LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Boot and Run Slackware from an 8Gig USB Pendrive

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Boot and Run Slackware from an 8Gig USB Pendrive

Greetings to you all, comrades.

I have tried googling this thing but returns didn't fit my needed answers while I have very limited time staying on-line, so I try to solicit help here from those who have gone this way before.

My Need:
1. I need to boot and run Slackware 12.2 from an 8gig USB pendrive. <Regardless from where I install them: I can install and prefer to isntall it from a DVD/cdrom drive. But booting my Slackware DVD installer cannot see the USB pendrive which fdisk -l returns as 'sdb1-ext2, sdb2-ext2 and sdb3-swap' after falling into the console mode.>

2. I partition my usb-stick into 1.2Gig to mount as / then 5Gig to mount as /home and about 200+Mbs for swap.

Things I have tried--

a) I have run Ubuntu 8 on a pendrive by a very simple way of doing it. There are links for that. But I don't like Ubuntu where it uses vfat on a casper drive, and also I cannot control the system the way I used to in Slackware. I deleted it.

b) I tried booting my Slackware 12.2 DVD installer but there is no way to find my usb drive when preparation phase came. I need a little help. I have lesser time now for tinkering things, being busy in my job.

What would I do to attain my objective quicker than being a scientist-experimenting-things? Is there a link for a fitting solution so that I can go and read from there?

Please help.

And thanks ahead for your time and brains.

Very sincerely yours,

malek mustaqiim

Parted Magic has a utility called unetbootin that may be of interest to you... !

hughetorrance,

Thank you for the clue. I will try.

hughetorrance,

i have tried Parted Magic and it installed Slax. Just fine.

Thank you very much.

you may wanna check out slax remix too, slackware 13.1/current
http://www.slax.org/forum.php?action...parentID=62815

or make your own slackware/slax derivative
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...on-usb-822428/

There are issues with a swap on a USB drive as it can wear the drive out...I have just read this so I am not really sure,but if you have plenty of RAM you can do without a swap.When I have done this I put it all on the same partition just like a windoze installation. !

Linus72 you are the resident expert on this sort of thing perhaps you can inform him of whats to do with this... !

ah
well, I may know somewhat about how Slax/derivatives work
Slax doesn't seem to have any partitions mounted while running
and also has the "copy2ram" feature which is even better as nothing is touched..

thats why I recommended the SlaxRemix07 by Fathom
it's exactly like Slax 6.1.2, but is slackware 13.1/current
and its small and you can make your own modules for it too
and ponce and others have modules for it
http://www.slax.org/forum.php?action...parentID=62815

here is the output of "mount" running nfluxos slack edition from fat32 usb

Code:

[root@nfluxos ~]# mount

aufs on / type aufs (rw,relatime,si=4c844b22,nowarn_perm)

proc on /proc type proc (rw)

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)

usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)

tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

df -h

Code:

[root@nfluxos ~]# df -h

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

aufs                  562M  9.8M  553M  2% /

tmpfs                469M    0  469M  0% /dev/shm

dmesg | tail

Code:

[root@nfluxos ~]# dmesg | tail

  alloc irq_desc for 18 on node 0

  alloc kstat_irqs on node 0

Intel ICH 0000:00:02.7: PCI INT C -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18

intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 50923 usecs (2450 samples)

intel8x0: clocking to 48000

lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

lp0: console ready

Intel ISA PCIC probe: not found.

Databook TCIC-2 PCMCIA probe: not found.

eth1: Media Link On 100mbps full-duplex

However, the usb seems to be mounted on
/mnt/live/mnt/sdb1

Slax, etc I think only writes to usb when in persistent mode...

hughetorrance:

Yes i know thanks for reminding me.

linus72:

You were the one that i have long hoped to hear from over this problem of mine. I know that this is your field of mastery. We were in- to this LQ about the same time, and I have noticed your abundance of talent and time for creating multi distros since, and helping out others this way. Thanks for coming in and I sure will see those links if I have time.

Thanks again everyone.

Hey malekmustaq
Thanks and I remember when we came in almost same time..
what was your first threads?

My first 2 threads were double post about how I installed Slackware CD1
and was complaining that X wouldn't start!?
LOL
startx!!

its closed but can you/others still see it?
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...9/#post3416350

Although you do me too much praise as I'm still pretty newbie'ish
most here could run circles around me no doubt

Oh; I was thinking about this post here too that may be good solution
or good for ideas
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...0/#post3379958

There are pros&cons to all three methods I'm sure

1) reg hdd install to usb

2) frugal install to usb (slax,etc)

3) ramdisk coolness method above

the pros to a full hdd install to usb is that everything can be upgraded, etc with no problems

the con to frugal install is that to update/upgrade pkgs you must either install it to hdd and remaster
Or
decompress the modules(etc.lzm,lib.lzm,etc) and chroot into each and do
slackpkg upgrade, etc

Not sure about uppman's ramdisk coolness stuff but gotta check it out!

you may also wanna check out NimbleX too, kinda like Slax

we can go deep into all three if you wish?
I was running Absolute 13 full hdd install to usb
and I thought it was great, although I had to setup the initrd special way so it could boot on multiple pc's
I think I was using UUID or Label...I can't find the post about it?!