Knoppix on USB

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Knoppix on USB
started by: laddiebuck

Posted by laddiebuck on Feb. 04 2005,23:14

Hello

I am following the instructions listed here:
< http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub....?page=1 >
to remaster Knoppix. I planned to then use this HOWTO:
< http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/ >
to create a bootable distro for my USB pen drive. HOWEVER, if I understand correctly, this will mean that I won't be able to change the packages, unless I go through the whole remastering process again. Is there a way (this is probably really simple, I just don't know how) to move the uncompressed files to the USB stick, so that changes I make are written back when I shut the system down? I'm thinking of something along the lines of what Puppy Linux is doing.

Essentially, I'd like to have a distro based on KNOPPIX on the USB drive, that copies itself ENTIRELY into the ramdisk at boot, and does NOT write to the USB drive again, except at shutdown. (So for example, I could plug out the USB drive, and plug it back in only if I have made changes to the fs or my homedir that I want to preserve.)
I suspect the answer is simple (probably needs a few shell scripts which I can write), but I don't know the underlying mechanisms well enough.

Thanks!
~laddiebuck

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 05 2005,06:43

1) Boot DSL livecd
2) Choose Install to Pendrive from the menu.
3) Remove CD and turn off computer.
3) Boot directly from USB with the following command:
dsl toram
4) After the bootup is complete, unplug your USB drive.