I have a 2.5gb pocket usb hard drive and I like to know if I can use it to install slackware from that I could keep all the packages up to date. How can I make it bootable?

I guess I don't really understand your problem.

Have you tried allready? If so, where did you run into trouble? You make the usb drive bootable just like you would any other drive, just make sure support for it is hard coded into the kernel or else you will need to use an initrd. Also, your BIOS must be able to boot from USB devices.

regards,
...drkstr

I would have thought that 2.5gb is a bit small for a full install of Slackware.

First -
determine if your PC can boot of a USB drive
install the bare minimum of packages, then add more if space allows.

I have Slackware running on an external 20gb USB drive with lilo installed in it's MBR. The harddrive of my laptop is as per the original - boots directly into W2000. I have raised posts on this issue and contributed to a number, search for my name and USB and work out a strategy that suits your purpose.

Good luck. It can be done. And is fairly straightforward once mastered.

2.5 Gb should be more then enough. You only need a minimal install of Slackware (under 100mb should be fine) and a copy of the Slacware install directory downloaded from a mirror. You only really need the files that are on CD1 and CD2 + the install is about 1.7 GB.

regards,
...drkstr

My computer will boot from usb, but after I download what I want how do I make it bootable.

This is what I would suggest -

Install slackware onto the USB drive;
without rebooting compile the kernel to generate the required modules see http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5&pagenumber=2
for the modules required
create the initrd image with the required modules;
create a boot cd, with the kernel and initrd;
test to ensure that you can boot from the cd;
do the lilo/grub business so that you can boot into slackware from the USB drive. This is the fun bit as if you're not careful you will overwrite the boot sector of your internal hard drive. If this happens get a live distro with testdrive-static so that you can recreate the win boot thingy on the internal hard drive.

I've been running with Slackware on a 20GB USB drive for several years upgrading through various releases in the process.