USB key

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: USB key
started by: 1nc09nit0

Posted by 1nc09nit0 on May 23 2005,18:10

does anyone know if DSL writes to the backup file when closing. i have read while dsl is closing it say "backing up to /cdrom" which in my case it my usb key.
is there anyway to turn this off because i heard that USB keys only have a certain amount of write cycles before the are useless
thanks for any help!

Posted by cbagger01 on May 23 2005,21:54

Do not worry about this.

Your write cycle limit is something like 100,000 writes.

You will never reach this limit with ordinary backup/restore process upon exit.

The main danger of write cycles is if you are writing a web browser cache or a linux swap partition or swapfile, or an active logfile and these are writing to your USB flash device.

Since DSL "frugal" install does not do any of these things, you are safe.

Posted by 1nc09nit0 on May 24 2005,15:11

hi its 1nc09nit0 from my school pcs,
i installed DSL by copying the files from the iso to the usb disk,
did i need to burn the iso and use the install to usb command?

Posted by cbagger01 on May 24 2005,16:33

Copying the files from the ISO is known as doing a "poormans install", while using the script is doing a "frugal install".

Your method will also work just fine.

However, if you want to be able to save files to your drive and also avoid the "Please eject the CD from the drive" shutdown message, then please bootup with the "frugal" boot command, ie:

dsl frugal

Posted by 1nc09nit0 on May 24 2005,18:42

are those the only differences between a "poormans install" and "frugal"?
and would i have to boot DSL from a cd and use ?
wht is the difference between "install to USB pendrive" and the "frugal install"?
oh and my usb pendrive is 256mb and i am not putting anything else on it, isnt the frugal install a compressed image?

Sorry bout all the questions

Posted by cbagger01 on May 24 2005,22:45

Check out the forums and the documentation page for more details, but

the main difference between a poormans install and a frugal hd install is this:

poormans = copy the compressed image file over but do not install a bootloader like lilo

frugal = copy the compressed image file over AND install a bootloader. Also, uses the "frugal" bootcode automatically.

A frugal install is intended for an installation to a hard drive. It is also possible to do a frugal install to a USB drive if you can redirect the script to install to a properly setup USB drive sdax

This install to USB pendrive script will do one of two things, depending on your menu choices inside the script:

1) A USBZIP install, which will modify the beginning of your USB device to behave like a USB Zip drive. This is one way of making a bootable USB device if your computer BIOS supports USBZIP boot type.

2) A USBHDD install, which will reformat your device to behave like a USB hard drive that is formatted for the Linux EXT2 file system. This is needed if your computer BIOS supports the USBHDD boot type. Computers that can do both seem to like the USBHDD better because the USBZIP requires very specific drive geometry settings and it can sometimes fail to work for certain USB devices.

There are other (manual) ways to prepare a USB device for use as a DSL boot device but they require some experimenting by the user. For example, HP and Dell both provide a "Bootable USB key" utility program for MSWindows that can help you create a USBHDD system that can boot DSL frugal AND because it is a FAT filesystem it can also also be used for data storage when plugged into a MSWindows computer.

Hope this helps.

Posted by 1nc09nit0 on May 25 2005,19:02

i have been wanting to make my USB drive bootable but didnt really want to mess around with the geometry, and now i can finaly format it as a USBHDD :laugh:

cool thanks for all your help!

Posted by 1nc09nit0 on May 26 2005,21:31

is there any way of manualy downloading and installing the packages needed for the USBHDD install

i have the packages they are around 100kb

i have put them in the "/ramdisk/home/dsl/" folder but it seems when i run the script it doesnt have "permission" to write to my USB stick

any help anyone
regards
1nc09nit0

Posted by roberts on May 26 2005,22:35

Making partitions, and otherwise setting up devices requires root access.
Try running the script as root, i.e., sudo pendrive-usbhdd.sh

Posted by 1nc09nit0 on May 27 2005,18:56

i have hit another problem,
when i use sudo /ramdisk/home/linux/pendrive_usbhdd.sh (thx for the tip roberts):laugh:
it takes about 30 mins approx todo "zero data" (sumin like that) then say it has run out of space and i have found myself returning to windows n having to reformat my USB drive as fat

thanx for ant help