Installing on USB, but NOT the 'live' install

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Installing on USB, but NOT the 'live' install
started by: Chanchao

Posted by Chanchao on Oct. 06 2005,04:20

Not sure if this is the right sub-forum to ask as obviously I'm installing to a 512MB USB pen drive, not to HD.

Here's roughly what I want: I want to have a full, writable installation on a pendrive and be able to boot it on various computers, to always have my own environment with me. Also this should be more secure on strange computers. (keyloggers, etc)

I installed to USB, however it installed a 'live' version, so with everything on RAM drive. (I don't think I want this, but if you think I should want this for my purposes then do tell

)

So I'm looking for a 'HD install' on USB. The Wiki seems very limited, I just couldn't find this explained anywhere. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks loads!!

Posted by baxxter on Oct. 06 2005,09:40

Heya Chanchao,

I am tryint to do the same thing. I started about 3 days ago. Here is what i have figured out thus far: (some might be very basic or needless, but maybe it helps)

- install on a usb pen works rather nicely.
- there is a feature on the live-usb-dsl that lets you save your settings. its under system -> backup something something. basically you specify a device, take a backup of config data, mail etc., write it to the device when logging out and reading it back when logging in again
- so much for the theory. hasnt worked for me yet.
- i have partitions on the stick (512 as well): sda1 has dsl (50mb), sda2 has my data, mydsl extensions etc. works nicely, slow on startup though (starting mydsl with OOo, gimp, gaim, gtk2 on a USB 1.1 Port takes about 5 Minutes)

so much for now. i consider this a workaround with which i *could* live if i had to. however having a real install on a usb stick like you said above would make me a lot happier. maybe someone else has an idea?

Posted by Chanchao on Oct. 06 2005,09:52

Doesn't work for me either.. Even though I make a backup, it seems it wants to read it from /cdrom even though I do everything from the USB stick.. (Computer doesn't even HAVE a cdrom). So everytime I start it I get the same default settings back. :-(

Posted by cbagger01 on Oct. 06 2005,16:28

/cdrom is the mountpoint for your bootable USB installation.

DSL treats your USB drive like a CDROM drive when booting from a livecd, so some of the terminology is confusing.

Have you tried "sda1" for the backup device?

Posted by Chanchao on Oct. 07 2005,05:14

Just tried it again.. Wiped the USB stick clean and did another USB install. For boot options I made sure to specify 'restore=sda1' just in case.

It still doesn't work. If I do a manual backup and specify sda1 then I can see a backup file (.tar.gz) being created on the USB stick. However when I reboot then my settings and a test file I put in my /home/dsl folder are not put back. Also I get the default wallpaper. (Though an additional wallpaper image that I had put into the .fluxbox folder PRIOR to doing the USB install DID come back!! So apparently that file was put on the USB install.

Also when I do a manual restore then the file doesn't come back.

I check the filetools.lst file and it includes /home/dsl ; that means it should be automatically backed up, right?

When I shutdown I see it trying to back things up.. some long command that ends in /dev/null.. Is that correct?

It seems all of this does happen automatically when I use Puppy Linux, however that one has issues with USB keyboards so it's basically not an option.

Posted by cbagger01 on Oct. 07 2005,21:13

Try removing the 'restore=sda1' and let DSL automatically find your backup file for you.