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

Quote

There are 5 ways of booting DSL possible...But only one is actually supported by this method. TWO are possible, if you have enough space on your key, you can also load the embedded version onto it after you've set up the normal distribution, however, to get the most out of a Dual installation, it it recommended that one uses the 5Way setup instead.

hi,
thanks for a great distro.
i'm running the embedded under xp, very nice!

got a question, can you tell me what the best way to proceed would be...do ii start with the 5 way?

i've got a nice 512MB sandisk mini cruzer....
basically i want to create a dual boot keychain, choosing either DOS or Linux from a bootmenu, timing out to linux in 2 seconds.

i want both dos (i can be fat32 not 16, right?) and linux (ext2?) partitions, so i can load up the goodies, including embedded dsl, then load up linux goodies like nessus and nmap.

following the readme in the 5way, i tried:
cfdisk /dev/sda
and got a fatal error trying to format the cruzer, guess i cant do it from embedded dsl...maybe only real linux? or should i not be doing 5way and start with the original poster's method?

hmm..willing to not have the dual boot if that complicates things too much...

so if we take that, the simpler case, if i understand this right, i *do* need to have 2 different isos for this, right? and they are both on the keychain uncompressed?

so i'd need to get nmap, or any other addons, working twice in both distros?

trying to get my head around this...thanks for any help.

got through the winimage and applied bootusb-0.8.img, and copied the unzipped embedded distro to the keychain...but now...

Quote

5. (addendum--Once that is complete, open the main DSL zip file (rather than the ISO image)

which "main DSL zip file" is that? i only see an iso ("dsl-1.0rc1-syslinux.iso") and it says not to use the ISO?

Quote

and extract the contents onto the USB drive. Make sure you extract with folder names. It's okay to overwrite the current content of the USB drive.) View the USB drives contents in windows Explorer. Mount the filesystem image to another drive.
The filesystem image contains a directory called 'boot'. You can overwrite the files in the root of the USB Key with the files from boot/.
This basically replaces bootimage 0.8 (since it seems to not be updated with the system release) with what I'll just call bootimage-current. (basically the boot files for whatever filesystem image you're using) In this case, 0.9.0.1. 5.

what is the name of this "filesystem image"?
i can mount dsl-1.0rc1-syslinux.iso and then mount KNOPPIX/boot.img and copy those files to the keychain...thats not right tho is it?

once i get the basic install working..i'd like to try the 5 way install...

Your tutorial's great. I'm pushing my dial-up to the limit to get the main 50 MB file. I got other mini-distros - a Linux BBC and DSL-based luitlinux. I got a Samsung 64 MB drive. So those are my only options. Is yours a generic method to transfer distros to the USB drive provided they have proper image files like say, usbboot.img? Or do I simply transfer all files in the ISO image to the USB drive and then do a syslinux command on it?
BTW, my bios shows LS120 and ZIP100 among the boot options - but no USB

. I'm using AWARD bios. Any ideas as to updates ?

it seems im really dumb, cause when i open winimage i select open -> dsl.iso then i check my usb drive and write image stays grey. i must have missed something, right?

original here.