DSL as USB-ZIP or Frugal installation
Forum: USB booting
Topic: DSL as USB-ZIP or Frugal installation
started by: Breadman
Posted by Breadman on Jan. 11 2006,22:23
hi folks!searching for a small os that i can use on many different computers and that i can always carry with me i finally found dsl. i really like it :-)!
BUT:
What do i have to do if i want to save current data, installation and configuration? i have installed it with the dsl-tools from a live cd as an usb-hdd an now i'm not abled to save data (for sure, the backup-function works but that is not what i intended to do!).
May i solve this problem by usinga frugal installation on this particular usb-stick?
And may i then exchange data with a windows os with the stick being an removable data device (e.g. create a .html document which i can also open with windows or copy data from windows to the stick and open it in dsl)?
Thanks for help.....
breadman
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Posted by Breadman on Jan. 16 2006,21:08
Well, now i can answer my own question: With a frugal installation on my USB-Stick(256MB) it works perfectly. now have a complete os where i can create data, open and save it.
Nevertheless windows finds the stick as a removable data device and can read from it and write on it.
BUT:
It does not work with every mainboard (bios) and every USB-Stick. Another USB stick (128 MB) which perfectly boots aUSB-HDD installation does not work with th frugal installation. Also a boot disk did not help.
For me it is no problem, because i have one running DSL.
So, if anyone has similar experiences, please post it!
Breadman
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Posted by elWili on Jan. 17 2006,08:45
I have similar boot problem as you had in the beginning, that none of the configurations are saved. Actually my problem seems to be, that it doesn't even change the setting. So I assume this frugal installation would do the trick. BUT, I don't have a clue how to do this frugal installation. I have read these forums so much that my eyes are sore and dripping blood, as well faq and stuff. So if someone could paste a link that would be nice. And don't say, search with this and this word. You know what I should be searching, I don't 
Could there also be something with the ram drive?
Posted by Breadman on Jan. 17 2006,19:18
Yep. it sounds similar 
Try the following:
1) Make a USB-HDD or USB-ZIP installation on your USB-drive.
2) Boot your machine with a LiveCD, a hard-disk-installed Linux or even a windows
3) delete all files on you USB-drive except the "idlinux.sys", shut off your system
4) plug off all your IDE-Drives
5) Boot your system from a DSL-Live CD and perform a Frugal installation.
6) Plug in your IDE-Drives and enable other boot devices in your bios.
And, voilą, you now have your read-write-DSL!
What's the trick?
The frugal installation was designed for a ide-cf-installation. So it searches the ide-ports for installation. If you have no ide-devices but another boot-device it installes on this.
Problem: your bios has to enable the USB-ports imidiately after starting (not only when searching for a boot device). Otherwise it would not be found as a place for a frugal installation.
I hope i made it a bit too complicated and that there are other, simpler, solutions...well, just post them
Breadman
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