer
Posted 02-25-2011 at 11:24 AM by arniekat
Creating A Slackware USB Flash Disk Installer
This can be used to install Slackware to a netbook. What this does is create a bootable USB Flash Drive with all the packages needed for installation. You only need a 2Gb Flash Stick to create the installer including the packages.
NOTE-You will need an existing Slackware machine to create a USB Installation Stick!
On a Slackware Desktop, I started with a 4Gb Flash Disk plugged into a USB port. When it shows up on your desktop, unmount it.
Open a Terminal and using the dmesg command, see the designation of your USB stick. My desktop hard drive is /dev/sda, so this makes sense that it would be /dev/sdb
Download the usbimg2disk.sh script from /usb-and-pxe-installers directory on a Slackware 13.1 mirror or from the DVD-ROM.
You will need the Slackware 13.1 DVD for the next step. I copied the whole contents of the DVD to a folder called "Local-Mirror" (you can call the folder whatever you want) in my /home/<username> directory. Now, run the script inputting the location of the packages and the device name of your USB flash drive. The -f flag means format the USB stick and the -s flag means the slack directory where the packages are located. The messages below are similar to what you will see.
bash-4.1# sh ./usbimg2disk.sh -f -s /home/<username>/Local-Mirror -o /dev/sdb
# We are going to format and use this device - '/dev/sdb':
#
# Disk /dev/sdb: 4043 MB, 4043309056 bytes
# 125 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders
# Units = cylinders of 7750 * 512 = 3968000 bytes
# Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
# I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
# Disk identifier: 0x00029daa
#
# Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
# /dev/sdb1 * 1 1018 3944719 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
*** ***
*** If this is the wrong drive, then press CONTROL-C now! ***
*** ***
Or press ENTER to continue: ENTER
--- Formatting /dev/sdb and creating VFAT partition with label 'USBSLACKINS'...
--- Last chance! Press CTRL-C to abort!
Or press ENTER to continue: ENTER
--- Available free space on the the USB drive is 3937008 KB
--- Required free space for installer: 32652 KB
--- Copying boot files to the USB drive...
--- Extracting Slackware initrd.img...
--- Modifying installer files...
--- Gzipping the initrd image again:
--- Copying Slackware package tree to the USB drive...
--- Cleaning up the staging area...
--- Making the USB drive '/dev/sdb' bootable...
To actually use it, you will need to change the BIOS to be able to boot from a USB Device. When you are ready to install Slackware and are at the setup menu, the selection "Install Slackware from a pre-mounted directory" will be highlighted and the pre-mounted directory will be listed ready for installation.
This can be used to install Slackware to a netbook. What this does is create a bootable USB Flash Drive with all the packages needed for installation. You only need a 2Gb Flash Stick to create the installer including the packages.
NOTE-You will need an existing Slackware machine to create a USB Installation Stick!
On a Slackware Desktop, I started with a 4Gb Flash Disk plugged into a USB port. When it shows up on your desktop, unmount it.
Open a Terminal and using the dmesg command, see the designation of your USB stick. My desktop hard drive is /dev/sda, so this makes sense that it would be /dev/sdb
Download the usbimg2disk.sh script from /usb-and-pxe-installers directory on a Slackware 13.1 mirror or from the DVD-ROM.
You will need the Slackware 13.1 DVD for the next step. I copied the whole contents of the DVD to a folder called "Local-Mirror" (you can call the folder whatever you want) in my /home/<username> directory. Now, run the script inputting the location of the packages and the device name of your USB flash drive. The -f flag means format the USB stick and the -s flag means the slack directory where the packages are located. The messages below are similar to what you will see.
bash-4.1# sh ./usbimg2disk.sh -f -s /home/<username>/Local-Mirror -o /dev/sdb
# We are going to format and use this device - '/dev/sdb':
#
# Disk /dev/sdb: 4043 MB, 4043309056 bytes
# 125 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders
# Units = cylinders of 7750 * 512 = 3968000 bytes
# Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
# I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
# Disk identifier: 0x00029daa
#
# Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
# /dev/sdb1 * 1 1018 3944719 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
*** ***
*** If this is the wrong drive, then press CONTROL-C now! ***
*** ***
Or press ENTER to continue: ENTER
--- Formatting /dev/sdb and creating VFAT partition with label 'USBSLACKINS'...
--- Last chance! Press CTRL-C to abort!
Or press ENTER to continue: ENTER
--- Available free space on the the USB drive is 3937008 KB
--- Required free space for installer: 32652 KB
--- Copying boot files to the USB drive...
--- Extracting Slackware initrd.img...
--- Modifying installer files...
--- Gzipping the initrd image again:
--- Copying Slackware package tree to the USB drive...
--- Cleaning up the staging area...
--- Making the USB drive '/dev/sdb' bootable...
To actually use it, you will need to change the BIOS to be able to boot from a USB Device. When you are ready to install Slackware and are at the setup menu, the selection "Install Slackware from a pre-mounted directory" will be highlighted and the pre-mounted directory will be listed ready for installation.
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