I've got myself a 4G USB stick which, I reckon, should be plenty big enough to install Mandriva on to if I cut down most of the apps. I only want a Firefox, samba and dosbox really. I have tried a few different ways to install Spring on my 4G drive, but it always falls over and says can't install RPMs in /usr/var/RPMs or something like that.

Am i trying to do the impossible here? Is it trying to copy many gigs worth of data on to the flash drive which just isn't available? Or is it that you can't format flash with anything but FAT32 which Mandriva won't install on to it seems? What I mean is that although it says it formats the flash key with ext3, maybe it doesn't really, so when it tries to write to it, it just falls over. I have managed it on a USB hard disk drive with no problems, so it's definitely not a USB issue.

You can obviously have Linux on FAT based sticks as that what all the distributions use for the pen drive variants. I guess they get round it by making an image that you copy to FAT32 rather than it being an install onto it.

As an aside, I was almost happy with PCLinuxOS Minime but that wouldn't install dosbox 0.7 which I need. Also, I'm sure when I first tried installing it, it would save new users, but now it resolutely refuses to.

I know that Mandriva does 4G pen drives, but they're expensive and apparently pretty unreliable!

I am not averse to trying a different distribution, Ubuntu for example, but have found Mandriva the best by far for Wireless networking...

An easy to install Mandriva variant is mcnlive. It's available here: http://www.mcnlive.org/

Problem with mcnlive is it doesn't save its settings like tha Mandriva memory stick does. Plus it doesn't do the latest dosbox. You're right, it's dead easy to install.

But the usbstick install does. When you load the livecd, there's a menu option to install it to a usbstick, you can then boot off the usbstick and use mcnlive as normal. Why not ask the creator of mcnlive about dosbox support? She/He is available here: http://mandrivausers.org username chris:b Also read this thread as to why Mandriva on a usbstick is not a suitable choice: http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?s...t=#entry326198

Well, unless I missed something, when I put MCN on the USB stick it would not save system settings, only some user data when you explicitly asked it to! The Mandriva stick works just like a normal PC which is really cool.

I will have a look at your links though. Thanks.

If you search on rpm.pbone.net, there is an dosbox 0.71 rpm package for PCLinuxOS. I'm not sure if it works with Minime though.

No it doesn't, sadly. Already tried that.

DiBosco:

MCNLive, the latest edition 'Toronto' does exactly what you want, it will save all system wide settings and changes, it uses the same technic as Mandriva Flash. You can create this loop image using a small graphical wizard.
But you can do more with MCNLive, you are able to add and install stuff, change the GUI - and then run a small wizard and create your own version, on the fly, while running the live system. Useful when you want to add a lot of rpm's.

And here is your dosbox 0.7 for Mandriva 2007.x, made by the same people who are creating MCNLive, one of our team members is a dosbox fan:
ftp://ftp.belnet.be/pub/mirror/urpmi...007.0.i586.rpm

--chris

Hi Chris,

Dank je wel voor je reactie.

I have tried again with MCN; have installed it on my stick and tried creating a new user, created the persistent loop and rebooted. However, it just doesn't save anything. I have tried doing things in different orders such as the user first, then the persistent loop, then backing up the home directory, all to no avail. I have been back to the MCN home page and can't really see what step(s) I am missing out.

When I reboot, it just goes back in to guest account and the new account I have created has gone!

There's obviously a vital step I'm missing out on, is anything obvious from the above?

If it's of any help at all to find out what's going wrong: when I boot in as guest, create a new account and then log out to go in to the new user account it boots in with the normal spring colours and there's nothing there in terms of backing up home folder or any of the other MCB live apps. Of course this might be totally normal, but thought I'd mention it just in case.

Many thanks.

After you have created the loop file, (where did you create it? on a ext3 partition? on the same usb stick? On a FAT partition?), you first need to re-boot with the bootcode: livecd persist.

Then you can make the changes.
Then , after the next reboot, with the bootcode: livecd persist, you should be able to see the changes.

This is explained on the Howto pages when you open a default browser on the running MCNLive. Click on the HowTo link on the left, scroll down.

PS: You always have to use the bootcode: livecd persist

When you create/add a new user, yes, it is normal that the new user get a new default look&feel and the default menu. A default Mandriva setup.

If you don't want to boot automatically into the guest account, you need to change it.
MCC --> Boot --> Enable autologin and select the user

Thanks, Chris, that works now. I had to change it to automatically boot into my account before it worked. Previous t that when I logged out of guest, it didn't recognise the account I'd previously created.

I had seen those instructions you mentioned, but I couldn't follow them, it was much clearer how you described it above.

It seems to work pretty well. Am going to see how much I can clear off of apps I don't want.

BTW, I still don't really understand why you can't just install from the Spring DVD onto the flash stick. Do you know why it is?

Thanks again for your help.

You are welcome.

I am not sure why one can't install to flash memory. The MDV installer maybe detects it and exclude it.

As for uninstalling stuff: don't do it. It would only be a fake-uninstall. And finally makes the system 'bigger', because it has to keep these changes.
The base system, residing inside the big livecd.sqfs file is static and does not change.

If you want to make your very own verson with a lot of changes, there is a much easier and more efficient way. You create your own base system.
The remaster-on-the-fly. Explained in the HowTo pages.