Installing and Using DSL on USB Pen Drive
Forum: USB booting
Topic: Installing and Using DSL on USB Pen Drive
started by: zenarcher
Posted by zenarcher on Sep. 11 2005,22:11
I am fairly new to Linux, having used SUSE for about six months. I'm doing pretty well there and now want to try DSL with a USB pen drive.Here is what I have:
CD with DSL 1.4 (Screen opens with 50MB Live BizCard CD)
128MB Lexar USB Pen Drive
I have read a lot of the FAQ's and such, but am still a bit confused. Perhaps it's my newness to Linux together with my 60 year old brain, but I'm still at a loss as to exactly what to do. Better if I try to explain what I'd like to be able to do with DSL and the USB pen drive.
I would like to install DSL on the USB pen drive. I would then like to be able to take the pen drive with me, to use on any computer I might be at. Probably always a Windows box. Since I don't want to change BIOS settings on a box belonging to someone else (and their BIOS may not support USB booting anyway) and I don't want to carry a boot floppy or anything with me, I'm looking for an option. I have read that it's possible to boot DSL from within Windows. I believe that requires something like QEMU, with which I'm totally unfamiliar, except to understand it's some sort of emulator application. I'm not sure if there is enough room on a 128MB jump drive to install both DSL and QEMU, if this is what I would need to do.
I'm sorry if I'm not being specific enough here, but hope that someone will understand what I'd like to do and could make some suggestions. I have two Linux boxes and one Windows XP box on my network, so can work from any of them, to set up the USB pen drive.
I would appreciate if someone could suggest the way to go with what I'm trying to do and possibly assist me in setting up the USB pen drive with DSL from the CD and whatever else I would require to boot from within Windows on a Windows only box.
Thanks in advance,
zenarcher
Could someone tell me, perhaps, if QEMU is part of the DSL package, or if it is something which must be installed separately???
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 12 2005,17:02
QEMU is part of the DSL-embedded package.If you are going to exclusively use DSL from inside a running Windows operating system, then you should download the dsl-embedded version and unzip the contents into your USB pendrive.
Then double-click on the dsl-windows.bat file and you are up and running.
It is also possible to get a "5-way" install up and running, and this lets you boot dsl either natively or via QEMU from inside Windows or another Linux OS. For this method, first download dsl.iso and then burn a DSL cd-r disk. Then boot into DSL and choose Apps -> Tools -> Install to Pendrive -> USBHDD install (I prefer it to USBZIP unless your BIOS only supports USBZIP booting). Then after compeleted, download the 5-way install script from the dsl download site and run it on your pendrive. It will then download and install the embedded version.
Posted by zenarcher on Sep. 12 2005,18:29
Thank you very much for the information. It is most appreciated! I'd been having difficulty figuring out how to do anything with the DSL CD I have. Then, I tried the F2 boot options and figured out how to run it like a Live CD. Thanks to one of the other posts you made on this forum, I discovered about the Apps>Tools>Install to Pendrive. It really helped me out!As for the 5-way install script...I have a question. After I download it from the dsl download site, do I merely copy it over to the pendrive, or is there some other means of install? Again, thanks for the help!
Regards,
zenarcher
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 12 2005,21:36
You should download the script from the website to your home directory (/home/dsl).Then you can unzip it by typing
tar -zxvf 5-way.tgz
then go into the newly created subdirectory. I think it was called 5way.
Then type in the name of the script to start it up.
Posted by zenarcher on Sep. 13 2005,00:13
Again, thank you very much. I've tried the DSL embedded package, per your instructions. I haven't really had time to play with it, but it did work. I will try this 5 way, now that I have the info from you. I'll be interested in seeing how it works. Regards,
zenarcher
Posted by Francis on Sep. 14 2005,10:34
I tried it to but this is what i get:dev/sda: read-only system
after that: mount block device is write-protected, mounting only read-only
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device
error mounting usb device
am i doing something wrong?
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 16 2005,03:02
No, my instructions are unclear.I should have said:
Boot from the CD-R disk and then run the 5-way installation script.
It will not work if you run it while booting from the USB drive.
Posted by TomaHawk on Sep. 19 2005,17:26
Hi.i have followed all your instructions up intill here
| Quote |
| then go into the newly created subdirectory. I think it was called 5way. Then type in the name of the script to start it up. |
I have a working bootable USD drive but i want to be able to use it embedded. Im using 1.4 do i need 1.5?
or is there much benefit to get 1.5
Posted by Christian on Oct. 10 2005,01:08
I have been using this post as a guide to doing exactly what the original poster wanted to do with DSL and a USB Pen-drive. I too want to be able to use DSL on a pen-drive in multiple OS's like Linux and Windows. After playing with and re-trying per the intructions (and getting the "Geometry" finsihed) I am stuck on this last part. As a regular user (not root) I get this messege when trying to activate the 5way script, forgive me but I ahve to type this out as I seem not to be able to copy and paste it here (using the live-cd, not sure if it's the porblem)
dsl@box:~/5-way$ 5way_install.sh
DSL USB pendrive 5-way installation utility.
No responisibility for the data lost or hardware damage!
Your pendrive must have... etc etc (the USB Geometry is set)
DO NOT have your pendrive mounted.
Ready to proceed (y/..)? y
Standby fetchin the embedded zip file...
wget:dsl-embedded.zip:Permission denied
Error while trying to fetch the embedded zip file.
Script is terminating...
dsl@box:~/5-way$
When I try to do the same thing as root I get this:
root@box:~/5-way# 5way_install.sh
bash: 5way_install.sh: command not found
root@box:~/5way#
Also just to show here is the USB Pendrive Geometry. My pendrive was not what was suggested so I changed it, I now have this:
Disk /dev/sda: 982 cylinders, 16 heads, 32 sectors/track
Old situation:
Units = cylinders of 262144 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0
Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 0+ 980 981- 251135+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda3 SAME THING
/dev/sda4 SAME THING
NOTE: I am using the Kingston 256mb Pendrive
Thank you for reading I really appreciate the help... I know I am so close to actually getting this to work!
Posted by Christian on Oct. 11 2005,00:12
Anyone? 
Posted by cbagger01 on Oct. 11 2005,18:04
As user root, try typing this:./5way_install.sh