Other Help Topics :: DSL on USB stick from Windows XP HOWTO

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I wouldn't want people thinking you "need" winblows to do this...

i would hope no one thinks you "need" windows to do this, that this is yes, just an alternative way of doing things.

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I'd need to install winblows just to follow your tutorial !
Others may have a M$ computer nearby, at work, or a relatives machine,
but won't feel comfortable downloading and installing rawrite,
or winimage, or isobuster/ultraiso, etc. onto that box.
and truly, there is no need to do so....

I'm in no way endorsing my methodical use of the tools/operating systems as official in any way associated with DSL other than a way to get DSL onto a pendrive. I also must say that I'm probably just not as anti-windows as you seem to be. While I am not 'new' to linux, I haven't used it since 1996. DSL is the first linux distribution i've used actively since abandoning linux (as my primary source of income -- as i'm a systems administrator) for BSD variants in the mid 90s. Thats a whole nother pickle...

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But I understand that by getting more people using DSL,
thru whatever means they are successful in doing so,
is only good for DSL.. so I'll retreat a bit, but
with the final thought that when we can,
especially in the official DSL documentation,
ALWAYS try to describe the "DSL" way of accomplishing things,
and leave any other alternate methods as "alternates"

I agree about getting more people to use DSL and being successful at booting/installing. My whole goal in writing the tutorial (which is how I did it, and I had been using DSL for about 3 days when i wrote the tutorial, so i'm relatively an infant in that respect.) I'm just happy its been able to work for a number of people so that they can experience DSL. There are usually a number of means to an end, and in this case, this is simply one alternative ending to what can become a happy story!

Again, I must confess I'm not totally anti-windows (i'm not really anti-anything, but if it works for you, hey, use it.) And I use DSL, and gentoo, and some of my servers run fedora, and Linux is great, but i'm not completely sold on it either. ;) I guess old habits die hard, and when I've been using BSD for a little over a decade, and almost a decade of solely BSD I have a little trouble sharing room in my heart for something else.

All in all, thanks =) I think. I'm just here to facilitate people in using DSL by whatever means necessary, so I hope I can succeed in doing that.

Ok, sorry there, but I can't get it to work.

Downloaded bootimage and the iso, wrote bootimage to pendrive, overwritten all the files from dsl-9-something.iso /boot to pendrive's root...

Now, looking at all the files on my pendrive I noticed that the 50MB knoppix isn't there, obviously. I first tried to copy it to the pendrive's root dir. That gave me some error it can't find something and it'll load a limited version. Then I thought, why not put that file into /knoppix on the pendrive. Too bad that didn't work either.

I also noticed that just before the error msg it's looking for the CD, but I'd rather like to have the whole thing on my pendrive.

Copy everything from the ISO to the pendrive. Everything in the exact format it is on the cd/iso, when you get to that step.

Thanks for the info! I can't wait to get this working. Here's the issue I'm having:

It boots from the key fine. However it gets to the point where it says "Scanning for USB devices" and then it says "Cannot find the KNOPPIX filesystem", at which point I'm dropped to a basic prompt with little functionality.

Below is the filesystem listing of my USB drive. Can you tell me what I need to do? Is there any config file I need to update to point the drive to the KNOPPIX file? Is there a case-sensitivity thing on the KNOPPIX file or directory?

Thanks for the info! I can't wait to get this working. Here's the issue I'm having:

It boots from the key fine. However it gets to the point where it says "Scanning for USB devices" and then it says "Cannot find the KNOPPIX filesystem", at which point I'm dropped to a basic prompt with little functionality.

Below is the filesystem listing of my USB drive. Can you tell me what I need to do? Is there any config file I need to update to point the drive to the KNOPPIX file? Is there a case-sensitivity thing on the KNOPPIX file or directory?

Code Sample

total 1810
drwxrwxrwx 1 user group 0 Jan 21 15:21 KNOPPIX
drwxrwxrwx 1 user group 0 Jan 21 15:25 boot
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 2048 Jan 2 00:44 boot.cat
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 110 Jul 25 2004 boot.msg
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 1592 Nov 30 00:49 f2
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 796 Nov 30 00:52 f3
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 256 Jul 25 2004 german.kbd
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 391 May 3 2004 index.html
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 9404 Jan 1 20:33 isolinux.bin
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 1993 Dec 8 04:27 isolinux.cfg
-r--r--r-- 1 user group 7836 Jul 29 15:11 ldlinux.sys
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 994807 Aug 15 01:31 linux24
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 36649 Dec 10 01:05 logo.16
drwxrwxrwx 1 user group 0 Jan 21 15:29 lost+found
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 790312 Dec 31 04:03 minirt24.gz
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 1940 Aug 10 06:24 syslinux.cfg

KNOPPIX=:
total 47856
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 49003525 Jan 2 00:44 KNOPPIX

boot=:
total 0
drwxrwxrwx 1 user group 0 Jan 21 15:25 isolinux

boot\isolinux=:
total 1799
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 2048 Jan 2 00:44 boot.cat
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 110 Jul 25 2004 boot.msg
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 1592 Nov 30 00:49 f2
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 796 Nov 30 00:52 f3
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 256 Jul 25 2004 german.kbd
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 9404 Jan 1 20:33 isolinux.bin
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 1993 Dec 8 04:27 isolinux.cfg
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 994807 Aug 15 01:31 linux24
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 36649 Dec 10 01:05 logo.16
-rw-rw-rw- 1 user group 790312 Dec 31 04:03 minirt24.gz

lost+found=:
total 0

Thanks in advance for your help,
Mike

Thank you Tronik for that simple How-to. Although i have used linux, this is the first time i am using damn small linux. however i got a little confused with step 5.

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5. Once that is complete, view the USB drives contents in windows Explorer. Mount the filesystem image to another drive. The filesystem image contains a directory called 'boot'.

There was no directory called "boot", just Knoppix and another called "lost+found".

Quote (tronik @ Jan. 19 2005,21:42)

Copy everything from the ISO to the pendrive. Everything in the exact format it is on the cd/iso, when you get to that step.

anyway i copied all files as i read on a bit later, and i am happy to say that i am posting this from my USB drive, using firefox

Way to go !!!!
ps: i think that my file system is 0.9.0.2 , if that makes any difference :;):

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