Saving changes to usb boot device

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Saving changes to usb boot device
started by: dziendobry

Posted by dziendobry on Oct. 25 2005,23:08

Long time user of DSL, first time on a usb stick. My question and I can't seem to find an answer for it is...

If at all possible how do you install/configure DSL onto the usb stick and have it save changes. I would like to buy a gig stick install dsl onto it, and the with the leftover space be able to install apps, code webpages and serve them up with monkey web server etc.. Any help or insight is appreciated.

Posted by catchpolenet on Nov. 05 2005,00:26

Hi,

I don't have an answer, but I will say I that I want to do the same thing. I've been looking around for a small linux distro that I can use for an embedded robot controller. The idea is that the controller is a PC motherboard but without a hard drive.

I'v seen messages about resizing the partition after installing it the USB. This sounds like a solution - but by default, it appears DSL wants to protect this "write only" area - you could add all your extra apps, but the "save" data would still have to be in the virual hard drive.

Another option might be to split the drive into two partitions (or use 2 sticks) - that second partition could be a normal linux partition.

It's great that DSL supports the primary read only partition, but I havn't seen much about making it more like a dynamic system (without messing around with the virtual partition).

Thanks,
Christian

Posted by dziendobry on Nov. 05 2005,00:52

< Puppy Linux > does this very well, it makes a automatically resizable file that it writes changes, documents, wallpaper anything that you do outside of what is there to begin with. It works really well. Shutting down takes a bit longer due to the changes being written and the file being resized. Try it and let me know what you think... And as a bonus the install to usb script is outstanding, I wish DSL featured such a way to save changes and documents to a dummy file. Then I could carry my web developement enviorement and webserver with me everywhere I went.....:)

Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 05 2005,02:07

If you have DSL installed to a usb stick, use the "frugal" boot option and you can write to it through /cdrom

Posted by catchpolenet on Nov. 05 2005,05:48

Cool - I'v also noticed that the USB-ZIP install will create a second partition on the stick. I'v got the "my stick wont boot" problem - but I can boot from CD, mount the second USB partition and pretend for now .

I'll probably try the frugal when I find a stick that boots.

Funky cold madina!

Posted by terrylee97 on Nov. 11 2005,19:21

For what it's worth I have made minor changes to the usb stick that I'm using. I havent done much but here is what I did. when I want to save changes I first mount the stick with the app docked on the right side of the desktop. After that I save the changes to sda1 (the mounted usb stick). I saved some text firles and an html page. I will post more as I experiment with this.:p