|
|
Make any PC your own with Linux on a USB key
It's easy to carry around useful files on a USB key, but it's even better to carry around a complete OS and set of apps, customised to just how want them. In this guide, Andrew Spode Miller shows how to install the tiny 25MB Slitaz Linux OS onto a USB key so that you can make any PC feel like your own.
* You will need to run the ‘Taz USB Writefs’ command when you install new programs - this will make these new installations permanent on your USB stick. All your documents and settings will be written to your home folder. If anything should go wrong when writing your filesystem, you can rollback to your previous filesystem by typing ‘previous’ at the ‘boot:’ prompt when starting the machine up.
* The next step is to add some useful software to Slitaz. Type in ‘tazpkg get-install packagename’ to install software, and grab gimp, abiword, pidgin and gnutls. If you’re asked whether to install missing dependencies, answer yes. This process will give you a range of software: Gimp for photo editing, Pidgin as an MSN/IRC/AOL/ICQ client and Abiword as a word processor. For playing MP3s, we already have Alsaplayer, and FireFox for browsing the web. After removing unnecessary software and adding in some apps I needed, I was left with a 29.9MB OS.
STEP 7: MAKING IT ALL PERMANENT
* The final stage is to make these changes permanent, so close all the programs, right click the desktop and under ‘Slitaz Live’ click ‘TazUSB Writefs (lzma).’ This will take the current memory resident filesystem, compress it, and automatically put it onto your flash drive. When it is finished, reboot the machine by right clicking the desktop and finding ‘Reboot’ under ‘System Actions.’
You’ve now got a complete Linux OS and set of core applications on a memory key, so any PC you sit down at and connect to will now be as familiar as your home rig.
Reddit | Technorati
followed your steps , except for downloading dos tools , the drive was already formatted , mounted the files on it , and everything went well , but booting thru Flash Drive does nothing , except for restarting windows XP frm the Hard Drive .
Comment by Rahim at 1:29am 22nd September 2008
hey, ive added this to a pen drive and virtual box, as its easyer to mess about on because im on wireless internet and cannot find the drivers. but i cant find away to edit the boot file so it always loads the same keybored layout, sound card ect.... can any1 help?
Comment by dannyboy1991 at 12:21am 22nd May 2008
hey, ive added this to a pen drive and virtual box, as its easyer to mess about on because im on wireless internet and cannot find the drivers. but i cant find away to edit the boot file so it always loads the same keybored layout, sound card ect.... can any1 help?
Comment by dannyboy1991 at 11:47pm 21st May 2008
Could the auther please do this for Ubuntu to see if it's feasible...from a lot of the tutorials on the net, there seems to be some errors!
Comment by gcd_638000846b0f at 4:54pm 8th May 2008
Could the auther please do this for Ubuntu to see if it's feasible...from a lot of the tutorials on the net, there seems to be some errors!
Comment by gcd_638000846b0f at 4:54pm 8th May 2008
Could you do this with Windows XP Pro? Would there be any performance increase running Windows from a flash drive?
Comment by gary_davies at 12:21am 1st May 2008
Thanks for this Sifter, this was my first ever use of Linux and it was a real eye opener. I plan to add open office to it and then use it whenever I am away from home. Big thanks...
Comment by NHill at 2:24pm 30th April 2008
Yipee, its working. I deleted partition, then created new fat32 before pressing apply. Before, I deleted, applied, new fat32, applied.
Comment by Cerberus_xiii at 1:53pm 25th April 2008
I had the same problem, Dont tell me youve got a SATA cd drive right? SliTaz doesnt mount sata cd drives so the easiest option is to try it on another pc with ata drives. If youve got a ata drive tho im stumped
Comment by TS__Slick at 11:28am 25th April 2008
One issue I had was when formating the USB key in Gparted, it's important to delete the partition already on it and create a new one (i.e. right click, delete partition, then right click and create a new one).
Comment by Sifter3000 at 10:19am 25th April 2008
I've just tried to do this. However when I get to tazusb gen-liveusb and then /dev/sda1 it says 'unable to mount cdrom or to find a filesystem on it (rootfs.gz)' The mem stick is formatted as FAT32, and set as boot in flags. Can't see why this doesn't work, any help?
Comment by Cerberus_xiii at 10:30pm 24th April 2008
steam runs under wine quite fine but only game I've tried is Day of Defeat source which also works quite well
Comment by conholster at 5:14pm 24th April 2008
Steam won't run natively - although I think it will via WINE. UT2004 is available in a Linux version, too...
Comment by Sifter3000 at 2:03pm 24th April 2008
random, since i'm new to linux (but not for long!)...but will apps like Steam run?
Comment by gcd_638000846b0f at 1:44pm 24th April 2008
Thank god for that, thought I was going mental. Thanks Sifter3000, lovely post btw, I know a lot of people are looking for this type of thing these days, Slitaz probably geting massive hits on theyre site too.
Comment by TS__Slick at 1:44pm 24th April 2008
I think once the boot starts up, you get to select the drive to install to, and that's where you select the USB pen drive
Comment by gcd_638000846b0f at 1:19pm 24th April 2008
I think once the boot starts up, you get to select the drive to install to, and that's where you select the USB pen drive
Comment by gcd_638000846b0f at 1:19pm 24th April 2008
CDburnerXP didn't ask for boot options when I loaded the iso this time.
Comment by Nemiro at 9:56pm 23rd April 2008
Make sure you use the "burn image" option, and finish/close the cd when writing it...
Comment by Sifter3000 at 9:24pm 23rd April 2008
I burned the image to a cd-rw, using CDburnerXP, but it won't boot from it. Bootable option in burner? If so, what settings? (I set CD to first boot device in bios already)
Comment by Nemiro at 9:14pm 23rd April 2008
my IT manager would flip if he saw this on my desktop :P
Comment by TBallS at 8:55pm 23rd April 2008
A perfect use for my old(er) 128mb USB stick. Hopefully I'll learn some stuff in the process!
Comment by Nemiro at 8:32pm 23rd April 2008
You're right. No idea where it went - it's in the original file, just not in the CMS - how bizarre! My apologies - now ammended.
Comment by Sifter3000 at 5:37pm 23rd April 2008
Hi Guys Is it me or is there a HUGE section missing about installing Slitaz onto the pen drive?
Comment by TS__Slick at 5:30pm 23rd April 2008
Make a Comment
- Episode 22 of the Custom PC podcast
- Intel Core i7 - all you need to know
- VIDEO: Dream PCs 2008: Scan's Great White
- Interview with Hardcore Computer: The quest for a full immersion cooled desktop PC
- Readers Drives - C-Macc's
- The FAIL Feature
- Episode 21 of the Custom PC podcast
- How to add any song to Guitar Hero 3
- How to get a cooler Radeon HD 4870 with manual fan speed control
- Inside Intel's SSD
These are the most popular news articles over the past seven days.
- Top 10 PC games chart
- Asus overclocks Core i7 to 5.4GHz
- Intel Core i7 on sale today
- Alienware launches budget SLI gaming rig
- Rumour control: GeForce GTX 260 GX2 in January
- Nvidia cuts price of 216 SP GeForce GTX 260
- VIDEO: PC version of Mirror’s Edge features hardware PhysX
- Get Half-Life for less than a dollar on Steam
- Phenom II overclocked to 6GHz
- RivaTuner 2.20 adds SLI and CrossFire support
Broadband Dongles
Fastest, cheapest 3G mobile broadband dongles from 3, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange
from just £10/month
