Pendrive Linux: Difference between revisions

From miki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
 
(3 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
Everything on how to make a persistent Live USB Linux, pen drive linux, install linux on a flash drive, from Windows or Linux...<br/>{{red|This page is completely crap.}}
Everything on how to make a persistent Live USB Linux, pen drive linux, install linux on a flash drive, from Windows or Linux...


== References ==
== References ==
Line 34: Line 34:
|sdb1||NTFS|| || || Data partition
|sdb1||NTFS|| || || Data partition
|-
|-
|sdb2||FAT32|| 2850MB || || Ubuntu (850MB) + Casper-rw file (2000MB)
|sdb2||FAT32|| 850MB || || Ubuntu
|-
|-
|sdb3||ext3|| 2000MB ||<tt>casper-rw</tt>||persistent storage
|sdb3||ext3|| 2000MB ||<tt>casper-rw</tt>||persistent storage
Line 94: Line 94:
</source>
</source>


=== 1st recipe ===
=== Variants ===
We have by default:
* Extract Linux CD in USB root
{|style="margin-left:2em;"
* Delete folder [ROOT]
|-
* Copy the files to USB root:
| ||<tt>/isolinux/isolinux.cfg</tt>
menu.c32
|-
syslinux.cfg
|&rarr; includes &rarr; ||<tt>menu.cfg</tt>
ubnfilel.txt (list of all files on the cd - probably useless)
|-
ubnpathl.txt (list of all dir on the cd - probably useless)
|&rarr; includes &rarr; ||<tt>text.cfg</tt>
* Copy /casper/vmlinuz to /ubnkern
|}
* Copy /casper/initrd.lz to /ubninit

* Use "PDL-Casper-RW-Creator.exe" to create the casper file
* Then edit D:\syslinux.cfg (where D: is the drive letter of your usb stick), and add "persistent" at the end of the line that begins with "append":


So we can simply add a file <tt>/syslinux.cfg</tt> (necessary for ''syslinux'', the boot used on USB):
<source lang="text">
<source lang="text">
include /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
default unetbootin
label unetbootin
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash persistent --
</source>

=== Yet another way ===
* Created partition: 1 for extract iso, 1 for casper-rw
* extract the .ISO to usb
* make the drive bootable:
<source lang="bash">
syslinux -maf X:
</source>
</source>
* delete [BOOT]
* created /syslinux.cfg
* include /isolinux/isolinux.cfg

Latest revision as of 13:46, 1 June 2011

Everything on how to make a persistent Live USB Linux, pen drive linux, install linux on a flash drive, from Windows or Linux...

References

Using Automatic Tools

Universal USB Installer (Windows)

See Universal USB Installer on pendrivelinux.com.

UNetbootin (Windows, Linux)

Startup Disk Creator (Ubuntu)

This is an utility on Ubuntu.

  • Launch Startup Disk Creator in menu SystemAdministration.
  • Select ISO you want to use
  • Select a free FAT32 partition on your USB drive (BEWARE! Don't let it erase the partition, because that b*tch will erase the WHOLE disk)
  • Select size of casper file for persistent
  • ... and let's go.

In case you want several partitions, first create your partitions yourself with e.g. gparted, allocating a free FAT32 for the Ubuntu partition. Eg:

sdb1 NTFS Data partition
sdb2 FAT32 2850MB Ubuntu (850MB) + Casper-rw file (2000MB)

Alternatively you can also use a separate casper-rw partition:

sdb1 NTFS Data partition
sdb2 FAT32 850MB Ubuntu
sdb3 ext3 2000MB casper-rw persistent storage

Note that Windows XP (and maybe later) only shows the first partition on USB drive (because it is seen as a removable media, see USB). So you should create your data partition as the first partition on the disk.

Manual recipes

Recipe based on Universal USB Installer (Windows)

Assuming we install Ubuntu Lucid 10.04.2 on H: drive

  • Install SysLinux
syslinux.exe -maf H:
  • Extract linux ISO in USB root
# Exclude directory [BOOT]
7zG.exe x ubuntu-10.04.2-desktop-i386.iso -o"H:\" -y -x![BOOT]*
  • Create configuration files:
H:\isolinux\ H:\syslinux\
H:\isolinux\isolinux.cfg H:\syslinux\syslinux.cfg
  • Create file H:\syslinux\text.cfg, with as content (from ubuntu1004text.cfg):
default live
label live
  menu label ^Run Ubuntu from this USB
  kernel /casper/vmlinuz
  append noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz splash --
label live-install
  menu label ^Install Ubuntu on a Hard Disk
  kernel /casper/vmlinuz
  append cdrom-detect/try-usb=true file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.lz splash --
label memtest
  menu label Test ^memory
  kernel /install/mt86plus
label hd
  menu label ^Boot from first hard disk
  localboot 0x80
  • Create casper file H:\casper-rw (see below)

Create the CASPER file / partition

To create a persistent file (here 4GB file), assuming USB is at /media/PENDRIVE:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/PENDRIVE/casper-rw bs=1M count=4096 --progress
mke2fs -b 4096 -L casper-rw /media/PENDRIVE/casper-rw

Also works on Windows, but requires dd.exe and mke2fs (see for instance Universal USB Installer)

To create a persistent partition:

sudo mkfs.ext3 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdb3        # mkfs.ext3 is the same as mke2fs

Variants

We have by default:

/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
→ includes → menu.cfg
→ includes → text.cfg

So we can simply add a file /syslinux.cfg (necessary for syslinux, the boot used on USB):

include /isolinux/isolinux.cfg