Run from USB stick and save settings

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Run from USB stick and save settings
started by: xorg

Posted by xorg on Aug. 06 2005,07:38

Been trying to figure this out on my own but figure maybe I'm doing something that can't be done.

I've installed DSL 1.4 to a 256 MB USB stick and it boots fine. However, I want to be able to save my settings. Can I boot from the stick *and* save to it? Do I use the normal backup/restore in DSL panel to do this?

Thanks!

Posted by UndCon on Aug. 06 2005,10:04

I assume you have read some of the documentation about installing to usb ??

if not here is a quick HowTo - this is for my CF-cards mounted on CF->IDE adapters (USB instructions may be different)

part I

boot from CD with option "DSL 2" to boot minimal without GUI (press F2 during start for other options)
use "Cfdisk" to make 2 partitions
1 60Mb bootable type 82
1 *Mb type 82
Write partition table
Reboot using "shutdown -r now" (if not your new partitiontable wont be available)

part II

boot from CD with option "DSL 2"
format partitions by:
mke2fs /dev/hda1 (choose your drives)
mke2fs /dev/hda2 (choose your drives)

Reboot using "shutdown -r now" (if not your newly formatted drives may not work, but its probably unneccesary)

part III (or continue of part II)

(start with "DSL 2" again unless u didnt rebooted above)

start script /usr/sbin/frugal_instal.sh (follow instructions or use similar to mine)
target for image = hda1 (choose your drives)
install from = Live cd
home = hda2 opt= hda2 lang=se (choose your language and drive)
default restore partition = hda2 (choose your drives)
use different partition for DSL = yes, hda2
Format =Y
Confirm =Y

reboot and hopefully you will have a working frugal install that boots from your USBpendrive and saves opions to 2nd partition you have created

at least this works for me...
to automate enabling my NIC i use ndiswrapper and i enterred this to bootlocal.se located in /opt/

#!/bin/bash
# put other system startup command here

loadkeys se-latin1

/opt/myndis.sh

ifconfig wlan0 ip XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
route add default gw XXXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
echo nameserver XXX.XX.XXX.XXX > /etc/resolv.conf
echo nameserver XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX >> /etc/resolv.conf

and myndis.sh:

/usr/local/bin/ndiswrapper.sh /opt/realtek/wg311t13.inf wlan0 ESSID

this is as i need ndiswrapper to load drivers for windows- if not my wlan wont work

Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 06 2005,15:47

If you did the normal "USB pendrive install" either USBHDD or USBZIP, then you should be able to save your settings.

I use USBHDD and I use the Backup/Restore function and I use "sda1" as my backup device.

Posted by xorg on Aug. 07 2005,09:27

Thanks guys.

The way I installed was using the menu option that to which cbagger01 refers. Now I'm wondering if I have to have two partitions for it to work. Do you have two partitions, cbagger?

It's not a big deal for me to repartition but do I need to do so?

Thanks.

Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 08 2005,02:39

No, you don't need two partitions for a USBHDD pendrive.

Just choose "Backup/Restore" and enter "sda1" for the name of your backup location.

Posted by xorg on Aug. 08 2005,06:10

Thanks, cbagger!

Undcon: Thanks too for your description of how to do a frugal install though I'm not sure what frugal is yet. Guess I need to do some more reading!

Posted by damianiw on Aug. 08 2005,14:01

I found the that the autobackup on shutdown fails if the usb key is mounted, I got around this by adding a command to unmount it to the /opt/powerdown.sh (add it before the backup !)

something like

umount /mnt/sda

then the backup works,

I'm still having troubles with only root being able to save to sda when mounted, I can use EmelFM as a superuser but it's a pain not being able to save from firefox to the usbkey, I'm running a frugal USB HD install (as setup from the menu).

I didn't get on with the 2 partitions which worked fine in DSL / Linux but XP refused to mount the second partition.

I guess the way around that would be to manually do a usb install with 2 partitions and make the first the biggest and the second which XP won't mount big enough just for DSL but that's only a thought!

Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 08 2005,16:37

I think the latest version of DSL will let you save files to your pendrive without being the "root" or SuperUser

From the changelog notes:

18. Enhanced "frugal" installs giving dsl user write access to /cdrom

Posted by xorg on Aug. 09 2005,15:26

Quote (cbagger01 @ Aug. 08 2005,12:37)

I think the latest version of DSL will let you save files to your pendrive without being the "root" or SuperUser

That's my experience too.

So Frugal install is just a normal install of DSL to whereever?

damianiw: where's autobackup? I didn't see that option. Using 1.4 from the pendrive (using toram option, too).

Posted by damianiw on Aug. 10 2005,09:27

Quote (xorg @ Aug. 09 2005,11:26)

Quote (cbagger01 @ Aug. 08 2005,12:37)

I think the latest version of DSL will let you save files to your pendrive without being the "root" or SuperUser

DSL Automatically backups up to the place it restored from or where you have specified if you backed up from the DSL Control Pannel, this is called in the /opt/powerdown.sh script which I have modified to look like below:

Code Sample

#!/bin/sh
# Put system command to perform upon system shutdown
# For example the following line is used to automate system backups
echo Unmounting Drives Specified in powerdown.sh
echo
umount /mnt/sda1
umount /mnt/hda1
echo

cleanMyDSL.sh
if [ -s /opt/.backup_device ]; then filetool.sh backup noprompt; fi

The last line calls the backup, so I just umount anything I may have mounted that I may use for a backup.

Re 1.3 improved frugal, this still seems to have the same problem for me, I'll make anoter pendrive install run with frugal and let you know if I need to be root to save to it still incase any extensions I've added are conflicting or similar

Posted by xorg on Aug. 10 2005,11:08

Quote (damianiw @ Aug. 10 2005,05:27)

Wow, didn't even know that feature was there. Have been running backup each time before I shutdown. Thanks!

Posted by Borderpatrol on Aug. 19 2005,17:05

Is there a way I can set the restore point to SDA1 when I boot? I think there is a file I can edit, I just dont know where or what it is.

Posted by xorg on Aug. 20 2005,00:01

Quote (Borderpatrol @ Aug. 19 2005,13:05)

Is there a way I can set the restore point to SDA1 when I boot? I think there is a file I can edit, I just dont know where or what it is.

I think there is an option in the bootup menu you can use to specify what to restore from if that's what you're asking. I don't recall it exactly but hit the F1, F2 and F3 keys to find it when "boot:" appears.

Posted by EGoman on Aug. 24 2005,23:09

I didn't bother to create new topic so might as well ask in this:

I made dsl boot from my pendrive by using winimage and dsl live-cd. boot files wrote with winimage and the the stuff from live-cd just copied to pendrive afterwards.

I'm trying also to get the dsl save the settings to sda1 after shutdown or boot but adding that to backup/restore doesn't work.
Any ideas? I'm a total noobzor in the linux enviroment

Before shutdown dsl setup asks to remove cd from drive before powering down but I'm using pendrive?

Posted by xorg on Aug. 25 2005,04:26

Quote (EGoman @ Aug. 24 2005,19:09)

Before shutdown dsl setup asks to remove cd from drive before powering down but I'm using pendrive?

Not sure why it's not saving. In the backup did you say sda? Or did you use /dev/sda

I did /dev/sda the first time and it didn't work but there wasn't an error message so I didn't know until I rebooted. Also, what exactly are you hoping to save?

The backup doesn't save every change made to DSL, just those directories and files that are listed in .filelist in the /home/dsl directory and not in .xfilelist (exception list). So if what you're tying to save isn't listed in there, it won't be saved.

As far as the CD message goes, I think that's just because the developer is using the same program that is used for CDs. It's mainly to give you a chance to remove the CD before booting so you don't "accidentally" go back into DSL when you intended to reboot and start something else. Think of it in this case as suggestion to remove the pen drive instead.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 25 2005,04:48

You can...
1. make sda1 writable, and
2. forgo the "remove the CD" line, by ...

Using the bootcode 'frugal' in your startup command options at boottime..

73
ke4nt

Posted by EGoman on Aug. 25 2005,13:45

mostly the pppoe settings would be nice to be saved to pendrive and perhaps some desktop style settings.

In the Backup/Restore I wrote sda1 and for somehow it started to work :;):

thanks for the reply!

Posted by damianiw on Aug. 25 2005,22:17

This is the problem I had, it won't backup to sda if it is mounted, use my example earlier either manually unmount sda and run the backup or edit the powerdown.sh script to do so

remember if you add more usb keys etc it may no longer be sda (the backup / restore takes account for this as it simply backs up to where it restored from)

I play it safe and umount /mnt/sda1 and /mnt/sdb1

Posted by xorg on Aug. 26 2005,00:24

Quote (damianiw @ Aug. 25 2005,18:17)

This is the problem I had, it won't backup to sda if it is mounted, use my example earlier either manually unmount sda and run the backup or edit the powerdown.sh script to do so

Good point. I hadn't thought of that.