using a usb drive

Forum: USB booting
Topic: using a usb drive
started by: John Paul

Posted by John Paul on Jan. 19 2005,22:45

I have DSL on a CD that I have used to boot from, would it work if I just copy all the files from the CD to my pendrive?

Thanks,
John

Posted by Mechcozmo on Jan. 20 2005,00:34

No, because the files would refer to your CD-ROM drive and not the USB drive which have different designators (/cdrom and /sda)

Posted by John Paul on Jan. 20 2005,00:41

So if I put the files from the "dsl-0.9.2.iso" on a USB drive it won't work?

John

Posted by ryptyde on Jan. 20 2005,03:36

You can copy the files from the CD to a USB pendrive and have it work.Well it works for me on my Lexar JumpDrive Secure 256MB.

I used Windows XP to "FAT" format the USB device and then copied the files over from the CD.I also downloaded the "usb boot iso" and used RaWrite to burn it to a floppy.I use the floppy to boot the pendrive.

After copying the files from the CD to the pendrive you can create the "optional" directory for your "extra" DSL goodies eg: games,browsers,editors,etc.

A good idea is to use a CD-RW to burn your ISO to so you can use it over again for other fun.I use a mini CD-RW (210MB).

Posted by John Paul on Jan. 20 2005,03:55

Thanks ryptyde!

Thats what I was wondering.

John

Posted by Mechcozmo on Jan. 20 2005,04:06

Posted by ryptyde on Jan. 20 2005,17:15

Yes

Posted by tawalker on Jan. 20 2005,20:58

How do you create the /opt directory on the pen drive, to ensure myDSL apps will come back when you reboot?

Posted by ryptyde on Jan. 21 2005,02:37

Quote

How do you create the /opt directory on the pen drive, to ensure myDSL apps will come back when you reboot?

In Windows XP open your pendrive where your DSL folders are eg "boot,KNOPPIX,lost&found and the html file" and right click on an empty space and from the context menu choose "new>folder" then name the folder "optional" without the " " of course.You can then move your DSL downloaded extension to the optional folder.

I have also created an "optional" folder on my desktop where DSL extensions have been saved and then "dragged and dropped the whole folder to the pendrive.

One thing to remember is to watch that you don't exceed the capacity of your pendrive,so a little math will help to begin with.

The "optional" directory that you create on the pendrive will persist after subsequent boots.I use Lexar JumpDrive 256MB for most of my DSL work.

Posted by tawalker on Jan. 21 2005,16:55

Thanks ryptyde - I'll give this a try. Then I can start toying around with the xplanet desktop option I just discovered

Posted by tawalker on Jan. 21 2005,20:52

Wouldn't you know it - I just found ryptyde's suggestion in that "Getting Started" page in Dillo. Thanks for resisting the temptation to tell me to RTFM

Now, at least I can reinstall myDSL apps a little easier on each reboot, which is handy. However, I'd ideally like to have many of them ready-installed on boot, which from my reading, seems to mean I would have to add the packages to the root directory of the dsl.iso image itself.

I'm using Linux at home, and know how to mount an ISO image, but I understand this can only be done read-only. Looking through the forums, there are a few posts on remastering DSL (mostly for liveCD users), and I assume the principle is similar for a USB pen drive install. If it is, I don't think I want to go through the remastering process just to add a couple of .dsl files, as it all looks to be rather complicated.

Is there an easier way to just mount the dsl.iso image as writeable, and copy the myDSL packages into it? (I do something similar with the disk image file I use for running FreeDOS in Bochs - use losetup to assign the image to loopback, mount it, add/remove what I want, and unmount it again.)

Thanks again for your help - I think I'm almost there

Tim

Posted by Caspar_s on Jan. 22 2005,02:04

If you're frugal installing on the pen drive, then just put the dsl files in to root - and the others under the "optional" directory.

(ie. my drive has the following
Knoppix\Knoppix
optional\xine
boot.cat
boot.msg
linux24
minirt24.gz
logo.16
samba.dsl
isolinux.bin + cfg
backup.tar.gz

Posted by John Paul on Jan. 22 2005,03:26

Well... I tried it and it imediatly came up with a Disk Error.

Thanks,
John