DSL on Windows PC adviceForum: Other Help Topics Topic: DSL on Windows PC advice started by: lagerratrobe Posted by lagerratrobe on April 22 2006,20:48
My job has decided to provide me with a laptop to use while I am away from the office, but unfortunately it is only available to me with Windows XP installed on it. In addition, the company has specifically forbidden the installation of a second OS to create a dual-boot system. As I have been using an HD install of DSL on a different machine for about 6 months, I would really like to be able to migrate over all of my stuff from there and use DSL on the new laptop.Basically what I'd like to be able to do is boot DSL without having it be installed on the HD, but be able to install applications, and store configuration files locally. I would also like to be able to use the CDROM while booted into DSL, and not sacrifice too much of the system RAM to the OS use. I figure that at a minimum I will need a Fat32 partition so that DSL can write to the HD, but that's about as far as I've thought about it. What's worked for all of you? Thanks. Posted by desnotes on April 22 2006,22:19
There is more than one way to achieve what you want. You might want to try running DSL in the embedded mode. It will boot from a USB drive, it has the ability to add applications, save data and will not leave anything on your Windows laptop.desNotes Posted by hswerdfe on April 23 2006,03:03
1. insert DSL CD2. insert USB stick 3. boot of CD 4. at the boot prompt type "dsl restore=sda1" <= or something like that. it will boot of CD your home dir and a few other files will be loaded from a .tar.gz file on the usb stick...when you shutdown it should save your home dir to the usb stick in the same .tar.gz file for apps lookup some howtos in google on mydsl. and you can same them to the USB stick also. works for me. Posted by green on April 23 2006,03:16
I, too, think the embedded version is a good way to go.Mostly, on my laptop, I boot USB toram. I have a 256Mb Lexar USB memory stick thingy. I have found that using the 256Mb thingy is adequate. I can save all my settings or just mount the NTFS windows partition to get at some of the documents if needed. The stick holds the few.dsl extensions that I use, java, codecpak, xine, nmap, vnc, k3b, etc., some pics and and a few .txt documents. This way, I always have a fast OS, all my files and settings, and can keep it in my pocket. As a bonus, it doesn't even leave a trace on the company owned laptop. Posted by lagerratrobe on April 23 2006,04:43
Thanks for the replies. I gather that "embedded" and "USB boot" are the same thing? I have a 128Mb pendrive that I can use for this, so as long as I can save apps (both MYDSL and apt-get), onto the HD somewhere, I should be ok. What about stuff like the Sylpheed Mail folder though? Is it possible to place the homedir onto the HD as well?Any good docs available about this, or should I just troll the forum for entries related to "USB toran"? -- Posted by hswerdfe on April 23 2006,12:43
for putting the home drive on the HDreplace step 4 with "dsl restore=hda1" or something like that... what ever your partition is you want to backup to |